Interview with No. 13
Zhang Xiaobo
Shileiao Central Primary School, Macheng City, Hubei Province
teacher
Every Wednesday, Mr. Zhang Xiaobo would walk into the teacher's office earlier and prepare the pen and paper picture book in an orderly manner. In the eyes of the children's great expectations, she arrived at the "Bazaar One Hour After Class" aesthetic education classroom on time, turned on the multimedia equipment, and together with the professional art teacher of the live class, unveiled the theme of this week's surprise painting.
Project Introduction
The "Bazaar One Hour After School" aesthetic education public welfare project aims to alleviate and improve the problem of uneven distribution of educational resources through the development of aesthetic education courses, the cultivation of rural aesthetic education teachers, and the provision of aesthetic education teaching equipment, so that more rural children can receive the influence of aesthetic education and help the development of rural aesthetic education.
As of October 2021, the project has transformed and put into use the Bazaar aesthetic education classrooms in 403 rural schools in 16 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, supplementing and enriching the children's aesthetic education life by carrying out graded aesthetic education courses such as art, reading and chorus in the aesthetic education classrooms.
In the sound of the color pen, all kinds of "brain hole" stories were presented, until the bell rang at the end of the class, they reluctantly put down the paper and pencil.
Few people know that behind the cute and playful paintings, children undergo an artistic metamorphosis from "matchsticks" to color cartoons.
Teacher Zhang told the story of beauty from a fairy and fluttering cartoon painting that happened in a rural school.
Mid-Autumn Festival, the most suitable romantic imagination
Love, meet here
In the autumn of 2013, the cold air in Hubei Province was not cold for Zhang Xiaobo, who is accustomed to the climate of Inner Mongolia.
Almost crossing most of China, she came to this small city with rolling hills, and the climate and scenery that were very different from the north made her feel a different kind of warmth and peace of mind.
With a passion for education, she chose to become a village school teacher.
A few years ago, when she first walked into the campus as a teacher, although she had imagined how simple the school building would be countless times, she was still shocked by the sight in front of her: the dormitory building was the most common green tile house in the countryside, the older roof was dilapidated, and she could glimpse a corner of the sky; the paths and playgrounds interspersed on the campus were all loess roads that everyone stepped out of, wind and dust, rain and mud.
And here, there is a group of children, looking forward to their arrival.
"Great, the new teacher is here, and the child's smiling face is more."
After many years, Teacher Zhang still remembers this exclamation of the parents of the students.
Suddenly, four young female teachers arrived, and the laughter of the children resounded through the classroom for a long time. Due to the restrictions of teaching conditions, the school has almost no ability to open "sub-subject courses" for students. Chorus songs, dancing rope, exercise exercises, and writing and drawing casually on paper are all they have come into contact with about aesthetic education.
Still, the children find their love in these gaps. She remembered very clearly that at that time, a naughty boy in the class who always went out to the playground to run wildly, and then his favorite thing to do was to take a pencil, draw one stroke at a time, and draw a stickman-like comic strip behind the homework book with great care, show it to the teachers and classmates like a show, and then quietly wipe it off, leaving a space for the next creation.
The most monotonous lines, with his hands dancing, the little man plays basketball and runs in this story, and in the next story becomes a great general, commanding a group of soldiers, pushing cannons to attack the city and plunder the ground.
"How did you come up with all this?" Once, Teacher Zhang deliberately "grabbed" the boy and expressed curiosity about his painting inspiration, and the little painter said generously: "It's all my own thoughts, I think (painting) is like this, fun." ”
Only then did she realize that the pursuit of "beauty" and "fun" had long been deeply rooted in the child's heart, and even if the conditions were simple, they still could not erase this almost instinctive expectation.
"Children can draw a little bit," she often thinks, "so, so much after-school time, and interest in drawing by hand, will not be wasted." ”
In 2015, the school's teachers and children ushered in a great news, the classroom as a whole was renovated, the neat and standardized teaching building rose from the ground, the empty field where the dust fluttered in the past was replaced by a standardized playground, the comprehensive activity room, library, art room and other supporting teaching facilities were perfected in place, and the music, art, calligraphy and other aesthetic education courses were opened one after another, which means that students will have a safer and more abundant space to grow, "They have to learn, have to play, and no child feels that the school is in trouble with redecoating." Every day is a joy and hope that the campus environment will quickly become better and more beautiful. ”
A new campus environment
It was in this year that Teacher Zhang became an art teacher for the children of the whole school. At this moment, the children's long-accumulated creative enthusiasm completely exploded, and various art assignments were piled up on the desks. Outside the classroom, she encourages students to do more, create more, and integrate their interest in art into life, she presided over the "dormitory culture competition" held by the class, which was actively supported by everyone, both boys and girls, took the initiative to find her to receive art materials, and worked together to decorate the simple dormitory.
Flowers and trees bloom and the fragrance comes from within
The blue ocean carries blessings and hopes
"I was so surprised, I really didn't expect them to be so capable!" A dormitory with cartoon or elegant style was finally presented, and Teacher Zhang was deeply shocked by the children's aesthetic ability.
Since then, she has paid special attention to the children's after-school activities, and has successively added a lot of basic painting materials for them at her own expense, and sometimes stays in the classroom to accompany the lower grade students to read stories and draw.
"Cats bask in the sun with their friends, they are not alone."
Seeing that the children have changed from having no entertainment to liking and drawing, Teacher Zhang has been quite pleased, but she did not expect that the greater "transformation" was actually waiting behind.
"I found the key to open my heart"
"There were more and more children painting in school, and I thought it would be nice to have more professional art classes for the children, and I was really looking forward to it."
In 2021, "Bazaar After Class" entered the campus, and Teacher Zhang quickly "claimed" the position of responsible for the curriculum and took the children to learn lively.
Exclusive aesthetic education space for children to play and explore
Some teachers believe that the curriculum form of the Bazaar aesthetic education class is not much different from the school teaching, the classroom atmosphere is very lively, and it is difficult to manage the class order, but Teacher Zhang does not think so.
In her children, she sees the "autonomy" that arises naturally from happiness.
"The kids are smart, attentive to things they're interested in, and do a good job. Like the storytelling session of each lesson, they will find their own friends to divide into groups before the class and perform in order. ”
What impressed her most was a story called "Osmanthus Rain". In the set-up class performance, the children will go to the podium to imitate the appearance of shaking the osmanthus tree. There is no pre-class worry about pushing and shoving, they laugh and applause with each other, or jump, or shake, or make a tree climbing posture, each showing their skills, and together with their partners around the osmanthus tree in the story, looking forward to a fragrant flower rain. In the week or two after class, there are still children who draw osmanthus flowers in their after-school work.
Playing into it, it is even more important to keep the daily teaching of beauty in mind - because chasing and playing is "not beautiful", hurting classmates is "not good". Aesthetic education classes belong to everyone and should be cherished.
Creation is "immersed in hard work" and is a collective effort
Beauty is an enlightenment and a key to the heart.
In the class led by Teacher Zhang, there is a little girl Xiaomei (pseudonym) who is very introverted. Avoiding learning and being alone after class is her long-standing habit, and the teacher always does not say a word when asking questions. Parents are worried about her school status and don't know how to guide her.
After contacting Basha's class, Teacher Zhang thought that he could try to talk to her by reading picture books and drawing pictures.
"Every day, I would accompany her to read a picture book." Pulling open the desk drawer, Teacher Zhang prepared a picture book for the little girl in the morning with multiple themes: "However, this book must be personally picked up by her." ”
Taking advantage of the opportunity to return the book, Teacher Zhang would always talk to her more than two words. Inadvertently, she found Xiaomei sandwiched in the book's drawing paper, on which was her copy of the contents of the picture book. Even if the handwriting is simple and immature, Teacher Zhang still feels that she is serious about painting.
As a result, Xiaomei was often encouraged to become a "compulsory course" for Teacher Zhang every day, and Xiaomei gradually found some bravery in art creation, and the painting content changed from black and white pencil drawings in a corner to bright and lively colors.
In the heart of every little girl, there is a princess of her own
One morning, when Xiaomei was borrowing a book, she handed her a painting with a cute cartoon doll.
"You like to draw little princesses, don't you?" Teacher Zhang asked gently.
"Well, like. Draw it down and show it to the teacher, thank you. Xiaomei was still speaking so quietly, only this time, there was a little more anticipation and bravery in her words.
Now, this painting is cherished by Teacher Zhang in a drawer and placed together with a picture book.
"I think this is also the change that 'beauty' brings to some special children in a subtle way, and they can also find a piece of the sky that belongs to the soul in beautiful stories and pictures."
In the future, beauty will continue
Do you like art classes? What do you think is beauty?
After a casual chat after class, I opened the children's message box about the aesthetic education class:
"Loved it! I think I have a lot of creative ideas! ”
"Teacher! Last time you praised me for drawing more professionally! ”
"I like to draw more, and I want to draw comics and draw small stories in the future!"
In the twittering discussion, Teacher Zhang unexpectedly found that this group of children who love to draw have found their own aesthetic perception in the game of the same color.
Fairy tales are the most popular creative theme among children
A drop of ink, a stain on the clothes, a splash of ink on the paper. Beauty is the idea of timely moderation and placement. In Teacher Zhang's view, any aesthetic education class that children learn more can help them in the future, looking at the world from a diverse, broad and appropriate perspective, and have more possibilities.
In the future, Teacher Zhang plans to invite the gold ware making skills of the local old craftsmen in Macheng into the classroom, and bring this group of "post-10s" children to feel the inheritance and brilliance of traditional culture together.
"Drawing all the way, next year, the children in the class will be the graduation grade." I hope that their growth is happy, learn more things, they have a good future, I will feel very good, these efforts are worth it. ”
The birds with fluttering wings are about to leave the nest, the world outside the mountain is close at hand, and Teacher Zhang is deeply looking forward to the children's companionship with the power of beauty and rush to a new life journey.
Producer: CY
Editor-in-charge: Zhe Zhe
Written and edited by: Badger Badger