Shiu Pong College Volunteer Teaching Trip
Shiu Pong College held the 6th Shanxi Volunteer Teaching Trip from June 4 to June 14, 2021. 19 students from Shiu Pong College and 2 students from the Honors College led by Dr. Ho Yi SIT, Resident Fellow of SPC, went to Boai School in Fengcun, Qinyuan County, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, China for a 11-day service-learning tour.
Shanxi volunteer teaching trip is one of the long-term experiential learning projects of Shiu Pong college. Preparations for this project began in November 2020, and the volunteer team members were determined in February 2021. The curriculum was designed in March. It took about 3 months to complete the teaching plans of each subject and conduct trial teaching. There were also a charity sale and donations were raised to Boai School.
The target students of the volunteer teaching trip are from the second grade of primary school to the second grade of junior high school. The teaching subjects include “English”, “Science”, “Workshop” and “Window of the World”. The teaching content is carefully designed by the team members and the teaching aids are prepared by themselves. For example, the English class simulates life scenes, including teaching restaurant English, which aims to help students master the English language commonly used in daily life; the science class guides students to do interesting small experiments, such as simulated volcanic eruption experiments, to help students experience some scientific principles that have been learned in books but have not been practiced by themselves; the workshop uses small handicrafts, team activities, such as making paper flowers and teaching food safety knowledge to help students improve their hands-on skills. The Window of the World course shows students the diversity of geography, history, and culture in the world in a vivid form, such as introducing African refugees, teaching latitude and longitude knowledge, etc., aiming to help students broaden their horizons and cultivate global awareness. These courses are novel and interesting, which are very popular among students.
In the process of teaching, students from the team showed a high sense of responsibility, self-motivation, strong team spirit and dedication. They carefully selected the topics of the course, designed teaching plans and courseware in as novel and interesting forms as possible, and purchased suitable and safe teaching aids, aiming to enable students to obtain more practical knowledge in a happy classroom. They were not satisfied with just completing the teaching tasks assigned to them, but were committed to continuously improving the teaching outcome. Before class, members of the volunteer teaching team conducted mock teaching in small groups to improve the class process and ensure accurate class time allocation. After each class, the team members discussed with each other, conducted after-class reflections to discover what they needed to improve, and continuously adjusted the course design based on the feedback provided by other members, aiming to obtain better teaching results in the next class. In addition to completing their own teaching tasks, the team members also took the initiative to help other members solve various problems in teaching. They also observed other’s classes and provided help if needed. At the nightly summary meeting, the team members shared their experiences during the teaching process, thought about ways to solve the problems encountered in the process, encouraged each other, learned from each other, and improved together. In the process of getting along with the students of Shanxi Boai School, the team members worked hard to remember the name of each student in order to let the students experience more care and warmth, and worked with the students during the break time. They actively joined activities to understand their living habits and learning situation, and tried their best to help students solve problems in life and learning. In the process of teaching, the team members and the students in Shanxi established a deep relationship. The members laughed because they were liked and praised by the students, and they shed tears because they were deeply moved. In the volunteer teaching, the team members’ ability to solve problems, the awareness of teamwork and the spirit of self-dedication have all been greatly improved.
“It is not only our classroom that brings knowledge to the children, we also learn a lot from the children,” one member said in a summary sharing session with the teachers of Shanxi Boai School after the end of the teaching. Another member said, “I have gained love during the ten days of my trip to Shanxi Boai school and I will pass on this love in the days to come, so that the meaning of this trip can be fulfilled.”
The outstanding performance of the team members has been unanimously recognized by the supervisor, principal, teachers and students of Boai School. The full harvest and insight of the team members reflects the complete success of the trip to Shanxi.
Article: Shanxi Volunteer Teaching Trip Student Leader: Zhao Yue
紹邦書院師生山西義教行
2021年6月4日至6月14日期間，紹邦書院舉行第六屆山西義教之旅。在書院導師薛可兒博士的帶領下，19名紹邦書院院生及2名榮譽學院學生前往中國山西省長治市沁源縣馮村的博愛學校，進行了為期11天的服務學習項目。
山西義教之旅是紹邦書院的長期性體驗式學習項目之一。本次項目從2020年11月開始籌備，2021年2月確定義教團隊成員，3月開始設計課程，約花3個月時間完成各科目教案並進行了試教，還通過義賣活動籌集了捐贈給博愛學校的善款。
義教授課的對象從小學二年級至初中二年級，教學科目包括“英語”、“科學”、“工作坊”和“世界之窗”，授課內容均由義教團隊成員精心設計並自行準備教具。其中，英語課以模擬生活場景的方式，例如教授餐廳英文用語，旨在幫助學生掌握日常生活中常用的英文用語；科學課則通過引導學生動手做有趣的小實驗，例如模擬火山爆發實驗，幫助學生體驗一些在書本上學過但是沒有親手實踐過的科學原理；工作坊通過製作小手工藝品，開展團隊活動以及個人感悟等形式，例如製作紙花和教授食品安全知識，幫助學生提高動手能力，團隊意識，獲得一些生活常識；世界之窗課程以生動的形式向學生展示世界上在地理、歷史、文化等方面的多元差異性，例如介紹非洲難民，教授經緯線知識等，旨在幫助學生開拓眼界，培養全球意識。這些課程形式新穎，趣味性強，深受學生們喜愛。
在義教的過程中，成員們展現出了高度的責任感、上進心，強烈的團隊意識和奉獻精神。他們認真地進行課程選題，用盡量新穎有趣的形式設計教案和課件，置辦合適安全的教具，旨在讓學生們在快樂的課堂中獲得更多的實實在在的知識。他們並不滿足於僅僅完成自己分配到的教學任務，而是致力於不斷提高教學效果。上課前，義教團隊成員都會以小組為單位進行課堂的模擬，完善課堂過程，保證精準的課堂時間分配。每一堂課結束後，大家都會互相討論，進行課後反思以發掘自己需要改善之處，並根據其他成員提供的反饋不斷調整課程設計，旨在在下一次課堂上獲得更好的教學效果。成員們在完成自己的教學任務之余，還會主動幫助其他成員解決教學中出現的各種問題，他們還到不同的年級互相觀摩和提供協助。在每晚的總結會上，大家亦會互相交流義教過程中獲得的經驗，一起思考方法解決過程中遇到的問題，彼此鼓勵，互相學習，一起提高。在和山西博愛學校的學生們相處的過程中，成員們為了讓學生們體會到更多的關愛與溫暖，會努力地記住每位學生的名字，並在課間活動的時間與學生們一起活動，了解他們的生活習慣和學習情況，並盡力幫助學生們解決生活及學習中的問題。在義教的過程中，團隊成員們與山西的學生們建立了深厚的感情，成員們會因為得到學生們的喜歡與稱讚而歡笑，也會因為感動和離別的不捨而落淚。在義教中，團隊成員們解決問題的能力，團隊協作的意識以及自我奉獻的精神都得到了巨大的提升。
“不僅是我們的課堂給孩子們帶來了知識，我們自己也從孩子們的身上收穫了許多”，一位成員在義教結束後與山西博愛學校老師們一起進行的總結分享會中如此說道。另一位成員則感歎道，“在山西義教之旅的十幾天中我收穫到了愛，在以後的日子裡我會將這份愛傳遞下去，如此方能圓滿此次義教的意義。”
義教團隊成員們的優秀表現，獲得了博愛學校校監、校長、老師和同學們的一致認可。成員們滿滿的收穫和感悟，體現了此次山西義教之旅的圓滿成功。
文：山西義教團隊學生領袖 吳亦凡
