New Exchanges with Australia!

With much anticipation and hearty welcomes, the Flat Stanley Club at Wen-Au Elementary School is pleased to announce new cooperation scheme with Wen-Guang Elementary School, the 2nd largest campus in its local vicinity. The new Flat Stanley Club at Wen-Guang consists of 11 new members and one Club Executive, Ms. Cheng, whose commitment to building an international platform for pedagogical innovation benefits from the existing experiences and contacts at Wen-Au. While the “headquarter” at Wen-Au continues to design new activities/worksheets to facilitate its own exchange projects, it also advises the Wen-Guang branch on contents of exchange and methods of delivery.

The inaugural launch at Wen-Guang features two trades of introductory materials—most of which are personalised worksheets and letters on local pop-culture and campus life in Penghu—with two primary schools in Australia. As our new branch at Wen-Guang proves well-received by pupils and teachers, it remains our ultimate commitment to bringing the world beyond Taiwan to our students’ doorstep and affording them a friendly environment to appreciate the various ideas and experiences contributed by their peers around the globe. Good luck and good job, Wen-Guang!

Some pictures of the inaugural launch at Wen-Guang are [available here].

Project Update (II)

Project Update (II)

The Flat Stanley Club announces with pleasure that it has received parcels from three schools in three different continents: Public School 279 in Brooklyn, USA; MHOC School in Toormina, Australia; and Victoria Shanghai Academy in Hong Kong. It wishes to thank pupils and teachers at these three schools for their arduous efforts and amazing creativity in helping us learn more about your school life, culture and geographical facts that would otherwise remain unimaginable to us in Penghu. Our member students have listened with excitement to the two letters enclosed by teachers at Public School 279 and Victoria Shanghai Academy; they have also appreciated the postcards and class shots so kindly prepared by our partner schools in Brooklyn and Toormina. Photos as such always make our students feel more “connected” with a distant land that, as our project matures, attracts them to visit and traverse one day.

In particular, the Club wishes to tender its special thanks to the MHOC school in Australia: you have so meticulously matched each of our pupils with your students and produced what strikes us as 19 copies of amazingly personalised and intimate correspondence that truly touches our hearts. Pupils on our side are very excited about such letters that are exclusively addressed to them, and this experience makes them even more curious about their peers around the world. Thank you!

To reciprocate, we have also sent out our parcels to Public School 279 and Victoria Shanghai Academy on December 20, 2008. Kindly allow up to 2 weeks for international delivery, and once again please do return to our blog at http://flatstanleypenghu.blogspot.com/ for regular updates on project activities and snapshots!

Snapshots of all parcels received are available [here].

Flat Stanley Goes Online

Students read our new blog, Flat Stanley in Penghu, with excitement and curiosity. This blog epitomizes our attempts to send Flat Stanley into the cyberspace that synchronizes ideas and feedbacks from around the world. Under Ms. Chen’s instructions, pupils log onto the portal page to read different entries regarding the project and feedbacks rendered by their peers in Taiwan and beyond. Most of them also comment on the [snapshots] Ms. Chen took during the activities—it's always fun to see yourself on the Internet!
*If you would like to comment on the photos we took, please make sure you have a Yahoo e-mail account or you may register for one [here].

Project Update (I)

We are pleased to announce that the Flat Stanley Club at Wen-Au Elementary School has launched exchange programmes with Sam Houston Elementary School in Texas, Enterprise Charter School in Buffalo, Public School 279 in Brooklyn, and MHOC School in Toorminia, Australia.

Parcels have been sent to Enterprise Charter School, Public School 279 and MHOC School on Nov. 21, 2008. We look forward to hearing from you!

School Outing with Stanley's!

Stanley travels with Wen-Au students, during a long-anticipated school outing, to the Er-Kan Village of Old Residences and Hsi-Tai Fortress. The Er-Kan residences are famous for their archaic (what does 'archaic' mean?) architecture style and structural/spatial awareness of nature, community and environment. Each mansion is meticulously decorated with colourful shapes, elegant friezes and deliberate Chinese eaves that illustrate the symbolic significance of an abiding place: the desire to stay and prosper, the attempt to make permanent a 'home' that never survived waves of forced exodus, and the resolution to map out both the root and route that had brought thousands of Chinese immigrants from across the strait to Taiwan. Each mansion is connected by a central corridor that allows kids to run from one household to another, benefitting its residents with extra security/care for children and an unobstructed channel for communication and collaboration.

The Hsi-Tai Fortress, on the other hand, witnessed an era of upheavals and wars. Built during the Ching Dynasty, the Fortress was established with an aim to defending the coastline of Penghu against foreign invasions. Now a historical site for tourists to explore, it was once equipped with cannons and other fiery weapons to shield Ching Dynasty's Navy of roughly 5,000 men. Click [here] for more photos of Stanley and his friends at Wen-Au.

Ready for Journey?

During the 3rd meeting of the Flat Stanley Club, each student colours a Stanley template (obtained from flatstanley.com) and personalises it by printing personal information, along with his/her favourite snapshot, on the reverse of the template. Under Ms. Chen's instructions, pupils from the 5th and 6th grades complete some fine-tuning on their worksheets/travel logs and prepare their Stanleys for long excusions that, no doubt, will bring them surprises from across the ocean and sky! Click [here] to view more photos of students' works!

*Our first batch of Stanleys have been posted to Enterprise Charter School, Public School 279 (both in the USA) and MHOC School (Australia) through International Express Mail Service (EMS). Please allow 5-7 days for delivery and, if possible, advise us once you have received our special guests in the envelops!

Penghu: Where, What, and How?

DISCOVERY Channel: All About Penghu (瘋台灣澎湖簡介)!
(English with Chinese Subtitle)
Where is Penghu? And what does it look like? This programme (copyright Discovery Channel, Taiwan) presents a brief overlook of our community and the rich natural resources it has to offer. Enjoy!



[*The sections below contain local dialects without English translations]










Sources: http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=LCojD-UaGmE; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr42mLwn-tM; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4vGEP1ep5w&feature=related; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WeblOSwAYg&feature=related; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvMEi4FU33A&feature=related;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk9e9olj0t8&feature=related