Jimu News reporter Zhou Pingying
Correspondents: Zhang Wei, Huang Xiaoyan
Intern Lexin Zhang
On the morning of September 5, 33-year-old He Liling, the fifth grade of Peizhi at Baokang County Special Education School in Hubei Province, ushered in the first class of her new semester, which was also the first lesson of her comeback less than two months after giving birth. For 10 years, as a volunteer, she has dedicated her selfless love to these children who are born with defects without taking school salaries.
Teach students a song in one lesson
At 11:05, the class bell rang, and He Liling walked into the fifth grade classroom with a smile on her face. This semester, every Thursday is her regular teaching day at the Baokang County Special Education School. She is responsible for the teaching of the "Singing and Rhythm" subject in the class. Through practical music activities, this department improves students' auditory, cognitive, language, movement, and communication skills. "Just like a normal child's language and mathematics course, this course is also the main subject in special education." Zhang Jiarong, the principal of the school, explained.
Skillfully inserting the USB flash drive, adjusting the video, He Liling chose the song "Little Happiness" as the teaching content in the first class of the new semester. Pressing the play button, the lyrics flowed along with the melody, and 14-year-old Feng Feng (pseudonym), who sat in the first row, was the first to react, shaking his head lightly, imitating the image in the video and stretching out his hands, his fingers sometimes open and sometimes closed, drawing back and forth between his side and chest, and humming intermittently in his mouth.
However, due to the large individual differences among students, not everyone can perceive and actively imitate like Fengfeng, and more children need to take the first step in learning with the help of He Liling. At present, there are only 12 fifth-grade students in the classroom. Some have autism, some have Down syndrome, and some have intellectual disabilities.
He Liling in class
11-year-old Hao Hao (not his real name) is a mildly autistic child who loves to draw and is literate, but barely communicates with people. In class, he was one of the few students who was slow to get into the learning state. He Liling was familiar with the basic situation of every student in the class, she slowly walked to Hao Hao's side, bent down and helped the boy in the chair up, "Stretch out your left hand and high-five the teacher, okay?" The sentence was repeated two or three times, and the boy finally slowly stretched out his left hand to touch the teacher.
In class, He Liling needs to closely observe each student, correct their movements and pronunciation in time, and for 40 minutes, she kept wandering between the students, and before the bell rang for the end of class, the fifth grade students sang the first line of "Little Happy" together.
He Liling said that as a teacher in a special education school, patience, carefulness and love are indispensable. As early as the beginning of teaching, due to her lack of experience, she set the teaching goal of the first lesson to teach the students the whole song "Silent Night Thoughts". However, it is such an ordinary child's enlightenment poem, the first word is taught in one lesson and not all of them are taught.
High-five and communicate with students
She still remembers the first lesson she taught in 2014, when the school had just been established. It was the first time for her to teach as a teacher, and He Liling attached great importance to it and set aside a whole day in advance to prepare courseware. However, in the classroom, faced with the situation that there were only two or three of the 12 children sitting and listening, He Liling panicked, some students were in a position to go out, and some wanted to touch the all-in-one machine for teaching out of curiosity. After that class, He Liling's self-confidence was hit.
But how can the enthusiasm for chasing dreams over the years be extinguished by a setback? He Liling took the initiative to communicate with other teachers in the school, and the words of the principal Zhang Jiarong pointed out a new direction for her. "Although these children are not young in terms of age, they have some deficiencies in language, understanding, cognition, behavior, etc. In teaching, you can try to stimulate their interest in learning from life. ”
In the second teaching, He Liling took out vivid pictures such as "rooster" and "egg", which instantly attracted the attention of the students, and some students even pointed to the pictures and imitated the rooster's crow in their mouths. He Liling seized the opportunity to further guide the students to carry out pronunciation training, and the progress of the teaching progress was much smoother than that of the first class. Since then, she has found the key to unlocking the language function of her students, and her experience and methods have become richer and richer.
Special education is slow education, and the teaching results of teachers in special education schools are not based on quantity. In He Liling's 10-year teaching career, it is often the norm to teach students a poem, a gesture or a song in a class, "I don't expect children to learn much, even if they learn a syllable, they will be very satisfied if they can communicate normally in the future." Every small improvement made by the children is a great encouragement to me. He Liling said.
One decision affects a lifetime
On the side of the bustling main street of Chengguan Town, Baokang County, there is a "Southern Furniture City Palm Pearl Furniture Mall", which is well-known in the local area. This is the foundation created by He Liling's father from scratch. He Liling's father is a native of Tianmen, when he was 17 years old, he came to Baokang alone to work hard, from carrying a flat shoulder into the mountains and countryside to make furniture, to now having his own furniture store in the city, during which it is not easy and hard, He Liling has seen it in his eyes and remembered it in his heart since he was a child.
What impressed me the most was that one year on a snowy day, she watched her father pick up a heavy flat burden and go into the mountains alone to make furniture, with thin clothes and straw sandals. Her father's back left a deep mark on her heart, which gave her a heart of compassion for the disadvantaged and a kindness to help others from an early age.
In 2010, He Liling entered Xiangyang Vocational and Technical College to study special education, and she would not have known that the decision she made by chance when filling in the volunteer application would affect her for the rest of her life.
During her studies, He Liling gained some understanding of special education and special education students, and slowly realized the difficulties of special education students and their families in the process of participating in volunteer services.
He Liling in class
In 2013, He Liling successfully graduated from school and was ecstatic to learn that a special education school was about to be established in her hometown of Baokang. However, reality forced her dreams to pause. "Lingling, I'm too old to do it, and you will continue to do this furniture city, how about it?" Looking at her father's increasingly old face, He Liling was in a dilemma.
In He Liling's memory, on a snowy winter day, the scene of her father is always distinct. Rejecting her father and letting her life's work go to waste, she can't do it anyway, but the dream of many years is also not easy to give up, isn't there a way to get the best of both worlds?
With the support and encouragement of her father, He Liling found Ye Fayuan, the principal of Baokang County Special Education School at that time, and proposed the idea of using her expertise to become a volunteer and teach children for free. After consulting the relevant departments, Principal Ye agreed to her request in consideration of the fact that the school was in urgent need of professionals for the establishment of the school. In September 2014, He Liling officially joined Baokang Special School and was given a valuable weekly coaching opportunity. In the past 10 years, He Liling cherished every teaching, and never affected her teaching progress in the special school because of life and work reasons. In the spring of 2016, He Liling, who was pregnant, held her pregnant belly and insisted on teaching until she was about to give birth.
Looking back on these years, He Liling said with a smile, "Being a volunteer teacher comes from love, starts with responsibility, lasts for a long time, and finally has character." ”
A responsibility that lasts a lifetime
In special education schools, teachers help students improve their cognitive, comprehension, and verbal communication skills through teaching. However, at the end of teaching, how to help children integrate into normal social life after leaving school is a huge challenge for special schools and thousands of families of special students at present or in the future.
Yang Yang (pseudonym) is a deaf-mute man, more than 10 years ago, when He Father's factory was recruiting, he came to apply, and there was another able-bodied person, so Yang Yang did not have expectations for job hunting. The kind-hearted father He experienced the hardships of starting a business, understood the difficulties of the disabled, and with compassion, he finally hired Yang Yang as a factory furniture installer. Up to now, Yang Yang has been working in the furniture factory for 18 years.
Teach every child with heart
The father's kindness influenced his daughter, and He Liling also recruited students into his own business. Although 18-year-old Zou Qiang (pseudonym) has an intellectual disability, he has sound limbs, loves to work, and is the small class leader in his class. Approaching graduation, Zou Qiang's parents were worried about their children's future, but He Liling discussed with them and asked Zou Qiang to give it a try from his own factory. This time, I stayed, and now I can earn more than 3,000 yuan a month in the furniture factory.
Teaching in the classroom and helping in life. As sung in the song "Little Happiness", He Liling said that she has no big wishes, and that continuing this love and warmth and protecting more "winged angels" is what she will continue to do in the future.
At present, there are more than 180 school-age disabled children in Baokang, a mountainous county in northwest Hubei Province, distributed in more than 170 villages in 11 townships and towns. In order to allow every special child to "go to school" and "learn well", Baokang County Special Education School has set up a special class to send teachers to Baobei and Baonan areas to send the fire of knowledge and the sunshine of hope to the children. In the past seven years, it has traveled more than 60,000 kilometers and delivered door-to-door education for more than 80 school-age students with disabilities in the county.
He Liling also drew the strength to persevere from sending teachers to her home. Seeing that some children could not enter the classroom due to physical reasons, she could not calm down for a long time. "Compared with them, the difficulties of our normal people are not difficulties, and we can help children feel at ease even at all." In the past 10 years, she has regarded special education as her own career, and she is also happy to regard herself as a member of the special education school and actively integrate into this friendly collective. In order to facilitate the life of teachers recruited from other places, He Liling carefully selected dining tables, chairs, bedside tables and other furniture from her furniture city and generously gave them away. In the group activities of the school, she not only gave advice, but even called the workers of the furniture factory to help with the work.
Baokang County Special Education School
Principal Zhang Jiarong said that the school has recruited teachers over the years, and with He Liling's professional ability and educational background, she can pass the exam to become a full-fledged teacher, but Teacher He's family business still needs her to take care of it. "There are not many people who can stick to one thing for 10 years and do it well, He Liling is one." She said that He Liling has been teaching for public welfare in Baokang County Special Education School for many years, and has truly been responsible for every student, serious about every teaching, and is a good teacher who is worthy of being loved by students and respected by colleagues.
(Source: Jimu News)
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