Thoughts on the teaching support activity by Zhejiang University
The 15 days of our teaching support activity have come to a close very quickly. We can see the reluctance in the eyes of the children, but we have to leave in a hurry. We do not dare to look back, afraid that the dismay in the eyes of the children will not let us leave. These 15 days, we not only have carefully prepared a colorful classroom, a variety of activities, but also visited many families and had a lot of conversations with them. Recalling all that has happened during these 15 days and the smile of the children will be memories that will never fade in our lives.
Truly, after coming to Mataipo and Pingtoushan, we have deeply felt the deficiencies in education in the remote mountainous areas of western China. Here, in the year of preschool and first year of Primary, in classes of 20 students more or less, and in schools with only 2 teachers, they only study the most basic courses: math, language, music, art and writing characters. Their level of mathematics is also lower than that of other students from the same level.
Their foundation is very poor and their capacity for change is extremely high. They cherish very much this hard-won opportunity to learn. In order to adapt to their level, we had to reduce the level of difficulty quite a lot, but even so, the English class of the preschool year was unsuccessful. The children don't even know where they are and have no concept of what it is to be Chinese people. They have just learned Mandarin, but they still use the more familiar Hmong language in their conversations. Their Mandarin knowledge is still a barrier for their communication. There is even an unbridgeable gap in between preschool year and first grade. We cannot help but to begin to admire this group of perseverant rural teachers that are able to change a group of children that cannot speak Mandarin, do not listen to you in the classroom, wander around and do as they like, into a group of students that seat neatly in their school desks, greet the teacher as soon as they see him, report when they are late, study hard and are eager to improve.
The focus was not to teach core subjects, because we could not improve their knowledge very much in such the short space of a few days. We just wanted them to rely on their own strength, to let them expand their horizons, to let them know what the outside world is like, to let them know that there is such a group of people with blond hair and blue eyes that are different from us, that say "hello" to greet people. The original and real Mandarin originally is like this: very gentle, clear and articulate. There are so many images that can be painted with colored pencils and oil pastels on paper. We can analyze our thoughts on paper, it is like a musical instrument. The songs we learn can bloom on it. We wanted to talk about hygiene, to teach them that taking care of your own health is a way of showing personal responsibility. Nature has such a magical phenomenon, but I did not know.... I just want to be like my brothers and sisters, I want to learn a lot so I can leave the mountains! We want to build up their confidence, so they can leave the mountains.
This is the common purpose of the entire team supporting education: we hope the children living in the mountains embrace their dreams, work hard, leave the mountains and meet a new life, not to repeat again their grandparents' life as illiterate farming labor. But we also feel the heavy weight of reality and the large gap in between dreams and reality. A large percentage of them are not good students, have not received any good education, have lost their interest to learn. It is a vicious circle, forcing them to follow their parent's path. There is another percentage of them that, because economic difficulties, will be forced to abandone their dreams in order to help their family, starting to work early in life to lessen the burden of the family. And there is still a percentage of them that will go to the end, but because of the quality of their education, lack of educational resources, lack of exercise books and extracurricular classes teachers, will be lost in this competitive society that we live in.
Summing up this activity, before carrying it out, we actively contacted Daoming Primary schools in order to determine all the teaching support activities. This is the second time we come to do school research here. The school's conditions are very difficult and the preparation work is complicated and difficult. After that, we recruited volunteer from all students, raised money selling old books and through other charity activities and used all of the money to buy books and stationary material. We also carried out formation activities for all the volunteers organizing medical conferences and simulations of class activities. Finally, our team developed teaching programs and improved constantly the research plan.
During the activity, we organized writing competitions, fun games, film appreciation and other class activities to enrich the second classroom's children, to improve their language skills, teamwork skills and enhance their interest and confidence in learning. All volunteers in the team kept a diary, and shared and discussed the teaching experiences and adjusted the teaching programs.
In comparison with other teams, our team not only had to cope with the heavy task of teaching the local children to establish the custom of study and their learning interest at this critical stage in their lives, we had also to divide a large part of our attention to teach the children healthy study habits, develop and encourage their desire to leave the mountains. Apart from this, the teaching team also had to face another great difficulty: both of the school are in the mountains and the communication is extremely inconvenient. When we had to go to the other school, the whole team had to carry all the things and our own luggage under heavy rain with yellow mud up to our ankles and walk up the mountains for more than 5 km. The mountains are very isolated. We had to cook for ourselves and the problem of drinking water and the sources of food gave us big headaches because he drinking water is yellow rain water. Due to the lack of accommodation, the only solution was, for the boys, to sleep on top of the desks all in the same room. There was a total lack of facilities in the place, no bathroom or place to shower, so the members of the team had to endure very difficult conditions, even at the end many of them had lice... But, despite these difficulties, we maintained our original motivation, and, through nearly one month of being together and communicating with them, we were able to broaden the student's horizons, opened their minds and expanded their knowledge. Our main educational motto was: "Have hope, have confidence". We conducted experimental and entertaining teaching, and through classroom teaching and quality development activities, from the knowledge, abilities or emotional point of view, we were able to instill new vitality in the lives of the children of the poor mountain areas.
During this activity, the 15 members of the teaching team have been together because of our common aspiration and have used this time to know and understand each other. Since we were not familiar with each other, some conflicts and problems were unavoidable, but even more meaningful was the mutual help and the sharing with each other. The members of the team were very good and tolerant, and had many great ideas, but the individual character of each of us is very different, and each one of us have unique characteristics and defects. Life is beautiful because we can see many different landscapes, meet many different kinds of people, experience many different kinds of things. I feel lucky for having the opportunity to meet them. Living together with them, I also had the opportunity to recognize many of my own shortcomings. I am a somewhat self-centered person that often do not consider other people while doing things, so the tolerance of my teammates made me feel ashamed. Of course, feeling of shame is close to bravery, and their tolerance also let me know how to get along with others. This half a month most precious harvest has been an unexpected friendship, a friendship that will not change, that doesn't need any gift, but a friendship that we will not forget.
After the activity, we conducted research on the ground and wrote a research report. After coming back to the school, we also held an exhibition on the activity in order to let more students of Zhejiang University understand the importance of the "teaching team" activity, understand the work of the volunteers for Western China and keep in contact with the children through mail and other kinds of digital networks to show them our continuous support.
From the educational point of view, the team activity is also a way to show our love and care, we not only made the children more aware of new information and a richer learning life, but also let the children feel the love of so many good hearted people towards them. We hope that through some follow-up activities, this feeling will not only stay, but also will increase.
From the results and promotional point of view of this teaching activity, we have to say that it was carried out in 15 days, with 15 volunteers, 2 teachers, 80 students, 200 interviews to local families to give survey questionnaires. We made 1 research report and collected data of 10 students living in poverty. We donated 6,000.00 RMB in teaching supplies for the schools, directly benefiting 300 people and indirectly benefiting 500 people.
This activity will be promoted through the school forum and other kinds of microblogging platforms, and at end of September we will hold a social exhibition in the campus jointly with 4 non-profit organizations to show all the students of Zhejiang University the results of this activity.
Furthermore, we have contacted a High School in Hangzhou to inform them about our teaching activity and to introduce the circumstances of the activity, so that they can also help any activity to help the poor students through the "Loving Family Project".