Andrea │ Grade 6 │ gets angry easily, a little narcissistic │loves to read and listen to music

Through the whole Cyberfair event, I did a lot of interviews, and I learned to ask questions bravely in order to get more information. When transcribing the interviews, I got a chance to think about what the band members were thinking, or I could get a feel of the events that I did not take part in. Doing questionnaires was a matter of mental toughness because I have been really shy in talking to strangers. Band practice observation has been my favorite thing during this event because I get a chance to listen to them singing for free and understand how singers rehearse for their concerts. The most depressing thing has to be the guided tour because I did not feel comfortable performing comical acts in front of people I know. Also, I also need to work on group production and practices. Finally, I got a better idea of our theme while learning to sing a cappella, and I was very happy about it. Also, learning something that others do not know of is really something that I’m very proud of, and the Cyberfair has proven to be a really rewarding event for me.

		Discoveries From this event, I found that as long as I stick with the team, everything would be done more efficiently. Just like a cappella, it cannot be done by just one person. However, I did not do so during the preparation phase, and I paid too much attention to creativity that cost the team valuable time for practices. From now on, I will work with the basics and then try to improve on them. Otherwise, I might end up losing everything.

Oliver │ Grade 6 │ vivacious │ gourmet lover, play games

This is my second year on the Cyberfair team, and I found lots of changes in the event, and I have also learned a lot of new things. For example, this year was my first time being a team leader, and the job has proven to be more demanding, but I still learned quite a lot, like assigning jobs. The most noticeable improvement has to be being able to face strangers to do an interview or questionnaire. Through the interviews, I have also learned quite a lot, like a corporation for the society mentioned by the founder and gaining skills that we can take with us mentioned by our principal all touched me very deeply. We have also learned a lot about a cappella. When we showed and shared what we have learned to the students, they were extremely focused during the guided tour, and they worked hard in preparing for the competition. I think this year’s Cyberfair has been a success, and I would like thank my parents, teachers, and classmates for giving me all the support so we could complete the Cyberfair.

		Discoveries I found that being a competent group leader is not a simple work, besides leading group members, you need to coordinate everyone’s time, and then adjust it. But most importantly, you had to have patience or you will get angry easily. And a group must work together, otherwise no work could get done. After joining Cyberfair for two years, I found that I’m better at facing everyone. I hope I can keep improving.

Vanilla │ Grade 6 │ vivacious │ loves computer games, anime, music, and drawing

Time flies, Cyberfair in 2015 is coming to an end. This is the second time for me to join Cyberfair. During these days, I have made more friends, gained more knowledge, and got to know a cappella better! I still remember when I first learned that we would do our research on music, I got very curious about this thing called “a cappella.” We had lots of activities with the research. The event that stood out for me was the day we introduced a cappella to everyone in school. We made all the posters, videos, conversations, and many other props by ourselves. I remember once I stayed at school until eight with the teacher! We also went to school during winter break. Though we had to sacrifice our own time, everyone was still willing to join all the activities. It was all worth it because we always deal with problems together and laugh with each other till the research ends. I am so happy to meet all of my friends and teachers. I believe I will remember these beautiful memories even after I graduate.

		Discoveries In the part that we composed songs for the four seasons, I thought composing songs was very easy at first, but as it turned out, I have made a mistake! At first, I couldn’t think of anything, but there was a sense of accomplishment after I finished writing the song. After the interview with Director Chu, I finally understood how much effort one needs to compose an a cappella song. They have to commission well-known international composers for the melody. Sometimes you have to explain the meaning in the lyrics, or you have to even sing for them. Only after all those complex processes, there would be these marvelous a cappella songs that we hear now!

Apollo │Grade 6 │ vivacious with a hint of shyness │ loves to draw and play computer games

This is my second year on the Cyberfair team, and our topic this year is about a cappella music with a focus on HanGuang Vocal Band. Even though the band was only found less than three years ago, it has already won performance opportunities in different venues. The band is doing a great job promoting the beauty of Chinese poetry. In order to help the school understand our topic better, we organized three in-school events, namely ‘A Cappella Guided Tour,’ ‘A Cappella Music Seminar,’ and ‘A Cappella Poetry Competition.’ Through these events, we have helped every one to better understand a cappella and HanGuang Vocal Band. I think this year’s Cyberfair has been really rewarding!

		Discoveries After doing some research, I found that a cappella is a form of music that solely relies on vocal singing. It was originally intended for church singing, but now it can be done with the use of microphones, and even with the fusion of classical poetry, just like HanGuang Vocal Band. Singing poetry in a cappella helps us to memorize the poem itself, and that was really amazing! I think I have just found another way to learn classical poetries with joy!

Samantha │ Grade 5 │ vivacious │ love to draw and sing a song

After joining the Cyberfair team, I was not so shy any more. For example, the first activity in the Cyberfair, a cappalla guided tour, I was pretty loud during rehearsal in the computer lab, but when it comes to the real presentation, even with my teacher signaling for me to speak up, I was just too scared to do it! When my mates started to speak up, only then I began to do so. After all the exciting activities and interviews from Cyberfair, it was nearing the end of the semester. Even though there is no more presentations, whenever there is work to be done, I will go for it. Like the last interview, I was there. Now I am a happier person. I have learned about a cappalla, and I wished I could stay on the Cyberfair team and do more presentations.

		Discoveries At first, I thought Cyberfair was all about having meetings on Mondays and discussing about things. I even didn’t know why we needed to have a meeting. But after the first meeting, everything was clear to me. I learned that we need to make a website. But before that, we had to select our topic, research on the topic, host interviews, and hold sharing sessions. That’s busier than I thought. Every time we have an activity, our teachers will take pictures to record the event so we could use them on the web to present the entire process in detail.

Winnie │ Grade 5 │ calm, chatty │ loves to draw

When I was selected to be on the Cyberfair, I was so happy with lots of expectations. At first, I wasn’t sure how everything worked. But because I took part of all of the activities in Cyberfair fair, so I got a better feel of the event. Afterwards, I started to like the activities in Cyberfair. There was once the computer teacher wanted everyone to draw one picture of our homepage (web of Cyberfair), then we would chose the most beautiful picture. Teacher used my picture for the title, and it made me so happy and excited. We also went out to interview related people of the HanGuang Vocal Band, and I have also learned a lot from the interviews.

		Discoveries The Cyberfair’s activities were all exciting, but these activities were also complex. Some classmates felt the activities were annoying, but I didn’t think so because we could learn many things. And after this special topic, all of the classmates were getting more advanced with computer unconsciously.

Nicole │ Grade 5 │ fast motion, pleasant, sometimes will be nervous │ love music and art.

I am privileged to participate in the CyperFair project. I have learned and grown a lot from this valuable experience. For example, when I first joined, I was afraid to raise my hand when the teacher asked for volunteer to interview the principal. Towards the end of the semester, when the teacher asked for volunteer again, I quickly raised my hand and wished to be picked. Although I was still very nervous when I conducted the interview, but at least I had the courage to volunteer for it. I am very proud of myself for becoming braver and more assertive. Furthermore, I have learned so much about a cappella, a style of singing that I was not familiar at all before. I am also very lucky to get to know the HanGuang Vocal Band. It is the first (and probably only) a cappella vocal group that specializes in integrating Chinese poetry and music. I sincerely wish that I will be able to contribute to the CyberFair project again next year.

		Discoveries I have made many new friends after joining CyberFair. I got to meet students from other grades, especially the team members from grade 6. It makes coming to school something I look forward to everyday. It has also been a joy to see that all the students in our school enjoyed the activities that we planned and carried out. All the performers in the a cappella contest in school were awesome and some of them really knock my socks off!

Jessica │ Grade 5 │ open, optimistic │ loves piano and violin

This was the first time for me participating in Cyberfair, and there was hard work and fun as well. My favorite events have to be taking part in HanGuang’s activities and the campus tour. It’s fun participating in HanGuang’s activities because we could watch shows and do questionnaires together. Although it was very tiring preparing for the campus tour, after seeing what I have accomplished, I was really proud of myself! I am very fortunate to be on the Cyberfair team because I got to experience lots of activities, and this is something that I can showoff to my friends! But when I show off to them, I will also tell them the hard work we put in, so we can think back to the time we worked together! Before I joined Cyberfair, I wanted to be part of it so badly. And now, my wish had come true! I’ll cherish my opportunity and keep working hard!

		Discoveries I’ve never thought that singing songs in a cappella could be so much fun! It’s different from singing with accompanying instruments. When there are accompanying instruments, there won’t be beautiful vocal sounds. A cappella is done with pure vocal singing, and it is more beautiful than singing with instrument in the background. I love singing a cappella!

Cherry │ Grade 5 │ vivacious, gourmet lover │ loves to play ball, skating, drawing

I went through out-of-school interviews and completing tasks that helped me grow. We would also help each other out under different circumstances, like removing the background of pictures or saving files. Furthermore, I think everyone on the Cyberfair team is like a mirror, and we can always learn something from one another. For example, Samantha’s hard working attitude is something that I need to learn from. During Cyberfair, I was happy everyday, and all the hard work was worth it. I also realized making a website is not an easy feat. We need to research thoroughly to make our content more informative and diverse. We also need to pay attention to bringing diversity into our page to attract people so they would want to spend more time on our page and learn more from us. I really enjoyed doing all this, and I hope to have another chance doing Cyberfair next year.

		Discoveries After this Cyberfair, I learned what a cappella really is, what HanGuang Vocal Band is all about, how to do interviews and questionnaires. From the interviews, I learned a lot of stories about different people. While doing the guided tour, I learned to do comical acts to attract students’ attention. I found out that our students really like HanGuang Vocal Band, and they enjoy their songs a lot!

Henry │ Grade 5 │ optimistic │ love to play online games at home

I am very happy that I got to join the Cyberfair team this semester. Special thanks to Oliver Chu who has helped bringing me onboard. I have learned a lot from working on this project. I’ve learned how to conduct an interview. I’ve gained more courage and confidence. We’ve studied all the songs and poetry sung in a cappella by the HanGuang group. Our team also organized many fun yet educational activities to introduce our Cyperfair theme to the entire school. These activities include an on-campus concert by the HanGuang Group and the a cappella poetry competition. I have tried doing things that I had never done before, such as asking people off the street to fill out questionnaires and being a guide in our a cappella information session.

		Discoveries I found that the Cyberfair tasks are not as easy as I previously imagined. We have to interview people who are much older and important in their field. It was scary to approach strangers to conduct survey. The whole experience made me realize that it’s not just fun and game, Cyberfair is a serious project which we need to put in our best efforts to achieve our goals. .

Ryan │ Grade 5 │ vivacious │ loves to draw

This is my first Cyberfair. Even though I did not put in lots of time into it, I still hope to complete all my tasks within the limited time frame. Joining the Cyberfair has brought me lots of positive experiences. I learned to delegate tasks and work as a team. Most importantly, there should be no slacking off. It is also due to Cyberfair, I got really close to my classmates. My performance in this year’s Cyberfair may not be good, but I will keep working hard to make myself better. I hope to join Cyberfair again in grade six as an on-roaster member, and I will definitely put in more effort, get things done more quickly, and put on an even better performance!

		Discoveries Teamwork is what Cyberfair is all about. We need to work with our teachers and teammates to get the job done on time. When we have outdoor activities, we must always be courteous. For example, we need to be quiet when observing HanGuang Vocal Band’s practice session; during an interview, we need to smile and greet people. Take the band for example, every one of them was very polite, and I like them a lot!

Source: the Beautiful Voices │ Pictures: the Beautiful Voices