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peninsula omnimedia reporter liu xuelian

step out of the ivory tower①

as college freshmen start their studies and enter their ivory towers, during the past summer, college students have stepped out of their ivory towers. they teach and go into the community, helping others while also tempering themselves. let us listen to their stories.

"the story begins with 'i must go to teach once,'" this is the top text on wang yuheng's wechat moments, a student at the school of physical sciences of qingdao university, along with four photos of him teaching in xinjiang this summer.

this summer, the "qingqiweiguang, material aid to xinjiang" practice group of the school of physical sciences of qingdao university set off from qingdao to shule county, kashgar prefecture, xinjiang uygur autonomous region for a 14-day teaching activity. wang yuheng was a member of the teaching group.

after the new semester starts next week, wang yuheng will return to campus with his classmates and become a sophomore. however, his two-week teaching experience in xinjiang during the summer vacation will make him savor it for a long time.

why go to xinjiang to teach?

when wang yuheng signed up to teach in xinjiang this summer, he didn't expect there would be so many competitors.

"this project was carried out during the summer vacation when everyone was resting, and it was carried out in xinjiang, which is very far away.”when wang yuheng first started to sign up, he thought that not many classmates would sign up, but in fact everyone signed up very actively, and the popularity of the registration shocked him.

the counselors from the school of physical sciences of qingdao university interviewed the applicants one by one and screened them layer by layer. the first question in the interview was "why do you want to teach in xinjiang?"”？

wang yuheng actually thought about this seemingly simple question for a long time before signing up, and asked himself many times: do i really want to give up my summer vacation life? what can i do there?

after struggling for a few days, wang yuheng finally made up his mind to sign up. he said that there were two reasons that supported his decision. one was that when he was very young, he saw the photo of the big-eyed girl from the hope project, which touched his heart and planted the seeds of his desire to teach in remote areas. in addition, wang yuheng, who has been growing up in a happy and well-off family, always wanted to pass on his happiness and help some children. "this is a very good opportunity to realize my own ideals and my own life value.”

after selection, a ten-member xinjiang teaching team was formed, including counselor hao ping. the members came from different majors, backgrounds, and regions of the school of physics and technology of qingdao university, but they all had a passion for education.

give full play to professional advantages and feel a sense of accomplishment

what can we do in xinjiang? this question was considered more than once by wang yuheng when he was struggling to sign up. this is also a question that the teaching team pays special attention to. what should we bring to the children in xinjiang when we go to such a faraway place to teach? after many discussions, the teaching team decided to bring small physics experiments, small knowledge and traditional culture from the coastal area of ​​qingdao to the inland kashgar area of ​​xinjiang based on their own physics characteristics. everyone prepared a lot of interesting small physics experiments and carried out a series of preliminary preparations such as lesson preparation and ppt production.

flowering trees, rainbow rain, small submarine volcanoes, atmospheric pressure fountains... colorful and incredible popular science experiments are performed in the teaching classroom every day. volunteers open the door to the world of science for primary school students through interesting scientific phenomena. in addition, the teaching group also brings courses on excellent traditional chinese culture such as blue and white porcelain, paper quilling, facial makeup, filial piety culture, and ba duan jin.

when wang yuheng was teaching children in xinjiang, there was one thing that made him feel particularly accomplished. "it was the second day of teaching, and i was preparing for class at the small table in front of the classroom, and then a teacher from the community came over and asked me if i could show a small experiment to a child first.”wang yuheng said that the little girl's grandfather picked her up at the community gate to take her to dance class, but she refused to leave and wanted to finish the small experimental class.

at that moment, wang yuheng felt that he understood the meaning of teaching in remote areas.

the touching moment of the dedicated teaching bicycle

before going to xinjiang, wang yuheng admitted that he had some small misunderstandings about xinjiang. "i thought that going to xinjiang to teach might mean going to those deep mountains, where there might be no signal, no internet, and the facilities would not be very convenient.”however, after the teaching group took a three- or four-day train ride to xinjiang, wang yuheng discovered that the real xinjiang was completely different from what he had imagined. there was relatively complete infrastructure and the architecture had a very strong xinjiang style.

wang yuheng is teaching children in xinjiang.

during his teaching period in xinjiang, wang yuheng encountered many touching things, and the most memorable one was the special bicycle for teaching.

"after we arrived in xinjiang, the local residents arranged dormitories for us. however, the dormitories were quite a distance away from the community where we took classes, so they also provided each of us with a bicycle.”wang yuheng remembers that when he and two classmates rode bicycles to purchase teaching materials, they were wearing their own clothes and not volunteer uniforms, thinking that no one would know that they were there to teach.

as a result, they arrived at the door of a store and were about to ask if the store owner had the teaching materials they wanted, but he first asked them if they came to xinjiang to teach.

wang yuheng curiously asked the shop owner how he knew their identities. the shop owner said that every year the teachers who come to xinjiang to teach ride such bicycles.

"the boss enthusiastically showed us the way and told us where we could buy what we wanted. when we were about to continue riding our bikes, he kept holding my hand and thanked us for coming to xinjiang to teach.”wang yuheng said that at that moment, the students were deeply touched and felt that they must do something more.

a promise to the children in xinjiang

the most touching thing about teaching in xinjiang is the relationship i developed with the local children.

“when we were leaving, the children were very reluctant to let us go. they wrote us many letters and promised us that they would study hard and go to college outside to see the outside world.”wang yuheng said that he felt tears in his eyes when he saw the children writing letters to them. the children were in the lower grades of primary school or kindergarten age, and had just started learning to write chinese characters. they didn't know how to write some characters, so they used pinyin instead. although the characters were a little crooked, wang yuheng saw the children's reluctance to leave and their yearning for the outside world from these characters.

because the teaching group only stayed in xinjiang for 14 days, the team felt that this teaching time was far from enough, so the teaching group arranged for each volunteer to pair up with local children for assistance activities. "we kept their contact information and added their parents' wechat.”wang yuheng said that even after the teaching team leaves, if the children have difficulties in their studies or other problems, they can contact them, and they will give all the help they can.

letters written by children from xinjiang when they left.

it has been a while since wang yuheng returned to qingdao from xinjiang, and he has been in contact with the children in xinjiang. "they often call to tell me what happened recently, what funny things they encountered, or what sad things they encountered.”wang yuheng felt that in just 14 days of teaching, a part of his life had become inextricably linked to xinjiang.