Photo taken in ECNUAS HS on Aug 31, 2021
At the beginning of each month, the high school principal’s office announces the educational theme of the month, explain their implications, and ask teachers and students to make links with them in their teaching and learning activities. The theme of September is “caring and self-management skills”. The theme of month is supposed to provide a common language for teachers and students in the community when we work together to create an uplifting environment for quality teaching and learning. The high school administration tries the best to create a better learning environment, the twelve monthly themes as those associated actions such as speeches at assemblies and displays in the building are all part of the environment.
Why the environment of learning is so important? We understand that, we human being live, study and grow in an environment. No one can prosper without the social environment, no one can be isolated from the environment for long time. As a learner in the ECNUAS high school, you are impacted by the environment around you, and at the same time, you impact the environment too. The environment, which consists of what you do, what you see, what you listen, and who you interact with, defines who you are and who you will become. An uplifting learning environment respects learners’ agency, inspires creativity, promote excellence in all areas, and recognizes importance of failure in the process of learning. An uplifting learning environment should also accept, respect, and promote diverse ways of being, learning, and doing things. It is inclusive and safe in a way that every learner can find his or her way of success.
Based on these understandings, the school strives to create a better environment for learning and teaching in the context of ECNUAS. The twelve monthly themes are part of this important educational action in the school.
The monthly themes are comprised of the 12 ECNUAS Learner Attributes and 5 categories of Learning Skills. 10 IB Learner Profile attributes are integrated into these themes while the learning skills are the same as the Approaches to Learning as in the IB. From learners’ point of view, the monthly themes can be regarded as your teachers’ expectations as to your academic growth, personal welling being, and social development. From teachers’ point of view, these themes can be treated as the common educational goals that should be achieved collaboratively by all teacher members of the team. From the school administrators’ point of view, these themes provide a framework with which the school works towards a holistic and high-quality international education. Since these themes are part of the environment that is so important to our work and study, it is crucial for each of us arrives at a common understanding and a common purpose.
Last year, we began to hear touching stories from teachers and students about how they made links with the themes. Today we will have a group of junior students share their story of being caring. In classroom learning and extra-curricular activities, teachers and students are also making connections with the themes. We create the environment together, and we benefit from the environment together.
The September theme is Caring and Self-management Skills.
Caring.
You show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. You have a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment.
There is much to be unpacked in this short description. Here are many understandings of a few key words in the two sentences.
Empathy 同情: the sense and ability of feeling the emotions of others;
Compassion 恻隐之心: the desire to help when you feel or see the needs of others;
Respect 尊重: the feeling of admiration for someone or something because of their abilities, qualities, or achievements;
Service 服务: the actions of helping or doing work for others or the community;
Positive difference 正面影响: make the community, the society, and world a better place;
Others 他人: other people around you, in the community, and in the world;
Environment 环境: social, physical, and natural conditions where we live.
So, caring in our educational theme is not just a state a mind, not just a feeling, but a real commitment to taking kind actions for the classmates, the friends, the teachers, the family members, and really anyone you meet in and outside the school. Very importantly, you help and serve not for any kind of returns, as you know others in this community will also do the same to you and others. You contribute to and benefit from a caring environment.
Self-management skills
You demonstrate organization skills such as managing time, tasks, learning materials effectively;
You are able to manage state of mind including but not limited to mindfulness awareness, perseverance, emotional management, self-motivation, resilience.
There is a lot to discuss in the two sentences two, for instance how to manage projects and how to better manage your emotion and motivation. Let me focus on time management today.
During the summer, I read a book titled Five Kinds of Time （五种时间）. The author proposes a theory of action of time management. She divides time into five categories and suggests that different people could set priorities according to own value and purposes.
好看时间 (time for looking-good)、
What you do during the time: make yourself look good, look after your body, take care of your health, go to gym, etc.
好玩时间 (time for entertainment)、
What you do during the time: enjoy your life, feed your curiosity, experience new things, take on new challenges
心流时间 (time of flow)、
What you do during the time: be immersed in tasks at hand, forget the time, your ego fades into what you do, become part of the tasks
生存时间 (time for survival)、
What you do during the time: spend time in order to better survive in the world, as a student in high school, you have to spend time to prepare for tests and exams and you have to earn qualifications so you can move into higher education and higher social status
赚钱时间 (time of making money) 、
What you do during the time: use your wisdom, knowledge and skills to create quality services or products, the society will pay you back, your uniqueness and competitiveness is the key as the more wisdom, knowledge and skills the higher you would be paid, as a student in high school, you are preparing for your competitive edge
Sharing a quote:
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
--Aristotle
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