| |
 |
On the road of innovation
|
Li Dan
DURING the holiday last week, I hurried to the scenic campus of Shenzhen Senior High School (SSHS) to the west of Honey Lake, because principal Tang Haihai had called a mini-meeting to examine the employment of a history-geography cross subject function room. Two girl students I encountered doubted my mission, musing "It's a holiday, are you sure our principal is in his office?" But holiday or no, Tang was still at work.
"We want a macromedia function room with our own software to bring out the students' initiative and interest in study," the principal told me. Since its construction five years ago, the school has taken innovation as its guideline for teaching and management.
In SSHS, the fixed class division is only for administrative purposes so that students may elect a management committee to experiment autonomously. Then, all students are grouped according to their academic performance into three classes for suitable levels of courses in different subjects. The level class arrangement is also dynamic as the students may gradually improve.
"This practice facilitates teaching as well as learning," Principal Tang explained. "Our teachers can choose different materials to cater to different groups of kids at a similar level, and students can compete with their peers."
Teachers at the school are not confined to a single class either. Rather, they are appointed to various posts according to their expertise and inclinations. For instance, the Junior Two Chinese course is divided into classics, modern Chinese reading and appreciation, speech and writing that are taught by three teachers who specialize in their respective fields.
Worth noting is the fact that every student is encouraged and appreciated regardless of their academic performance. "We do not list students' names according to their scores in exams and post the results on the publication board as in many other high schools," introduced Tang. "For it may hurt those kids who do not have high scores." Students are generally evaluated by comparing to their own performance in the past and in different subjects. They will see if they have improved or if they still need extra efforts in a certain subject.
Besides learning the compulsory classes, students at the school are inspired to develop their creativity, a strong personality as well as artistic potential. An elective course entitled "creation and invention" tries to nurture students' creativity and train their computer skills around certain problem solving themes; another explores the basics of high temperature superconductors. For art and physical education, students can choose piano, violin, singing, drawing, oil painting, artistic gymnastics, table tennis, baseball, tennis, soccer, and even American football.
Extracurricular activities help to develop the students' comprehensive ability. On campus, the kids run a radio station and a TV station themselves; student lawyers and a judging committee also run a self-discipline arbitration court that opens regularly to make decisions on hot issues concerning the students' life.
|
|
|
|
