Since the autumn of 1993, when the National Education Commission implemented the Education Curriculum Plan, it has been clearly stated that the curriculum consists of two parts: the subject curriculum and the activity curriculum, officially including activity lessons in the curriculum plan and establishing the status of activity lessons. Activity lessons have become an integral part of the school curriculum and are interlinked and complementary to subject teaching in the implementation of a modern, holistic education.

开设学生活动课在我国教育史上具有划时代的意义。因为它能纠正长期以来单纯重视学科课程的片面性和局限性，有利于增长学生的智力和能力。

活动课的形式有很多种：教育活动、科技活动、公益活动、组织活动、文娱活动、体育活动等。

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Kevin, an American, has been in Shenzhen for 5 years and works as an English teacher at the school as well as coaching American football activity classes. In the year he has been coaching, past difficulties with languages barriers and cultural differences have slowly disappeared with time. 

As a teacher, he has taught everything from the history of American football to the rules to the strategies, and the children are eager to learn and participate. The 15-member team, which includes Ant, a strategic player, Hardy, a proactive attacker, and Peter, a team player, achieved excellent results in the Shenzhen Secondary School American Football Tournament held in May this year.

Kevin says: "Students enjoy playing American football because it gets them moving out in the fresh air and getting some exercise. In addition, American football is more aggressive and competitive than most Chinese sports like badminton or table tennis, as it requires students to kick, catch, and throw the ball when on offense and chase down opposing players when on defense. Children love this explosive sport.

“Interest is the best teacher”

陈丹娜  广东汕头人  自2017年开始便在富源英美学校担任烘焙课教师，至今已经有5年时间，擅长西点。作为学校最受学生喜爱的活动课老师，她的日常工作可不仅仅是授课这么简单。除了和其他活动课的老师一样，要备课、授课以外，她还要采购所需的材料，尽可能的满足孩子们在学校想吃又吃不到的需求，她总是变着花样的教他们做美食。于是便应运而生了纸杯蛋糕、曲奇饼干、榴莲千层、芒果糯米糍等。

上课期间，她采用自由分组的形式，让孩子们自己找搭档，培养他们的动手能力和团队协作能力。在实操环节，她不停地巡场是为了以防部分同学操作不当，能够给予及时的分析和引导，确保每一堂课，每一个小组都能有相对理想的出品。让美食不仅具有食用价值，更具有观赏价值。

“食物和爱一样温柔”

Joe graduated from the International Medical University and has 6 years of experience teaching Physics and Biology in high school.

He is an avid badminton player and has spent a lot of time and financial resources to learn badminton professionally. He now works as a badminton instructor in the school's activity classes and leads more than 20 students every Thursday afternoon in the badminton hall. Joe and the students work hard and compete together. Among the students are Happy from G8, Peter from G1B, Colin, Harry and Amanda from G1C, all of whom are his favourite students.

When asked about the difficulties encountered in badminton lessons, he said, "The all-English teaching environment was a challenge for some of the younger students. It takes more patience and he has to act as a coach to constantly show the students how to catch and serve the ball. For some students who are more afraid of not catching the ball, embarrassment or failure, he encourages them to "accept that they are normal and then try their best to be different."

谢梅玲 广东茂名人，美术老师，致力于美术教育行业5年，擅长中小学美术教育，坚持解放学生创造力，引领学生用画笔定格世间美好。她所负责的摄影课、手工课、水拓画课都深受学生喜爱。

作为最安静的活动课，在这里你可以听到铅笔在素描纸上的沙沙声，可以看到各种颜色的颜料在调色板上舞蹈，可以闻到中国画散发出的墨水的香味。在这里，你可以脑洞大开、可以肆意挥洒、可以身临其境。

她说：你可以画山间清爽的风、傍晚温柔的海、以及那个热气腾腾的少年。

“去做你想做的”

Debbie, a female maths teacher who loves music and making new friends, focuses on developing children's mathematical and logical thinking skills as well as concentration, observation and reaction skills in her Sudoku classes. The children learn by playing and play to learn.

Sudoku is a mathematical game that originated in Switzerland in the 18th century. It is a logic game that uses paper and pencil to perform calculations. Players need to reason out the numbers of all the remaining spaces based on the known numbers on a 9 x 9 plate and ensure that the numbers in each row, column and thick line palace (3 * 3) contain 1-9 and are not repeated.

"Teaching with fun and learning for the mind"

林华轩 体育老师 出生于广东湛江的一座海岛上，深受阳光的喜爱，拥有令欧美人都羡慕的黝黑皮肤，而游泳的天赋仿佛与生俱来，篮球又是他生命中如空气般不可缺少的存在。多次组织带领校篮球队参与比赛，从无败绩。

在课堂上始终保持 “两个新”一是创新，二是更新。不单要让学生在课堂上学到知识，更要提高学生对体育课堂的兴趣，从而达到强身健体的目标。

“每天运动一小时，健康生活五十年”

这些老师们不仅可以教授学科课程，也能够利用课余时间教授活动课程。他们坚持自强不息，以身作则。像他们这样的老师，在这里还有许多。而积极参与活动课的同学们，同样也是我们的榜样。

It is exceptionally great to learn from the activity classes, to constantly renew and recharge ourselves, and to strive to become the best version of ourselves.

作为新时代的青年，我们不能只在别人取得成功的时候做那个鼓掌的人，更要去探究他们成功背后遇到过怎样的困难、付出过多少的时间和精力。

Everything we see is beautiful, and all we do is worthy of our youth.

愿我们都能够珍惜时光，不断前行。

Graphic typeset by Lauren Liu

Translated by Gary Li、Kevin

Reviewed by Mulan Yang