Li Wenhua, principal of Wuhan Yucai No. 2 Primary School: Education is to respect the law

【The principal said】

Editor's note: A good principal is a good school, "Super Classroom" Weekly launched the "Principal Says" column, focusing on influential and well-known principals, discovering new principals with achievements, showing the wisdom of Wuhan primary and secondary school principals, the concept of running a school, and new ideas and new explorations in school management.

Principal's Business Card:

Li Wenhua, principal of Wuhan Yucai No.2 Primary School. Backbone teacher of Hubei Province, excellent moral teacher of Hubei Province, discipline leader of Wuhan City, winner of Wuhan May Day Labor Medal. From 33 years of teaching, 27 years of school administration. Leading the two talents of the whole sports to practice the characteristic education model of "Tongcheng Education" in a down-to-earth manner, the school, students and teachers have won a number of high-level awards at home and abroad. Today, the school has won a wide social reputation with the pattern of "one school and three districts" and the high-quality school running effect.

Li Wenhua, principal of Wuhan Yucai No. 2 Primary School, had a cordial exchange with the students.

What is education? The longer you have been engaged in education management, the stronger you feel that no matter how the times change, no matter how innovative the concept, the most important thing in education is to respect the law. Respect the law of children's growth, respect the law of educational development, and do a good job in every educational routine.

How to take care of nature

Let students "play famous"?

In July 2020, the college entrance examination, which had been postponed for one month due to the epidemic, handed over five "zero" high-scoring answer sheets. A group of children who have just left the examination room meet to return to Yucai Second Elementary School to visit their childhood teacher. Among them, there is Xia Qiyang, the first place in the Wuhan College Entrance Examination and a graduate of our school in 2014. He is what everyone calls "someone else's child", and such a child is by no means a child who can only read, they are children who can learn and play.

I have always believed that it is the nature of children to love to play, and children who can play will learn. Education is to respect the law and guide them to develop their nature and potential into the ability to adapt to future social development.

With that in mind, we've been exploring and building – lessons and learning spaces that make kids "famous for playing". In the modern "Creative Workshop", children feel the joy of creating the future in interesting courses such as artificial intelligence, robot magic box, micro-film production, etc.; interactive "Intangible Cultural Heritage Park" and "Chu Opera Stage", as well as printmaking, paper cutting, lion and dragon dance, let children feel the influence of traditional culture; "HAPPY, Cool Fort" is a fitness training activity area, becoming one of the children's favorite places to go, and the name is also taken by the children themselves!

In addition, combined with the study of language extended reading, the school has opened a "Reading Space" and "Electronic Reading Space". Combining the thinking and creativity course of mathematics, the "Math Square" has been remodeled, which has books that children like, as well as interesting mathematical elements such as "digital sofas" and "math stamps". These spaces expand and cultivate language literacy, focus on the training of mathematical thinking ability, and make the recess more fun and interesting.

Now, we have maximized the release of educational energy in every physical space, and offer more than 70 types of school-based courses. Here, children play with robots, play with art, play with inventions... Let education return to children's nature, expand multiple channels, students choose the most suitable growth path in exploration, "play" out of tricks, "play" famous.

What kind of posture should the school take in the face of parents' demands?

In the process of running a school, it is inevitable to encounter home-school contradictions. In order to strengthen communication and exchanges between each other and form an educational synergy, most schools have established parent committees at all levels, and the same is true of our school. Once, when I was attending a sixth-grade parent committee symposium, parents threw up a difficult question: the desks and chairs in the classroom are old, can the school replace them? Frankly, as a principal, I have my concerns: Sixth graders have a few months to graduate, and the tables and chairs of the sixth grade are the most vulnerable to "injury" in the past. Is it appropriate to change now? However, after thinking about it for a while, I replied to everyone on the spot: Replace all the sixth-graders with new tables and chairs.

Hearing this news, the parents of the sixth grade cheered in the group, and the children were particularly happy. What I didn't expect was that parents and children took the initiative to launch an initiative calling on everyone to cherish the new table and chair, and organized each child to sign the proposal. Seeing the names on the proposal, I was both surprised and moved.

The student desks and chairs are old, and it is not a simple question of "change or not change". It is necessary to start from the perspective of education administrators and weigh them from the perspective of education partners, and look at the demands of parents with "empathy". These two positions are not opposing, but can achieve a win-win situation.

Return to the true nature of growth, understand the voice of parents with a heart, and do not let the home-school communication become flavorful or formal. In the "marathon" of growing up, we are all the same group of people who shout "cheer" to our children together. The loud and beautiful harmony of home and school eventually converges into the driving force and acceleration of the child's progress.

Select "School District Room" and meet good teachers

Which is more important?

I have always believed that a good school and a group of excellent teachers are not achieved overnight, without the tempering of practice and the infiltration of culture, it is impossible to achieve famous schools and famous teachers. The slogans of "three years to achieve famous schools" and "five years to achieve famous teachers" obviously do not respect the laws of education.

I would like to tell you about a math teaching and research activity that I audited.

This teaching and research is like a lesson. There were math teachers on the stage, and there were math teachers sitting on the stage. The teacher on the stage is explaining the thinking method of a problem, and the teacher in the audience is taking notes. I glanced at the teacher sitting next to me and found that her book was already full of solutions, and one problem was marked with at least two different solutions. This "teaching and research class" is very fulfilling, there are two teachers before and after the lecture, after the explanation, no matter how young or old, each teacher also completed a small test paper on the spot, and 40 minutes passed quickly. At this time, the director of teaching, the organizer of this section of the "teaching and research class", gave each teacher another homework assignment: around the method described today, four interesting mathematical problems were conceived, and they must be original.

This "teaching and research lesson" is a microcosm, which presents the real teaching and research status of teachers. In addition, I especially appreciate the "small teaching and research" that teachers often carry out between classes, and the discussions carried out independently to solve a small problem in the teaching of the day, sometimes even blushing and neck thick. Older teachers often convey to young teachers the idea that teachers should first teach students to learn to think, followed by mastering methods and bypassing categories, because the best "teaching" is to let students learn to "learn".

Returning to the original intention of education, teachers do not pursue results in a hurry, but guide students to think in a down-to-earth manner, implement the most simple teaching routines into every minute and second of the classroom, and students enjoy learning, which can achieve a group of "good teachers", and more good teachers will naturally achieve "good schools". In my opinion, choosing a school district room that is more expensive is not as good as having the opportunity to meet a good teacher who is professional and solid and caring.

The story of "Four Sugars"

What does it tell us?

Everyone knows the story of Mr. Tao Xingzhi's "four sugars" - a boy smashed his classmates with mud blocks, did not receive criticism, but rewarded four sugars successively, seemingly not to pay attention to principles, seemingly unclear rewards and punishments, but received unexpected educational effects.

Some people say that education should have a good intention, and the premise of good faith is that teachers know how to look at children head-on; education should have a sincere prophet, and prophet means that teachers can see the problem more comprehensively and deeply.

Here to share a small story of "borrowing 1 point" between teachers and students. Each test students are very concerned about their grades, 97 points and 98 points are not much different for students, but 89 and 90 points are quite different for some students, because mothers often say to their children, "You have to score more than 90 points this time." This means getting approval from parents. When a Chinese teacher was grading a quiz for a student, she found that a little girl in the class scored 89 points, and the teacher knew the child very well, which was a child who was in the middle of the class. Of course, teachers also know that giving encouragement and affirmation to children at this time is more important than the score itself. So, the teacher made a heart-warming little move, gave the child 90 points on the test paper, and then pulled the child aside and quietly told the child: "Borrow 1 point, pay it back next time." In the end, the children increased a lot of learning motivation because of the teacher's kind actions! This teacher "borrows 1 point" to the child is not only a score, but also self-confidence, is the motivation to encourage the child to move forward, "next time" is not only an advice, but also a kind of encouragement and expectation.

"Four sugars" and "borrow 1 point" are teachers with a kind heart to encourage children to grow, true education is the heart between teachers and students, when the teacher from the child's point of view, to the maximum understanding of the individual needs of different children, can make love, equality, respect and other beautiful education slowly bloom, but also so that deep and deep educational actions can have branches to inhabit.

The child enters the first grade

What do parents need to know?

Shortly after the start of school, I invited first-grade parent representatives to join me for lunch. Parents were surprised to learn that more than 3,000 teachers and students were eating at the same time. They invariably took out their mobile phones to record the children's meals that day: the canteen master pushed the dining car and lined up into the classrooms to deliver meals.

Eating and talking with parents, we talked not only about lunch, but also about learning.

The school pairs three dishes with meat and vegetables every day, and also arranges multigrain rice, and publishes recipes through the website every week, and the diet committee reviews and adjusts the recipes. Canteen masters and life teachers eat at least half an hour in advance every day to ensure the safety of children's food. The tableware used by children every day is a disinfectant bowl and spoon specially hired by the school to be distributed by a professional company, which is safe and secure.

Parents also said that they felt that there was not much homework in school, and some were worried that their children would not have enough to eat. I also took the opportunity of the common lunch to talk to parents: lower grade children focus on the cultivation of habits and interests, as long as they follow the teacher's steps, it is best to remain interested in learning. If your child has more energy, he can explore other interests. It is especially not recommended that parents start a variety of "Peiyou" with their children in the first grade, the child's physical and mental exhaustion, affecting the normal learning of the school, if there is a boredom psychology at the beginning, it will not be worth the loss!

For the first-grade babies, I also talked about a few suggestions: sit still - know that you have changed from kindergarten to primary school students, adapt to the role change, can sit down, and cultivate the habit of concentration; reading up - Chinese textbooks increase the content of reading and ancient poems, and pay attention to the cultivation of children's reading ability, so the school advocates daily morning reading, lunch reading, and returning home to be able to read together; will listen - listen to the requirements of the teacher, listen to all kinds of learning content, listen to the things you need to know; do - In addition, parents are specially instructed to let their children do what they want to do, and to cultivate good self-care and self-reliance is important at the primary school level. For example, if a child always does not clean up his school supplies, and often throws them around, parents will not tire of helping to send them - parents who do not know how to let go, the child will never grow up. Therefore, from the first grade onwards, it is expected that parents can help their children to "wean" and let their children have the ability to walk independently.

The rules of returning to the children's world should give children time to "catch their breath" and let children grow up calmly! In this process, parents must have concentration, do not always compare their children with other people's children, you have to believe that your children are unique, learn to give children space, learn to wait slowly, and believe that your children will definitely surprise you!

Loud sounds, elephants invisible. Only by returning to children's nature, returning to the true nature of growth, and returning to the original intention of education can we do basic education. Only by practicing nature and respecting the law can each child draw on the strength to benefit a lifetime.

(Wen | Principal of Wuhan Yucai No.2 Primary School Li Wenhua)

【Editor: Shu Xiao】