At the church I grew up in, we always had “testimony time” after worship. After singing songs, they’d open the floor for anyone to share “a testimony” or a story from the week to encourage the entire congregation. Our services could sometimes push 2-3 hours in length, but testimony time was always entertaining, unexpected, and heartening.
Well, several weeks ago after a series of teaching tips about student effort and teacher feedback, I received the most wonderfully unexpected email from our new Mandarin teacher, Tong. Tong’s words feature the best of that “testimony tradition,” so much so that I surprised myself by blinking back tears by the time I got to the end of her email. I was so moved I asked if I could share it with our community in this month’s blog blast. Thank you, Tong; we are so glad to have you at St. Andrew’s!
When I received this email [of weekly teaching tips] I just thought of the three students who have be learning in our Mandarin class. I am so glad to share with you how they made the progress in the first month of this semester.
Actually, at the beginning, I was very worried about their learning situation. The girls haven’t had the motivation and the boy had a strong thirst for knowledge but cannot find a way to learn. They are already in 11th grade and don’t have time to waste. So, I have decided to cram them with knowledge this semester and see if they can break through themselves. Anyway, it won’t be a bad outcome.
I made a schedule to complete one lesson every two weeks and two lessons in one month (this is their learning progress from the previous semester)and more additional knowledge points we encounter. I gave them homework and asked them to do the preview, I pushed them to do more but they didn’t finish it very well.
When we finished the first lesson we had a quiz, not at all surprised, they all got a very poor score. Yes！That’s the pressure I want to put on them.
Then I talked to them and asked if they felt any pressure? Is there too much homework?
But their answers surprised me. One girl said:“ No, Miss Tong, I am good. There isn’t much homework, I think I can do better！”OK, let’s see where it goes, then we can redo the quizzes. This time they all got good grade!
They saw how much effort can lead to as many results as possible！Not only that, they also proved to me that they have the ability to accept more knowledge！After that, they showed enough motivation and fighting spirit.
During the second lesson, they no longer needed a lot of push from me to complete their assignments on time and were more focused in the classroom. In our second writing class yesterday, when we saw together the visible progress we made compared to their first writing, they were extremely happy, I praised the whole class fiercely!
Yes！ Perhaps grades are important, and attending a good university is important, but I believe true happiness comes from the results of hard work. Isn’t this process the most enjoyable for us?
This is my reflection this morning and I wanted to share it with you！ I am very lucky to be able to join this wonderful family. Thank you all for bringing me so much emotion. Let’s continue to work hard and see how these students can still surprise me！
Thank you for listening！
Best，
Tong