Spring 2020 is coming. The students and teachers of SHSID primary and middle school have embarked on an unprecedented semester. In response to the direction of the Ministry of Education on “Combating the Epidemic, Suspension of Schools but Not of Learning”, all our primary and middle school teachers have designed and developed various meaningful online teaching activities and projects, based on the characteristics of different subjects and of the students in different educational stages. It is these collaborative learning activities that connect our students and teachers around the world.

Grade 1-3

All the primary students at SHSID have put great enthusiasm and efforts into the E-learning on the LC platform starting from March 2. Every child has adapted to this exciting and effective new learning experience veryquickly. So far, almost everyone is able to watch the videos on different subjects and hand in homework online all by themselves. That is also a really valuable opportunity to raise the students’ independent learning skills. Most of the students have raised the good habit of getting up early in the morning, which plays a crucial part in preparing them for their normal school lives later on.

Most of the parents think the LC E-learning platform is easy to operate and suitable for the young children because of the funny design on every subject’s content. Many kinds of interactions such as Sing With Me and Let’s Make The Experiment made the online course really attractive for the primary students. Some eyesight protection tips and parent-child exercises on PE is suitable for the young children’s E-learning experience as well.

The primary teachers have thought of many interesting and effective ways of communicating with the students as a team. Some teachers did online talent show through Zoom meeting and other teachers called the parents together for an online parent meet to help the parents solve all kinds of problems on E-learning. We all believe that all the primary teachers, students, and their parent will work together with love and faith to continue with our school fun online!

Grade 4-5

In fourth and fifth grades, a series of interesting, interactive, and disciplinary online courses have been designed according to the needs of the students. Utilizing the technical advantages of the LC platform, a unified curriculum framework has been constructed, and a friendly interface has been carefully designed to facilitate students’ search and participation in curriculum learning.

The course is rich in teaching content and diversified means. On the premise of solid basic knowledge, knowledge-based game sections have been added, such as passing the quizzes and story-line tandem answers. Students have built their own learning communities through the online platform. When encountering online learning problems, they can use the message function on the platform to directly contact subject teachers, or they can post in course Q&A for help.

The autonomous learning ability of students has been improving. According to the data feedback, students’ participation in online learning is very high, and everyone participates independently. Parents and students also expressed high satisfaction with online courses through questionnaires. We encourage students to show their online learning results through forum exchanges and to screen out outstanding works and projects through online voting, which improves students’ enthusiasm for learning.Meanwhile, there is no shortage of offline teacher-student communication. We regularly hold online class meetings to share recent learning experiences. Students formed study groups on their own and conducted topical learning seminars each week to help each other solve learning problems.

Facing the new challenge of online teaching, our teachers have also formed an effective learning team. Teachers continuously optimize their self-knowledge system, cut through obstacles, cooperate, overcome all difficulties, record high-quality teaching videos, and beautify the course interface in order to improve students’ learning experience of online courses.

Pudong Campus

The unexpected COVID-19 epidemic has disrupted the pace of school education nationwide. Teachers at SHSID Pudong Campus have already taken action to create teaching plans and prepare online teaching materials in advance for students.

On March 2, the first day of the official online education, Ms. Liu, director of Pudong campus, delivered a video message to encourage students to keep regular hours, study hard, and be brave to meet challenges and solve problems. On the LinkedClassroom platform, students can learn with teachers through the video classes and numerous types of learning content and resources. In addition to the academic courses, there are also interesting sports games, music and dance learning, creative art crafts, computer design games and other fun optional courses on the platform for students to explore at home in their free time. Meanwhile, homeroom teachers are also trying every means to organize and carry out all kinds of activities to strengthen class cohesion and connection, such as class meeting on ZOOM, weekly catch-up with students, fun PG activities and more, which students all actively engaged in.

Even if there is distance between students and teachers, their hearts are always together. “The online classes are quite good!” “The activities you and the other teachers designed are fun and interesting!” Encouraged by students and parents, we have more confidence and enthusiasm to provide better online education. We hope we can meet together at Pudong campus soon!

Grade 6-8

While the whole country is united to fight against COVID-19, the teachers of SHSID middle school are using actual actions to practice “ensuring learning undisrupted when classes are disrupted”. In order to ensure that students can continue to obtain high-quality learning resources, all the teachers worked together to adjust the teaching content and curriculum framework day and night and used the LinkedClassroom online teaching platform to carry out online education and teaching in the new semester. Guided by the concept of cultivating independent learners, teachers have built a learning framework that can guide students to learn independently, ensuring that none of our students are left behind, and every subject has prepared a variety of learning content. By the time of publication, there were more than 150 online courses in all grades. At the same time, the courses are constantly being optimized and grown and the school courses will be fully launched in the shortest time. Let us enjoy these courses together.

In order to ensure that students can study at home better, the homeroom teachers and grade teachers insisted on daily P&B classes and weekly YD classes. In addition, each grade also organized rich and interesting activities.

In the 6th grade, two forums were designed on health knowledge and good article sharing. Students can post their thoughts and feelings during the holiday on the forums. Active online interaction not only decreases the distance between teachers and students, but also opens up a new world of homeroom activities. In order to encourage students to exercise a lot while studying, the 6th grade teachers also launched a Do You Dare To Challenge teacher-student competition. For example, in the recent week, many students have challenged Mr. Mathis who did 16 push-ups in 30 seconds!

The 7th grade teachers organized a variety of activities, such as the Chinese and English essay competition with the theme of “Unusual Vacations”, the class logo and class name design competition to enhance the sense of collective honor of the students, 30-second rope jumping competition to encourage students to do exercise, a book report every two weeks, and the exhibition of outstanding works of students’ to enhance their artistic and cultural development. Teachers not only prepared various badges for students to enhance their sense of accomplishment at home, but also prepared eye exercises to protect their eyesight. The 7th grade students responded positively at home by not only becoming better independent learners in their studies, but also developing their ability in all aspects.

In the 8th grade, except for the schoolwork, students also actively conceived various novel ideas and continued to carry out service learning activities. For example, the Story Brothers and Sisters service learning group continued to tell stories to students on the public account by recording audio stories. 8 (1) Chloe created the After-Glow service learning group to share colorful articles such as original reading notes, film reviews, travel notes, etc. on the public account. SHSID Gazette's group members are innovative and plan to publish an electronic newspaper to share interesting knowledge and insights for students and bring joy and laughter to their study life at home.

Teachers and classmates have gained growth from the online education and teaching. They faced challenges and difficulties, but they actively responded to the challenges. We believe that with the joint efforts of teachers and students throughout the period, we will create a better future.

Online teaching is an effective practice for all students and teachers of SHSID primary and middle school to cultivate responsible global citizens and independent learners. We hope that we can meet each other soon on the beautiful campus of SHSID!

(Written by Jane Wu, Shen Jingfeng, Deng Yan, Du Tong, Gu Yuting, Ma Xinyu Pictures by Teachers and Parents)