On the morning of September 14, the opening ceremony of the National Training Program (2018) of secondary school English teachers from rural areas was held in the 1st floor lobby of International Exchange Building on our university. Young teachers from 99 rural schools across the country will systematically learn knowledge and skills related to middle school English classroom teaching in 8 days.

All students attended the opening ceremony.

Yin Xiuli, Dean of English department of our university, warmly welcomed the participants. She introduced the school’s educational philosophy and development process, explained the significance and far-reaching impact of the National Training Program, and voiced hope that the students could learn to use the knowledge and spend a fruitful and wonderful time studying at our university. Zuo Yuling, deputy director of the Academic Affairs Office, introduced the training process and rules and regulations in detail.

Li Minghua, a teacher from Dongliao County Experimental Middle School, gave a representative speech. She voiced that in addition to fulfilling the primary responsibilities of being a teacher, teachers should continue to study and gain the new ideas and methodologies. This way they can step forward with society and respond to new educational policies and guidelines. She expressed gratitude to HuaQiao for designing a training course and providing a comfortable and excellent learning and living environment, and she made a promise that she and all other members would value this opportunity and try their best to study hard and challenge themselves.

Professor Liu Haimin gave a report.

Subsequently, Professor Liu Haimin, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Northeast Normal University and Vice President, gave a subjective report on "Quality Teaching and Excellent Teachers". He proposed that teachers should integrate their personal work with national development in their daily teaching. This is because innovation in teaching and reform requires systematic organization as well as rich teaching content, which closely relate to the condition of the nation. He considered reflection on the merits and insufficiencies of one’s teaching to be an important part of improving the quality of one’s teaching.

Teacher Zhou Qijun of the Third Middle School of Weinan City believes that Professor’s speech was so practical and functional that he would apply these thoughts and theory efficiently into his teaching. Finally, he highly praised this program and expressed his sincere thanks to the whole staff. 

After the class, Professor Liu Haimin made comments to this plan. He highly praised our university for our well-prepared curriculum and teaching atmosphere, and he strongly affirmed the students’ considerable enthusiasm and diligence.

The students participated in an additional activity.

In the afternoon, an additional activity of the training class took place in the experimental building. Under the supervision of Meng Wei, director of the Mental Health Education Center of our school, lots of games and tasks including sound simulation, handshakes, “comfortable circle”, “strong winds blow”, “trust games”, choruses and others were finished by all the students. They then shared their personal feelings about this activity with other members.

Director Meng Wei said that this training aims to integrate the whole group while displaying a new classroom teaching model in hopes of helping students learn better.

The additional training activity was highly praised by all the participants. According to the participants, they once believed that it would be boring to study in an unfamiliar environment and didn’t expect to have such an activity. It allowed the students to meet many of their peers and learn from one another and share experiences. As a result, they look forward to attending the next session.