[Editor's Note] In order to thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the National Education Conference and other conferences, and comprehensively promote the construction project of teachers in the new era of schools, according to the "Central Committee of the Communist Party of China" According to the requirements of the State Council’s Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of the Construction of the Teacher Team in the New Era, which “strengthen teachers’ participation in social practice and promote teachers’ full understanding of the Party’s conditions, the country’s conditions, social conditions, and the people’s conditions”, the Party Committee’s Teacher Affairs Department/Human Resources Division organized a national conditions education for new teachers in 2020 to guide young teachers to expand their horizons, grow their talents, make contributions, and serve the motherland while serving the society. In late September 2020, 32 new teachers went to four practice sites in Qingdao, Shandong, Shenzhen, Guandong, Haikou, Hainan, and Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, kicking off their practice of education, teaching, subject research, and think tank construction. The process of practice is also a process of understanding life, thinking about the present, sublimating the state of mind, and inspiring the mission. They use real and delicate brushwork and lenses to present practical stories that belong to themselves and more specifically to the young teachers of the University of International w88.
Sowing seeds with love in the south of colorful clouds
Xishuangbanna Branch, English CollegeNew teacher in 2020 Tang Jiawei
From October 8, 2020 to December 5, 2020, I, together with other members of the Yunnan National Conditions Practice Group of the w88 casino, conducted a two-month teaching practice in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, the southern border of the motherland. The fulfilling time flies by quickly. I came with full expectations and returned with full harvest.
My practical content is mainly to teach the course "Chinese Culture in English" to English major students at the International Exchange w88 casino of Xishuangbanna Vocational and Technical College. The teaching objects are two classes: the 19th-level English education class and the 19th-level applied English class, with a total of 89 people, and the total class hours are 64 hours. The students in these two classes are my first students after becoming a college teacher; not only that, my professional background is English literature, and I have never taught courses related to Chinese culture before. The two firsts add up to make this teaching full of challenges.
From beginning to end, I devote myself wholeheartedly to the design and preparation of each lesson, striving to convey my own interest in English language and Chinese culture to the students. In the first class, I first took the students to understand the course positioning of the "English Version of Chinese Culture" course, so that they could understand the significance of this course. I showed the students the Western contact and interpretation of Chinese culture since the 20th century, taking the poet Pound's translation of Chinese poetry and the translation of the works of modern and contemporary writers (such as Mo Yan and Liu Cixin) as examples, so that the students could see that Chinese culture has changed from being silently and passively "interpreted" to actively displaying itself. This change is of great significance. I hope that this can help students eliminate the sense of isolation between Chinese and Western cultures and ancient and modern cultures, and give them a perspective on comparative literature and comparative culture. At the end of the first class, I invited each student to write two or three sentences in English to introduce themselves and their hopes for this course. From the students’ brief introductions, I learned that the students in the class came from multiple ethnic groups across Yunnan, and I felt their expectations for this course.
In the following courses, I combined my professional background to explore the interesting literary and cultural connotations of each topic and text for the students. In addition to teaching people how to fish, I also try to teach people how to fish. I emphasized to the students that language learning requires making full use of a variety of cultural resources, listening to and learning English songs, repeatedly watching and imitating dialogues and recitations in English movies, TV dramas and audio books, and making full use of the rich online open course resources. By teaching learning methods, I hope to help students develop learning awareness and habits that will benefit them in the long term within two months of short-term teaching.
In order to fully mobilize the students to apply what they have learned, I gave them an assignment: work in groups to make a video introducing Yunnan culture, with English explanations. The video can introduce any aspect of Yunnan's multi-ethnic and multi-layered culture, and the length is about 10 minutes. In the process of helping students correct their English explanation scripts, I found that many students relied too much on machine translation in their writing, so correcting them was time-consuming. However, most of the students made serious revisions according to the correction comments, and also showed a strong desire to express themselves in class presentations, showing the rich and interesting Yunnan culture. Moreover, after I emphasized the importance of originality, there were also articles in the homework manuscripts that fully integrated personal perspectives and expressed fluently. This makes me very happy.
Students give classroom presentation
In addition to teaching in class, I also often communicate with students after class. Some students shared with me the audio of them singing English songs, some shared with me their confusion about English grammar and pronunciation, and some talked to me about their desire to study in undergraduate colleges through passing the junior college-to-undergraduate examination. Through these after-class chats, I developed a close relationship with my classmates. This is an extremely precious thing that I gained during my practice in Yunnan.
My lovely students and me
In addition to teaching practice, I also participated in several seminars. On October 9th, when I first arrived in Banna, I participated in an exchange research symposium jointly held by the w88 casino, West Yunnan Dai Medical College and Xishuangbanna Vocational and Technical College, and learned about the basic situation of the two local representative universities in Xishuangbanna. In the afternoon of the same day, our Yunnan practice group went to the new campus of the Vocational College in Menglun to visit the remote live broadcast classroom and other equipment. In the next two months, I taught the "Chinese Culture" class to the 2019 students at the Menglun New Campus.
Scenery on the way back to Jinghong City from Menglun New Campus
On November 13, I participated in the teaching experience seminar held by the English Major Teaching and Research Office of Xishuangbanna Vocational and Technical College, and had in-depth exchanges with many English teachers from the vocational college on issues such as the characteristics of our students and teaching methods. In the seminar, I took the "Chinese Culture" course I taught as an example and talked about some of my experiences in combining literature, cultural perspectives and language skills in teaching. From the teachers who originally taught the "Chinese Culture" course, I gained a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the meaning and orientation of this course; I also gained a deeper understanding of the professional orientation and employment prospects of students in the two directions of English education and applied English.
Teaching experience seminar held by the English major teaching and research section of Xishuangbanna Vocational and Technical College
Just as my two-month national practice was coming to an end, Secretary Jiang Qingzhe led a research team from the w88 casino to Xishuangbanna and visited the Menglun New Campus of the Vocational College. He cordially visited several of our new teachers who were teaching in the vocational college, and chatted with us about his thoughts and feelings about carrying out the national practice in Banna. My common feeling with the teachers in my team is that through practical teaching in Banna, we have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of life here, the local needs and potential, and we have done our best to meet this demand and develop this potential. This is not only the proper meaning of the national conditions practice of our new teachers at the University of International w88, but also an important aspect of the country's poverty alleviation efforts. Through my courses, I can help and guide students to better tell their hometown stories and Chinese stories to the world, and apply these to personal development and hometown construction. In addition, I also gained an important education myself and gained a deeper understanding of the southern borders of my motherland, the cultural traditions of Yunnan and Banna, and the local needs and potential. I will soon say goodbye to the students and teachers in Banna, but my friendship with them will continue. These sincere and enthusiastic children from southern Xinjiang, as the first batch of students after I became a college teacher, will become a major driving force for my future teaching work.
w88 casino supports teaching team in Yunnan
