The curriculum culture exhibition activity at Huamei Foreign Language School, along with events like the "Five Major Culture Festivals", "Annual Release", and "Homework Exhibition", has become a long-standing tradition of the school. The curriculum culture exhibition held each semester involves the full participation of all administrative staff. It is organically integrated with daily teaching, research, and large-scale activities, consisting of two parts: group-level open classes and school-level open classes.The primary school, junior high school, and senior high school departments jointly presented 12 school-level open courses. Led by Zhou Xiang, the chief curriculum director who holds the title of senior professional teacher, several subject group leaders also participated together. Everyone showed their unique tricks, with "AI assistance", "live broadcasts", and "traveling across time and space", making the courses extremely wonderful.
Brief Description of Lesson Example
Teacher Hong Junda taught the course "Chinese Film and Television Music". By comparing the same video footage paired with background music of different emotions, he guided the students to experience the sincere comradeship in war while analyzing the works and practicing singing, and to feel the irreplaceable role that music plays in film and television works.
Teacher Jiang Yunjia taught the essay "The Doctrine of Taking". She guided the students to study the text in groups and analyze it in detail, vividly presenting an argumentative article that seemed rather distant from the students' reality.
Course director Zhou Xiang taught the course "The Principles and Applications of Cellular Respiration". He made extensive connections to life phenomena, such as the muscle soreness felt during exercise (lactic acid), the ventilation holes on band-aids (anaerobic bacteria), and the situation of being hungry and cold (heat production).
In Ms. Yin Xiaoqin's "The Game of Dividing Objects" class, she prepared hands-on learning tools for every student and meticulously guided them to grasp the rules of group cooperative learning. During the entire lesson, students engaged in thorough discussions, actively participated in abundant activities, and demonstrated their learning outcomes comprehensively.
Teacher Xia Cuifang taught the lesson "Kong Yiji". She set up four driving tasks, closely adhering to the key elements of the novel text. Through this, the students deeply felt the connection between the era's environment and the characters' personalities as well as their fates, and gained a thorough understanding of both.
Teacher Tangna taught the lesson "Personal Income Distribution in China". She introduced a case of enterprise income distribution set in Shenzhen, enabling students to understand the distribution system featuring "distribution according to work as the mainstay supplemented by multiple other means".
In Mr. Xu Ruliang's class "The Area in the Graph of a Linear Function", the guiding learning plan was given full play. Before the class, the students completed the "Preliminary Exploration Learning" part; during the class, they finished the "In-depth Research Learning" part; and after the class, they fulfilled the "Consolidation and Expansion Learning" part.
Teacher Zhao Jing taught "The Flying Panini". She moved the classroom to the library, and the teaching design incorporated elements such as in-depth reading experiences, structured reading and writing modules, and diversified vocabulary learning.
Teacher Lu Yanyong taught the course "The Geographical Environment of Northeast China". He created a real-life scenario centered around "cranberries" that ran through the entire class. During the process of investigating the optimal cultivation bases for cranberries, the students gained a comprehensive understanding of the geographical environment of Northeast China.
Teacher Han Xiao taught the lesson "The Sounds of Nature". The whole class was full of poetic charm. The students were intoxicated by the wonderful music, immersed in the beautiful scenery of nature, and perceived the elegance and rhythm of the language.
In Ms. Wang Yinsi's class "The voyages of Zheng He", during the "Preliminary Exploration Learning" stage, students looked up information about Zheng He's voyages. In the "In-depth Research Learning" phase, they played a word-matching game on the Seewo interactive whiteboard. For the "Consolidation and Expansion Learning" part, AI was utilized to facilitate space exploration.
In the class "Mass" taught by Mr. Chen Sigang, a touching real-life scenario was created (buying silver jewelry for mom during a trip to Yunnan). Through a live broadcast, images of students operating the balance were generated, which reflected the principle that teaching is feedback.
Preliminary Exploration Learning and Situation Creation. Director Zhou introduced real-life situations, Teacher Tang introduced the Shenzhen background, Teacher Lu introduced practical needs, and Teacher Chen introduced emotional values, etc. Especially, Teacher Lu introduced the research on cranberry cultivation bases, analyzing the geographical environment of Northeast China one by one, such as the weather (temperature), rivers (water), soil (nutrients), and terrain (planting). Finally, through comprehensive consideration, from driving questions to driving tasks, it is truly an excellent design. The situation created by Teacher Chen, which is buying silver jewelry as a gift for mom during a trip to Yunnan, contains emotional education and is very touching. Moreover, exploring the authenticity of the silver jewelry, whether it is genuine silver and gold, and whether it meets the proper weight, are all real situations, real problems, and real tasks.
In-depth Research Learning and Inquiry Activities. These open classes all organized pre-class preview, completed pre-class exercises, and assigned innovative homework after class. For example, Teacher Xu asked students to complete exercises related to linear functions (the values of k and b, the coordinates of interdiv points) before class; Teacher Chen asked students to get familiar with the balance before class; Teacher Wang assigned space exploration homework; and Teacher Lu assigned tasks to investigate the geography of Hubei, etc. During the class, group cooperative learning was carried out. In particular, Teacher Yin made students understand the rules of division of labor and cooperation, ensuring that group learning was not just for show. The group tasks of Teacher Lu and Teacher Wang each had their own emphases, avoiding an even spread of effort, thus greatly improving efficiency. Teacher Chen's inquiry activities were broadcast live, recording the operations of each student in each group, making the dull and difficult-to-explain operational details vivid. It achieved teaching without overt instruction yet with excellent results. The class was lively, and the students were extremely happy. The above class examples fully illustrate the curriculum ideology of "One Center, Two Elements, Three Achievements, and Four Concerns" put forward by Principal Deng.
Consolidation and Expansion Learning and Core Competencies. With well-created situations to pose driving questions and tasks, and with the solid implementation of inquiry activities, the cultivation of core competencies follows naturally. Teacher Lu made multiple uses of one map (as commented by Principal Hu). All four groups used the map of Northeast China hanging on the whiteboard. The children marked geographical elements such as mountains, plains, rivers, temperature, and precipitation on the map. Eventually, they comprehensively applied their knowledge to determine the most suitable location for the cultivation base among four targets, summarized the geographical features of Northeast China as "surrounded by mountains and waters, with vast and fertile fields", infiltrated patriotic education, enhanced national pride, and combined with China's space-based cranberry seed cultivation to feel the power of the motherland and the strength of science and technology, experiencing the application of knowledge and the value of knowledge. This is growth. Returning to reality, all the key points in the syllabus have been learned with emotion and have been firmly grasped. Because of the emotional connection, it is very easy to transfer this knowledge. This is growth. Director Zhou guided students to study the intangible cellular respiration, yet they were able to fully perceive various phenomena of cellular respiration in life. This is growth. Teacher Wang Yinsi expanded from Zheng He's voyages to the Chinese exploration of the vast cosmos, while Teacher Chen Sigang extended from measuring the mass of an egg to measuring the mass of the universe. This is growth.
We are truly grateful to Principal Deng Dengjiang. He has been adhering to the principle of building the school with culture and rejuvenating the school through curriculum. He sticks to the simple truth of seeking truth from facts, as well as the down-to-earth work style of reform and opening up. This is precisely the essence of growth and the very gist of it. Students grow, teachers grow, and the school grows. This is what growth means.
