Shen Lei, English teacher at Nanjing Zhiyuan Junior High School
Personal public number: Shen Lei's class teacher's handwriting
Personal photos
As 2020 draws to a close, I sit at my desk and take stock of the year in a "movie" way, I realize the changes and growthS at work. If there's one core word to sum up my changes, I guess that word should be "habit."
I made a list of "2020 My New Habits" on paper, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that at least 10 good habits have been integrated into my education and teaching work and daily life. What surprised me even more was that my students were also following my example and trying to develop some of these habits.
01 Make a daily list, priorities are preferred
The most direct thing that makes me feel that I don't have enough time is the online time of "suspension of classes and non-stop learning". Daily health report punch card, reminder and supervision, online course teaching, group interactive Q&A, homework correction and feedback, online parent-teacher meeting, at any time according to the latest epidemic prevention requirements to do a good job of parent and student training work... I'm acutely aware that without a clear to-do list and timeline, I might be holding my phone 24 hours a day and being extremely anxious.
In the half year after I resumed school, I became a "gold medal substitute class" and taught all the classes in the grade. Originally full of workload, I constantly have to take the initiative to adjust the extra class arrangements, homework correction, feedback and other work. How do I find a new pace of work and establish a work-life balance?
I started making a daily work list and making sure things were prioritized. Spend about 10 minutes a day sorting through what you're going to do today and thinking about the priorities of each thing, then itemizing them on my weekly routine, down to what to accomplish in each unit of time. It's a habit of having a very high input-output ratio, so I don't have to spend extra time thinking about what to do or forgetting what's important.
02 That night review, self-evaluation
At the end of the day, I would curl up on the couch and rest, or close my eyes, or check the to-do list and spend 10 minutes reviewing the day's key work. Here I want to knock on the key points, I will only review the "key work".
What are the key tasks of teachers? I think it can be divided into three aspects:
1. How is the class, what are the highlights, what are the problems, and how to follow up in the second lesson;
2. Whether the communication with the students is smooth, whether the students' efforts are affirmed in a timely manner, what problems are found, and what kind of guidance is made;
3. How well the transactional work is handled, whether it must be done, whether there is a more concise approach and new ideas.
The day's review enhanced my sense of autonomy and competence and increased my motivation. At the same time, preliminary planning was also made for the next day's work.
Record your thoughts at any time, and leave a thick work note every year.
03 Sincerely praise students, not "bribe" them
We've all used "bribes" to curry favor with students to a greater or lesser extent. For example, I would tell my children that if I did well on this unit test, I would reduce or even not assign weekend homework. This is bribery, using the homework as a bargaining chip. Is the function of homework just to get students to get high scores? Can exchanging homework through test scores really stimulate students' internal motivation for a long time?
Learning during the epidemic period has put forward extremely high requirements for students' autonomy and self-discipline, and the drawbacks of "bribery" are becoming more and more obvious.
I began to guide students to actively participate in learning and life in a way that was fully praised. After the epidemic, students wear masks, I have more eye contact with them; although the masks hinder students from reading aloud to a certain extent, I still find their intentions when reading and praise them in time to say how I feel; I set up "Partner Chat", incarnating as a listener of students, using recess and noon time to exchange ideas with them... Every specific, heartfelt compliment to the student brought me closer to the student.
Perhaps, sincere praise is not as effective as bribery, but the positive significance of praise for students' active growth is more profound.
04 Insist on mutual learning with students every day
What I ask my students to do, I ask myself to do at the same time.
The student council discussed with me to form many different levels of learning groups, including silent writing punch cards, reading expansion, and I would be invited to join the group. I was positive at first, but slacked off over time. By the middle of the semester, I found that there were fewer children in the group who insisted on punching in, and the quality of the punch-in content was not high, and I realized that the spontaneous learning behavior of students needed my continuous attention and encouragement.
So I took the lead again and became active in the group. As long as there are students posting tasks, I must check the content; if there are students punching in, I will also open a point to check carefully. I also work with my students to accumulate words, often sharing what I have recently memorized and feelings.
When I also became a learner, I was able to appreciate the role of "punching in and encouraging".
05 Fully trust students and provide them with a platform
During the epidemic, we met the challenge of online education, became anchors, and played eighteen martial arts. On the other end of the network, whether the students are online and present, we are not sure; how effective the teaching is, we have no bottom; whether the students' answers are done independently or online searches, whether the use of mobile phones and computers is controllable or out of control... There are a number of questions that we do not have answers to.
After the resumption of school, students urgently need physical and mental adjustment, and we have encountered a new problem: where is the starting point for zero-starting teaching? How can I help a small number of students who have been "offline" for months? How to grasp the method and scale of psychological adjustment? How long does it take to re-establish a habit? ......
These questions ultimately boil down to one answer: only trust can make education possible.
Trusting the efforts of individual students, I carry out activities such as "small teacher lectures", "small anchor reading newspapers", "mind map design" and other activities in the class; trusting the mutual influence of student teams, I maintain the online group cooperation mode and carry out offline group co-construction and sharing activities.
Gradually, the student's state steadily picked up, and the surprises I received continued.
Trust the students, all growth should be the student's "I want".
06 Simulate the consequences for each choice
On September 24, 2020, the Ministry of Education and eight other ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Several Opinions on Further Stimulating the Vitality of Primary and Secondary Schools", which once again made "effectively eliminating interference with the normal education and teaching order of schools" a hot topic.
In our daily work, "choosing" and "giving up" is an important topic. In the face of various tasks, if teachers do not have the ability to "choose" and do not have the courage to "give up", how can they teach students to learn to choose and give up appropriately?
This year, I reduced some of my transactional work and focused more on the study of student growth issues. For each option, I will do a simulation of the consequences, that is, how much loss and negative impact this matter will bring, and whether other partners will be implicated. Writing this, I would like to say sorry, sometimes my willfulness has caused trouble for everyone.
07 Insist on writing personal public accounts and record educational reflections
In August last year, I opened my own personal public account to record the stories and reflections at work. This year, I completed 53 original manuscripts in my spare time. When I read back to these articles, I saw my own understanding of education deepening, which made me a little excited.
The starting point of opening the public account is to record and reflect, but with the reader's message in the background, I realized that many problems have missed the best intervention time when they occur, if you can intervene in advance, the guidance will be stronger, and it will also make the article more meaningful.
I changed my writing strategy instead of "having problems --- recording problems", but based on my 12 years of work experience, I pre-emptively throw out questions about what problems students and parents may encounter in the next stages, what my existing experience is, and what advice I can provide. When new experiences are generated, I update my perspective.
This kind of transformation allows me to continue to learn and improve.
Writing a public account has another advantage, this article has become a channel for students and parents to understand me and communicate with me. Children often say to me: "Teacher Shen, I read your article yesterday, I think...", "Teacher Shen, when are you going to write an article for me?" "Teacher Shen, my parents are your fans, they asked me to urge..."
08 According to the needs of the work, take the initiative to learn
In the wake of the pandemic, the role of teachers has been escalating, with a greater focus on mental health observers and family education instructors.
In order to be able to get closer to students, get closer to parents, and help them solve practical problems, I began to participate in psychological counseling. At present, I have taken the course of psychological counselors at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and I will take the certificate exam in the first half of next year.
I know very well that what parents and children need is not chicken soup for the soul, but real support and help. I believe that a more professional identity will allow me to participate more effectively in the work of teaching and educating people, and why should I benefit from this?
I worked hard to learn new areas and became a role model for my students in their studies.
09 Pay attention to diet and health, and be responsible for yourself
Taking care of one's own body and maintaining physical and mental health is a sign of one's maturity.
Through the pandemic, health awareness has increased for all of us. I used to be a picky eater, this year has changed a lot, I will consciously pay attention to the reasonable combination of diet, drink more water. I also make full use of the opportunity of the daily sunshine sports class to run and exercise with the students, and I will choose the sports that suit me after class.
At the beginning, students often asked me: "Teacher Shen, are you running with us today?" "Gradually, they stopped asking, and they would watch if I was out of breath after the run, because they were always gasping enough, and I would tell them how to control the rhythm through the adjustment of breathing. The teacher-student relationship has another opportunity to strengthen.
Nothing is more important than physical and mental health, and teachers have to protect themselves.
10 Spend as much time with your family as possible
After getting married, I am more concerned about family affection, will take the initiative to perceive my mode of getting along with my family, and consider problems from the perspective of the overall situation.
If you think about it, maybe we spend more time with our students at school than we spend with our families at home; we all feel that we don't need much expression of love between our relatives, and they don't mind if they neglect it occasionally. As everyone knows, the intimate relationship between family members needs to be established and maintained with care.
Playing a good role in the family with heart will bring us another kind of satisfaction and joy. A stable life and sufficient family support will in turn make us more comfortable participating in school work.
I often talk to students about my family life, stories between me and my parents, and changes after my new marriage. The children listened very energetically and often asked me questions and thought about them. I guess this is the best explanation for my involvement in student growth with real characters.
Sigh at the extraordinary year of 2020, but also lament their own changes.
When it comes to education, we don't get too "involved" so we can grow with our students.
Source: Yangzi Yang Eye