Speech at HS Assembly Mar 29, 2021
I would like to spend a few minutes to highlight two events that happened last week. There are quite a few exciting events last week such as DP 2 Arts exhibition and others, we enjoyed all of them. I will talk about two of them only.
First, the teachers in the Chinese group created a series of very engaging and instructive learning and demonstrative activities last week, under the umbrella theme of “Language and Literature under global issues”. While we enjoyed students’ creative productions, we also pondered over these issues that are related to each of us more or less and in one or another way.
Let us look at a short slide show of some photos. (Photos album)
Many thanks to all the Chinese teachers and students who organized and provided such an memorable week to the high school.
This is a reflection provided by the subject group leader Ms. Olivia Luo, of Chinese language and literature.
“此次的中文周活动主题为“全球性问题下的语言与文学”，中文组老师结合IB大纲和联合国可持续发展目标，整理出了18个全球性问题，鼓励同学用小组合作，创意呈现的方式来展现对全球性问题的理解。9年级的同学围绕着“艺术创造力与想象力”这一全球性问题进行诗歌创作，录音，书写，展示，同时小组合作用创意展示了对全球性问题的理解。10年级的同学则表演了正在学习的戏剧《玩偶之家》，这部戏剧与“性别压迫”这一全球性话题相关。同时，10年级和11年级的同学都参与了小组合作拍视频来呈现对全球性问题的理解，同学们关注了昆曲的传承，殖民主义的影响，女性的现实处境，科技对社会的影响，环境保护等等话题。12年级的同学展示了在IO中对全球性话题的理解。这次活动希望引起同学对全球性问题的关注，在具体的观察和实践中去践行ib课程为人类可持续发展而努力的宗旨。同时，在活动过程中，同学们的创造力，合作交流能力，时间规划能力，反思能力都得到了提升。”
"The theme of this Chinese Week activity is "Language and Literature under Global Issues". The teachers of the Chinese group are informed by the IB subject guide and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to sort out 18 global issues, encouraging students to collaborate in groups and present creatively and demonstrate understanding of global issues in this way.
The 9th grade students created poems, recordings, essays, and displays around the global issue of "artistic creativity and imagination". At the same time, group activities showed students’ understanding of global issues.
The 10th grade students performed the drama "A Doll's House" that they are currently studying. The study and performance is related to the global issue of "gender oppression".
The 10th and 11th grade students all participated in group video competition, with which they paid attention to the Chinese heritage of KunQu Opera, the influence of colonialism, the reality of women’s lives, technological impact on society, environmental protection, and other topics.
The 12th grade students discussed their understanding on global issues in the their IOs (individual orals).
Overall, this Chinese week hopes to arouse students’ attention to global issues, and to practice the IB’s mission for the sustainable development of our human race. In the process, our students improved creativity, cooperation and communication skills, time management skills, and reflection skills.”
The second event that I want to high light is the very first House Night of ECNUAS High School. Did you see that the teachers and students in this high school have been creating many first-times over the past two years together—first fun run, first Qinghai trip, first Chongming camping, even the House system itself was started by us only two years ago! Because of all these successes, I was more confident than ever to believe that we will make more successes in many more fronts in the future.
It was based on this confidence, I authorized the HSSA to organize the House Night 2021, and I want them to do it on their own, because I trust they are ready, their leadership skills and their influence in the high school community is ready. Indeed, throughout the event, these House Captains and House Prefects and other student leaders played crucial roles and demonstrated their sophisticated skills. They proved they are not only thinkers and planners, they are also doers—they know how to make things happen! They made sure everyone knew when, where, and how about the event; they made sure the buffet dinner was well managed and served; they made sure all performers were informed and prepared; they collaborated with the principal’s office; they communicated with House teacher leaders and other teachers; they also ensure the whole evening was closed properly including cleaning up the stadium afterwards.
Let us take a look at some photos of the House Night 2021. (Photos Album)
We really appreciated these hard-working organizers of this excellent House Event. Your leadership, your commitment, and your spirit of cooperation and collaboration, delivered our high school community a magnificent event, which I trust will be passed down to years to come. It will become a traditional House culture event of the school.
Next, I am going to talk about the theme of April in advance. During this week, there will be a lot of tests and exams. Your knowledge, skills, and understanding of subject matter will be put to test. For those who worked hard before, this week will be an opportunity for you to show your excellence; yet for those who didn’t work hard before, you might feel regretful and miserable in this week. You should catch the time to reflect and change; you must understand that there is no short-cut when it comes to learning. Before more miserable experiences occur to you in the future, you must find ways to better manage yourselves and to become more knowledgeable.
So, I propose the the theme of April 2021 is about
• Knowledgeable
You explore concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance.
In so doing, you acquire in-depth knowledge and develop understanding across a broad and balanced range of disciplines.
• 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.
I think these quality and skills are extremely important in your experience in international schools as the study must be more self-motivated, broader, and sustained. You don’t just learn for testing, you don’t just complete short-term learning tasks, rather you develop profound knowledge in a range of disciplines in order for more advanced study and exploration in more focused areas.
On the other hand, you are also equipped with knowledge and skills, and the state of mind when you have to face high-pressure, high stake tasks such as examinations. In your lives, you will have to encounter this kind of challenges as going through these processes makes you stronger and more mature.
For instance, DP 2 students are currently under high pressure of mock exams and will go through even higher pressure of global exams in two months. So do Grade 10 and Grade 11 students because of the coming IGCSE and AS exams. You must to choose to fight and succeed by learning to become more knowledgeable, you must regulate yourselves by putting a range of self-management skills into practice. There is no room to hesitate, to retreat, or to avoid as you don’t want to grow to be weaker. You want to grow to be stronger.
For instance, according to a new governmental policy, grade 9 students in international schools like ECNUAS now must take the Shanghai governmental graduation examinations. Passing the examination becomes an automatic requirement for entering grade 10. This change suddenly pushes the pressure of G10-end IGCSE exams earlier into Grade 9—now Grade 9 students also have to pass a high-pressure and high-stake exam! Because of this exam, Grade 9 students now have to acquire and demonstrate more in-depth knowledge and develop more profound understanding in these tested subjects, which some Grade 9 students used to believe not needed until much later.
Now you will have to work extremely hard in the next two months and half, you must work with your teachers closely, follow every instruction that the teachers give you, do every piece of practice the teachers assign to you. Our teachers are prepared and confident in helping you go through and succeed this challenge. But you must follow the teachers’ instructions, Otherwise, you could fail, which means you will stay in Grade 9 to repeat the process again.
Ninth graders, under this kind of pressure, worrying and procrastination is the last thing you do because worrying and procrastination waste your time and energy. Under this kind of pressure, the first thing you should do is to prepare and focus on what you have to do. You try your best to manage your time and tasks at hand; if you feel you don’t know how to manage, ask your homeroom teachers or subject teachers. This kind of pressure is the best time for you to train yourselves to manage state of mind including mindfulness awareness, perseverance, emotional management, self-motivation, and resilience. Please trust yourselves and trust your teachers and believe that everything will turn out to be fine given that you and your teachers work together.
After all, now you have to realize that learning has never been easy and that you have to learn to love and enjoy the process of learning if you want to succeed in school. Actually, you have reasons to enjoy learning. Let me quote what Peter Senge, the author of The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization, said about learning.
“Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we were never able to do.”
Enjoy learning.
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