After long-planned volunteer recruitment, teacher training and teaching preparation, the awaited opportunity for field teaching has finally come.
This year’s teaching event was held in Yujing, Tainan. The ” Reading into the Tea World” teaching event was jointly organized with “Tathagata’s Home Humanity Care Association”
Yujing is famous for growing mango. Most of the parents here are mostly farmers. Farming season is very busy and many children would take on the burden of housework since childhood, sharing the heavy work and taking care of elder.
The children in Yujing are less resourceful than children in the city. Even color photocopies are only available in larger areas. Hence, the teaching resources are even more scarce.
During the busy farming season, many children would wander on the street. Ven. Juexin, who had originally wanted to practice in retreat in Yujing, felt great compassion and opened the door of Tathagata’s Home.
Tathagata’s Home, not only provides academic counseling for children from rural areas, but also organizes a variety of social educational activities on a regular basis in order to open up a brighter future for children in Yujing.
The reading teaching activity was held in Yujing Elementary School in Tainan. Participating students ranged from first grade to sixth grade. Nearly fifty-two students attended and were organize into four groups.
And for the teachings, the students were divided into upper grade group and the lower grade group. Classes are given by DENER’s experienced teachers, seed teachers, and local teachers in Yujing.
On the first day of the class, Teacher Qiuping and Teacher Yaling from Tathagata’s Home welcomed the team and DENER’s teachers. After introducing the teachers to the children, the activity started happily with the “Ice Breaking Journey”.
Each student had a study sheet. According to the instructions on the study sheet, kid needed to find others who have the same interests as themselves, some kid needed to find one who dare to eat food that they dare not to eat, and some kid wanted to shake hands and get to know one other.
Every time you meet a new friend, you will get a signature on the study sheet. The person who receive the most signatures is the winner. Through this ice-breaking game, the purpose is to get acquainted with the partners who you will get along in the next few days.
Children followed the instructions on the study sheet, find the teachers, and exchange little secret.
After everyone had a basic understanding, DENER’s seed teachers began to perform the dance they practiced for this event. As soon as the music was played, the children’s eyes were attracted by the dynamic dance. The teachers said that if these courses were completed with great interest, this dance will be taught to all kids. With that, the reading courses began.
The tea ceremony course was taught by Teacher Huang and Teacher Pan, who are the experienced teacher of DENER. They showed the students the origin of tea through vivid stories. Through the tea making demonstration process, they explained the profound meaning of tea ceremony tranquility, harmony and elegance. The intensive training allowed the senior students to understand the essence of tea ceremony.
On the other side, Teacher Kelly’s picture book story-” Elmer ” was conducted in the lower grades class. Through the interactive reading of picture books, the students understood the content of the story. And with the assistance of multiple teaching aids, the teacher allowed the children to expand their imagination.
Afterwards, Teacher Kelly also let the children to freely create a festival they most wanted in order to stimulate their creative thinking. It was a joy to watch children’s various paintings. Some children painted “cheese festival”, some painted “princess festival”, and some painted” gyro festival”. They were full of delight. In addition, Teacher Kelly also asked the children to come on stage and explain the festivals they created as to train the children’s speaking ability.
In the afternoon, Teacher Ming’s class「 Broadcast Master- Song of the Big Tree」 allowed kids to work together in groups to complete radio broadcast. Through role-playing, sound-mimicking, and dramatic reading techniques, students could enter into the core role and understood the mental process behind each character. Additionally, the kids realized the true meaning of friends through the development of story, and experienced the process of feeling for others, forgiving and being forgiven.
After a full day of the classes, the teachers and children played “Check Identity” and “Eagle Grab Chicken” games on the playground. The kids laughed and screamed with joy. With that, today’s lesson ended happily.
