Improve Teaching and Learning (2016)

ESS (US) has organized and conducted five Teacher Training Workshops in 2016 in China in the Provinces and Autonomous Regions of Guangxi , Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Hunan. These workshops included 1 Rural Music Teacher Workshop in Guangxi, 1 Class of Recitation of Classics in Inner Mongolia, 1 Female Elementary School Teachers Workshop of Northwest Regions in Gansu, and 2 Rural Teachers Workshop in Hunan. These workshops varied in length of duration from two to ten days attended in total by 731 teachers and principals from rural areas of eleven provinces and autonomous regions, including Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Shanxi, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan and Hainan. The workshops were funded by Tin Ka Ping Foundation, Raybin Wong Foundation, and Tan Family Education Foundation.

In addition, ESS sponsored 15 special education teachers from Henan, Shanxi, Shannxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Sichuan, and Xinjiang provinces/autonomous regions to attend the workshop for teachers of children with mental retardation. The workshop was held in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. As in the past two years, ESS continued its teacher coaching project. Sixteen rural school teachers took part in the project in 2016.

Following are brief summaries of the 2016/ESS Rural Teachers Training Projects.

1. Northwest Region Rural Teachers’ Workshop in Gansu Province

2016 Northwest Region Rural Female Elementary School Teachers Workshop was held from July 8 –17, co-sponsored by ESS (US) and the School of Education of Northwestern Normal University of Gansu. It was the finale of the 3-year teacher training project since 2014. Participants were from Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Guangdong, and Shannxi Provinces. Same as in 2015, this workshop was characterized by 1) smaller attendance of 115 teachers from the 7 provinces listed above; 2) longer session of 60 hours carried out over 10 days; 3) participants are female teachers under 45 years of age, most of whom had never attended any such in-service professional training; and 4) provided a balanced focus on total career development as well as on specific rural teaching strategies for teachers. Among the participants, 10% are ethnic minority. In a post workshop survey, 80.2% of participants rated the workshop as “highly satisfied” and 18.8% rated “relatively satisfied”. (Project coordinators: Fang Wu, Sen Qi)

2. Southwest Region Rural Teachers Workshops in Hunan Province

There were two Rural Teachers Workshops held in Hunan Province in 2016.

Collaborated with Chunlei Foundation and Hunan University, the first workshop was held from July 16 to July 22 in the city of Changsha, Hunan Province. A total of 122 two rural school teachers from Hunan,Jiangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Anhui, Henan and Guangxi Provinces participated in the 7- day workshop. The workshop offered a comprehensive training program emphasizing both macroscopic and microscopic aspects of teaching strategies as well as provided model teacher coaching to the participants. Field trips to cultural sites and a gala was held to conclude the workshop.

The second workshop was held in Huaihua, Hunan Province from July 24 to July 28, in collaboration with Huaihua Bureau of Education and Education Bureau of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. A total of 100 rural school teachers participated in the workshop. The workshop focused on enhancing rural teachers professional career development and personal growth as well as effective teaching strategies for children who are left behind by their migrant-worker parents. Personal consultations were also provided by Professor Zemin Luo free of charge to help ease some teacher’s psychological issues and concerns. (Project coordinators: Fang Wu, Sen Qi)

3. 2016 ESS Workshop for Rural Music Teachers

2016 ESS Workshop for Rural Music Teachers was held successfully from June 5th to 12th at the School of Music, Guangxi Normal University. This workshop was the third one in the sequence since 2014. The purpose of the workshop series was to help enhancing music teaching skill of teachers from remote areas of China. Through cultivating musical appreciation and basic musical theories, and by gaining access to new teaching concepts, the workshop attendants will act as seeds to radiate such knowledge to their communities. Fifty music teachers from remote area schools of Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Liaoning, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, and Inner Mongolia attended the workshop.（Project Coordinator: Lingling He, Zhiming Meng ）

4. 2016 ESS Early Childhood Education Training Workshop for Rural Young Female Teachers

 The 2016 ESS Early Childhood Education Training Workshop for Rural Young Female Teachers was held for a period of 3 months from February to May of the year. Aged 16-20, 26 girls from rural regions of Guizhou, Hubei, Sichuan, Hebei, Liaoning, Hunan, and Shandong provinces attended the training workshop. Among them, 9 are ethnic minority (Miao, Yi, Buyi, Tu, and Manchu). All of them had middle school education. The workshop was specifically catered to meet the needs of remote rural young women, focusing on vocational training employable as kindergarten teachers at their home villages. All have completed the training successfully. (Project Coordinators: Nelson Li, Hu Chen)

5. 2016 ESS Coaching Rural Teachers Across Schools Project

ESS Cross-Campus Exchange Program for teachers from rural areas was first inaugurated in April, 2014. In 2016, 16 teachers from rural areas of Gansu Province went to Chongqing, Hunan, Anhui, Beijing, and Sichuan base schools to receive coaching by model teachers. Such immersion experience provided the rural teachers a unique opportunity to observe, attend, and participate in classroom teaching. After the completion of the 7-day program, participants took home with enhanced professional pride and effective teaching strategies, which will benefit not only themselves but also their fellow teachers and students in the years to come. (Project Coordinator: Yichen Sun, Gang Chen)

6. 2016 ESS Science Summer Camps for Rural Youths

2016 is the 10th year of ESS Youth Science Summer Camp, and our team is expanding. This year, from Heilongjiang Province in the northern China to Hainan Province in the south, ESS is teaming with 11 provinces to sponsor 19 summer camps with 1783 participants. Funding of these camps came largely from Tin Ka Pin Foundation and Washington Zhi-Qing Association. ESS Rural Youth Science Summer Camp has been particularly helpful attracting children of migrant worker to the field of science by opening up their minds of curiosity through various camp activities. Ten years of efforts of the ESS volunteer team planted seeds of love in the summer camp participants. Many former campers have grown up to become volunteer camp assistants, passing down their passion for education to the younger generation of rural students. (Project Coordinators team members: Zhida Song, Yan Gu, Danhui Pan, Bei Zhang, Hong Liao, and Xiaomei Dong, etc.)

7. 2016 Summer Camp cosponsored by ESS and National Chengchi University (Taiwan)

Collaborated with ESS, National Chengchi University in Taiwan again sent a volunteer team of professors and students to Jiangxi Province to organize a summer camp for third- to eighth-grade students. The summer camp featured music, science, reading, and environmental projects.