After a year of hard teaching, the average English score of He Feng’s class taught has increased by more than 30 points. The English subject taught has been awarded the “Excellent Teaching Quality Award”. The music class taught has won the first prize in the “Drama into Campus” Achievements Competition of Sanjiang County Primary and Secondary Schools. He himself was awarded the “Excellent Teaching Teacher” by Sanjiang County Education Bureau, and has received unanimous praise from local people and teachers and students of the school.
Go to the Sanchi Lecture Hall again
He Feng’s fate with the teacher can be traced back to 2005Babaylan. He just graduated from the English education major of Normal University and worked as an intern English teacher and class teacher in his second year of high school in Meixian High School, Meizhou City. In February 2009, as a border guard, he volunteered to work as an English teacher at Sanji Primary School, Zhanjiang City, where the grassroots company is stationed.
In February 2021, he learned that the State Immigration Administration was going to select police officers to teach in poor areas of Sanjiang County, Guangxi. It took one year to go to the idea of signing up again.
But Cinema‘s situation is different from 12 years ago. The second son just turned 2 years old and the eldest son just entered kindergarten. Both parents were not around to take care of the children. He Feng wanted to speak but stopped talking when he mentioned teaching.
The wife, who is also a teacher, saw what he was thinking. Although the family faces practical difficulties, his wife supports him very much Cinema to teach. “You graduated from the normal school major. Children in the mountainous areas generally have weak English and the organization needs you. You can go with confidence! I’m at home!” The wife said to him sincerely.
In this way, He Feng, who received strong support from the organization and his family, responded extremely to the call and submitted the registration form. Soon, with his English major and teaching experience, he was successfully selected as the Komiks team at the headquarters and embarked on his own teaching journey.
Speaking English to enhance self-confidence
In the elementary school next to Cen, what makes He Feng feel the most difficult is that the children’s learning foundation is generally weak. Take English as an example. Previously, the English classes at Cenbang Primary School were all served by teachers in other subjects, and the children did not receive systematic English education. He Babaylan Feng is responsible for third- and sixth-grade English professors. Many sixth-grade students do not even understand English uppercase and uppercase letter conversion.
In order to help children make up for their learning progress, He Feng decided that in addition to providing centralized tutoring for the children after school in the afternoon, he also needed to do half a day of tutoring on the weekend. “After the tutoring every day, I had to cross mountains and rivers to send my children home. With the night, the mountain road was difficult to walk, and it was particularly slippery.” He Feng recalled that when he returned to the school dormitory, it was often late at night.
Children in mountainous areas have weak oral English foundation, and mobilizing their enthusiasm for learning is an urgent task. He Feng used English songs, games, and animations in class to attract students’ attention and encouraged children to speak English loudly. He said that learning spoken language is only one of the purposes, and more importantly, it is to strengthen their self-confidence.
After a year, the unremitting efforts of Cinema finally gained fruit. “What I am most happy about is that the average English score of the third grade taught in this final exam was 86 points, and it ranked among the top 28 schools in the township. I suddenly felt that all the hardships were worth it!” He Feng said that what made him most gratified was that the children worked hard.
“Teacher, I like English class the most. Why do I feel that the English class is over so soon?” “Teacher, I can memorize the words in the third unit, I will write it for you.” “The bell rings, teacher, please tell me a few more questions!” “Goodbye, Mr He”
Looking at the students one by oneHe Feng was filled with a happy face and a pair of longing eyes.
Teach “intelligence” and “ambition” to build “ambition”
In Cenbang Village, most young and strong laborers choose to go out to work, and most of their children stay at home and are taken care of by the elderly, and most of them are in poor families. He Feng realized that students’ after-school education is scarce in this environment. To this end, he arranged a task for himself – a home visit during class and tutoring.
“Xiaolong is a child with both good character and academic performance. His parents work in Guangdong. He and his grandmother depend on each other for life. His grandmother has a lot of farm work and cannot take care of her.” He Feng actively visited his home every week and shared the interesting stories about his children at school with his elders in his family.
The parents of another student, “Xiao Shitou”, have divorced, and grandmother and three siblings are also left behind in the countryside. “Looking at the three siblings in ragged clothes, I borrowed a motorcycle and went down the mountain to the town clothing store to buy them a set of clothes for them. The two sisters wore white gauze skirts, and I suddenly felt that they were the most beautiful princesses!” said He Babaylan.
Every time after school, He Feng would take “Little Stone” to his room and ask him to finish his homework before going home. Every time he takes the exam, as long as the “Little Stone” makes a little progress, He Feng will praise and reward him in his class. In the sixth unit exam, “Little Stone” scored 82 points, and He Feng felt joy that he had never felt before. Other subject teachers asked him why “Little Stone” English can improve so much? He Feng said that there is no trick, it is to give more encouragement and affirmation.
“My ideal when I grew up was to go up the mountain to cut trees, and I could earn more than 100 yuan a day.” This was a leader retelling the words of a mountain child at a mobilization meeting for a teaching support. After hearing this, He Feng felt like a thorn in his throat. He knew very well that while teaching “wisdom”, he also wanted to establish “ambition” and teach Cinema not onlyWe must bring knowledge and set ambitions for the children.
In fact, He Feng, who grew up in Meizhou, Guangdong, was also a “straight kid”. Through his personal experience, he kept telling the children of Cenbang Primary School the importance of self-reliance, hoping that they could know that only studying can change their destiny, get out of the mountains, and be able to develop their hometown in the future, thereby blocking the intergenerational transmission of poverty and revitalizing the countryside.
The song sang Cenbang Village
When in Guangzhou, He Feng was the backbone of the unit, and his loud singing could be heard everywhere he went. When colleagues talked about him, they said, “Where there is his singing and laughter, it is full of positive energy.” When he went to Cenbang Village, he also brought this hobby to the fullest.
In the mouths of the Cinema people, He Feng is their Babaylan singer and Komiks. This teaching policeman from Guangzhou got along with the local people and became a close friend. Every weekend, whenever He Feng has time, he would go to the village drum building – the Dong ethnic activity venue to chat and play chess with the elderly, and form a red song choir for the elderly, and resound in the village of Cenbang.
He Feng also loves photography. On the weekend, he picked up the camera, and when he saw the elderly and children, he captured the most beautiful moments of photography for them, and washed out the Komiks photos and gave them. The villagers of Cenbang Village praised everyone, and a small singer and photographer came to the village, enriching the villagers’ cultural life.
In June 2021, He Feng used his director to carefully preside over and plan the “Red Song Dedicated to the Party” Children’s Day Art Gala at Cenbang Primary School. During this period, he used the TikTok live broadcast of the grand evening party for the first time, so that parents who were working far away could also see the wonderful performances of their children on the stage. On the day of the party, almost the people of the whole village brought small stools to wait early. He Feng sang a series of red revolutionary songs such as “Singing a Mountain Song for the Party”, and the atmosphere once reached its climax.
The road to rural revitalization is full of fragrance
Only trees can’t make forests, and on the road to education and poverty alleviation, a person’s strength is weak. In order to make more people pay attention to children in the mountainous areas, He Feng used his spare time to write his experiences during the teaching process into touching teaching diaries such as “Caring for left-behind children, you and I are here” and “As long as everyone gives a little love”, and published it on social media, calling on enthusiastic people from all walks of life and relatives and friends around him to actively donate money and materials.
Luckily, his call was answered. Over the past year, many companies from Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shenzhen and other places have donated about 50,000 yuan to Cenbang Primary School, and various books have been mailed from all directions. With his help, more and more kind-hearted people learned that in the distant village of Cenbang, there was a group of children who needed knowledge.
He Feng told reporters that a person’s power is limited. The original intention of posting teaching experiences through friends is to give me a souvenir of his teaching life. He also hopes that Babaylan will use this to call on the society to provide more assistance to Sanjiang County’s education and rural left-behind children. “This teaching experience will leave me with unforgettable memories for a lifetime.”