This is a speech at HS assembly on Nov 1 2021
Photo taken at ECNUAS HS in October, 2021.
At the beginning of each month, I would speak about the educational theme of the month and the summary of House Point competition of the previous month. Today is the first day of November 2021. So, I will announce and explain the theme of November first.
There are two key terms in the theme of this month—Thinkers and Communication Skills. As usual, the two terms are selected from ECNUAS high school learner attributes and the IB learning skills.
Thinkers
You exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions.
I would like emphasize the second part of the statement “recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions”. Many problems of you and around you are complicated and maybe even more complicated than you imagine. As good thinkers, we should learn to recognize, understand, and respect the complexity and hence approach the problems that you face in a humble manner. We learn skills of considering questions from different angles and devising solutions to problems using creative thinking.
Communication Skills
You exchange thoughts, messages and information effectively through interaction.
You able to read, write, and use language to gather and communication information.
We don’t remain as mere thinkers and only think to ourselves. We should learn to communicate with others about our thoughts, opinions, and creative solutions to problems as a result of critical thinking. There are a number of ways of communication, including writing, speaking, painting, as well as body languages. In the school, we have many chances to develop and use communication skills in and outside your academic classrooms.
I only have time to talk about one example of being good thinkers and communicators today. This example is found in the context of our high school community. It shows a few student leaders think critically and creatively in the face of a problem that happens around them. They not only try to find solutions to the problem as a result of their deliberation, they also communicate their ideas to the teachers and the high school leadership team effectively.
You probably recognize that there are some issues in the management of students’ evening study. These issues particularly occur in one Grade. While the high school leadership team tries to mitigate these problems, we also involve the student leaders in the school, that is the high school student association (HSSA) members. These leaders (they are also House Captains) approached these issues carefully and provided their suggestions by writing to the high school leadership team by email.
I read these students’ suggestions very carefully and really appreciated their creativity and insights. Some of these suggestions will definitely be incorporated into the revised Evening Study management policies.
Please allow me to present a few reflections that were offered by several of these House Captains so you can feel how these student thinkers also exemplify their excellent communication skills. Also, you can hear how these student leaders view the importance of the evening study and the management of it. I encourage more students to expand the scope of your thinking from your own individual matters to the larger issues around you so more creative thoughts can be produced by you who are part of the high school community.
“就我们House而言，我认为上一学年的晚自习安排方式非常妥当，按house和年级来分晚自习教室，并且同学们可以适当进行调整，而不是规定自习教室，因为不同学生有自己的学习方式。”
“以分House来晚自习的方式可以一定程度改善问题, 我认为在此基础上能再将House分为几个小组,每个小组有指定的组长,每次晚自习后每个人要将自己所做的事,或成果回报给组长”
“值班老师仍然需要在每个教室进行点名，并抽查教室情况。晚自习允许小声交流学习相关的事物，一旦被举报过于嘈杂或许可以被禁止交流并移到指定的晚自习教室或老师休息室。”
“首先要对晚自习的学生群体进行分类---不用管都安静自习地，有人管就安静自习的，有人管也无法安静自习的。如果能够清晰的分清楚三个群体，管理会很方便…因此，我们需要首先做到因材施教，对不同群体采用不同的政策。”
“我认为晚自习就是以安静的学习为主，闲聊的时间很多，每天和朋友聊天，到了晚自习是让你安静下来一个人学习的机会，没有会干扰到学习的人或事在身边才是最重要的，所以并不需要亲近的伙伴，如果你们的摩擦力大，在一起无法专心学习的话只会降低学习效率。很多人可能没有办法理解，但这确实是我学习效率高的原因。”
In the second part of my speech, I will be talking about the result of House Point competition of October 2021.
Congratulations to O’ Neal House, with 249 individual Merits they won the October competition owing to the students’ good performance in different areas of the school life. Ren Bonian House follows as the second place although they won the September competition. Einstein House was the last place in September, but they improved this time becoming the third place. Shakespeare House is the last one this time. As a result, O House earned 10 Points (divided by 25), followed by R and E House with 9 Points, and S House has 8 points. I believe S House Head and students will reflect on what went wrong with students’ behaviors, academic and non-academic performances last month so improvements can be made this month.
As usual, I would like to praise students who earned more than 10 individual Merits last month. There are eight well-behaved and well-performing students as you can see on the slide.
In terms of Dormitory performances, although the points of three Houses were still in the negative territory, I see some improvements. Actually you can see the negative numbers of O and S Houses decreased and E House number became positive.
Lastly, let us take a look at the running total of the year competition that includes January up to October 2021 results. O House is leading the year competition. The second place is S House that is closely followed by R House. E House is at the bottom although they showed improvement in the month of October 2021. Who will be the year winner? Let us keep watching.
To sum up, I am going to share a quote, which is related to this month’s education theme Thinkers. Aristotle said, “Be a free thinker and don’t accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.”
Have a nice first week of November!
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