The final round of the 6th SHSID Young Teachers Contest , which takes place every four years, was held in Zhentao Building in the afternoon on June 11th, 2021. In the preliminary round held on May 22nd, 12 contestants stood out from nearly 50 young teachers in high school group as well as music, sports and arts groups and entered the final round.

The final round was held on two venues. Each contestant was given 15 minutes to present 40-60 minutes class. Department heads from SHS local division also came and watched the contest. Together with teachers form the international division, they exchanged ideas about teaching strategies and also witnessed the brilliant presentation and rapid growth of SHSID young teachers.

DEVELOPMENT

Contestants from the social science group, mathematics group and natural science group organized their classes over the key concept—“Development”.

“Development” is an important concept in various important issues of science research and social reality. Ms. Zeng from biology group demonstrated how the developing process of stem cells is used in new medical therapies. Ms. Yao from physics group discussed about the development logic of Quantum Mechanics by illustrating the methods of Double-silt Experiment to the audience. Ms. Chen from economics group focused on the effects of World Bank providing aid as a way to alleviate poverty in developing countries.

Students are in the process of development. Each discipline has a unique development logic. Ms. Zhu from mathematics group analyzed the Kakeya needle problem to show how daily life problem is modeled into mathematics framwork. Ms. Yuan from mathematics group designed several games to help students develop a network of knowledge of conditional probability. Ms. Liu from chemistry group encouraged students to observe and interpret what had been observed, which is exactly the process chemical concepts are developed.

HARMONY

Contestants from the language group as well as music, sports and arts groups focused on another key concept—“Harmony”.

The campus atmosphere of SHSID is diverse and harmonious. Many contestants also interpreted “Harmony” from this perspective. Mrs. Li from world language group delivered a class to help the students grow into intercultural communicators through Spanish language learning. Ms. Xu from Chinese group analyzed how the promise of harmony was organized in literature works from different cultural contexts. Mr. Yang from sports group cultivated the quality of collaboration in students by mixed running training. Mr. Li from arts group demonstrated the application of western fonts in an interdisciplinary way.

The value of harmony is highly appreciated in Chinese tradition, which emphasizes a harmonious spiritual state with diversity. Several contestents dig deep into the meaning of harmony. Ms. Zhang from music group showed traditional Cai Wei Dance to express the good wishes of creating a ideal lifestyle and a harmonious world. Ms. Ang from Chinese group analysed the famous Taoism work Laozi to demonstrate the logic of the Taoism motto Dao Fa Zi Ran (logos follows the nature).

In a very limited time, 12 contestants still delivered terrific presentations. They all made sufficient preparations. The audience witnessed 12 dynamic and creative classes. The young contestants are not very rich in teaching experience, but under the guidance of their senior colleagues, they have shown rapid growth in a short time. The brilliant presentations also benefit from the continuous help of other teachers in their respective discipline department. Their excellent performances are the outcomes of collaborative wisdom of the whole pedagogical team as well.

It has already been the 6th SHSID Young Teachers Contest. In over 20 years, the contest has witnessed generations of teachers growing from youthful to mature. The two key concepts of the contest this year--- “Development” and “Harmony” , are the basic requirements of the state and the society, as well as the core concepts in the teaching and learning of all the disciplines. Furthermore, the two terms accurately summarize the educational philosophy and atmosphere of the whole pedagogic team in SHSID: we have a developed new teacher career development mechanism to construct excellent pedagogical team; we adopt passionate and diligent attitudes towards teaching to realize the humanity-centered educational philosophy; we have a diverse and harmonious campus to build the foundation for students’ personalized life-long development.

We believe that a succession of new teachers will show their talents on the stage of SHSID Young Teachers Contest in the near future!

(Written by Teaching Affairs Center of High School Pictures by Hui Liao, Jiawei Yang Reviewed by School Affairs Center of High School)