Modern people are full of vitality, riding the wind and waves to set off on a new voyage

—Memory of the start of the new academic year in the fall of 2020-2021 at the Modern Chinese School of Alberta A.D. 2020, the Year of the Rat, due to a sudden epidemic...

—Remember the start of the new academic year of the Modern Chinese School in Alberta in the fall of 2020-2021

AD 2020 is the Year of the Rat. This year, due to a sudden epidemic, everyone's life has changed... In this year that is already destined to be full of challenges, all teachers and students of the Alberta Modern Chinese School have the courage to innovate and change, actively respond to new situations and new situations, and use online courses as a carrier to successfully complete all spring teaching projects. Now, the summer vacation has passed, and with the footsteps of early autumn in August, the province is still facing the scorching sun and ushering in the beginning of the new school year.

Taking "protecting the health and life safety of teachers and students" as the biggest consideration, the newly elected members of the board of directors and school committee have highly unanimous opinions and decisively decided to adopt "online courses" for teaching in the new school year. Although there are successful teaching experiences for spring online courses to follow, the launch of a series of online courses throughout the school year has posed many unknown challenges for school leaders, teachers and volunteers in terms of curriculum, network support, administrative management, resource allocation, teaching diversification and other aspects. Fortunately, the modern people who refused to admit defeat always believed that there were always more solutions than difficulties. With the support and encouragement of the new chairman Yang Yilun, and the leadership of the new principal An Ran, all modern people performed their duties and fulfilled their responsibilities, and quickly started various preparations for the start of the school year.

On July 9, the principal organized a meeting of the leaders of each teaching group to discuss various curriculum settings for the new semester. On July 16, it was made clear that many basic courses such as Chinese, mathematics, AP tutoring, and SAT tutoring would continue to be offered. In terms of extracurricular activity classes, due to the online teaching model, many interactive and experiential interest classes were blocked from opening. After multi-party communication and efforts, and drawing on the successful experience of previous online classes, it was decided to continue to offer children’s dance, adult dance, dance fitness, art, martial arts, public speaking and English writing courses. At the same time, in active response to parents’ requests, specially hired computer experts were hired to add Python programming courses.

On July 25, Modern Chinese School held an online meeting for all teachers and a new semester teacher training conference. Chairman Yang Yilun attended the meeting and delivered a speech. Principal An Ran and the vice principal in charge of various teaching tasks spoke successively and actively arranged and deployed various matters for the start of the school year. At the meeting, all teachers reached a consensus that under the premise of ensuring safety, they should make every effort to improve the quality of online classes so that students can learn and communicate happily with teachers and classmates as if they were back in the classroom.

On the same day, the Modern Chinese School’s autumn enrollment will open for online registration. Unlike previous on-site consultation and registration on the first day of school, all registration processes for the fall academic year are completed online. During this process, the network service volunteer team sacrificed a lot of personal rest time to upgrade and maintain the website and answer various technical questions from teachers and parents.

On August 1, the Chinese school held its first on-site sales event of course materials for the new school year. To facilitate parents’ purchase, two book sales points were opened in the north and south. Principal An Ran drove hundreds of miles to retrieve the required teaching materials, and the book-selling volunteer team braved the scorching heat, quickly distributed teaching materials under the scorching sun, and served every parent enthusiastically and patiently. The sincere dedication of the volunteers was praised by parents, who said "Thank you volunteers, you can get the teaching materials in one minute, it is so convenient!" This gave all staff the greatest support and encouragement! The second in-person book signing event will be held on the ASU campus on August 16 at 7 a.m.

After a series of careful preparations, August 8th is finally ushered in, the opening day of the new golden autumn season of 2020. In our most familiar and friendly home, teachers from various subjects gave wonderful and interesting first lessons, appeared on the computer screen with the fullest mental state and the brightest smiles. Seeing the lovely smiling faces of the children, you can feel the truest expectations and joy between teachers and students through the screen!

Teacher Gao, the leader of the Chinese teaching group, said on the opening day of the school year that before the start of the class, the teachers had made a lot of preparations for learning, including how to make the courseware novel, interesting and focused; how to use voice and body language to show affinity in the online classroom; how to skillfully operate the teaching software and many other details. Everyone worked hard and worked hard to do the best! Teacher Shan, the leader of the mathematics teaching group, told us that everyone in the class was very focused and serious, and all that could be heard were the voices of students actively answering the teacher’s questions without any other noise.

Jinnan Class 6 Teacher Zeng said: “Not only are all the students in our class here, but they are also online on time, and there are breaks between classes. At that time, I saw a classmate helping his younger brother adjust the class equipment, and I felt very relieved. The children were helping each other, and we must work together, not forgetting the original intention, and moving forward!” Jinan Yi! Teacher Li from the class said: "I used more detailed work to make up for some interaction obstacles in WeChat groups, email groups, imessage, and online multimedia. I started the new semester with ZOOM for the first time, and this kick was finally kicked out successfully. "Yes!" Teacher Yuan from Class 5 of Shuangshuang said: "Although there were some hiccups in the first class, I successfully completed the teaching task. I learned ancient poetry today and also taught the children the ancient poetry sign language exercises. I have a great sense of accomplishment!" Teacher Wang from the Music Class said: "The children spoke loudly, interacted actively, and were full of energy. I look forward to learning and growing with the children in the next few months!" Teacher Xu from the Mathematics Class 1 said: "I recorded in advance. We made interesting videos and shared them with our classmates. In this ‘air classroom’, we tried our best to make students feel like they were back in the classroom.”

This is “modern”! The teaching location has changed, the teaching methods have changed, and the interaction mode has changed, but the purpose of Modern Chinese School to serve parents and students wholeheartedly has not changed! The professional professional abilities and serious and responsible teaching attitude of teachers in various subjects have not changed! The volunteer team from all walks of life shows their selfless dedication and the spirit has not changed! This is a special opening day, and it is also an extraordinary opening day that will be recorded in modern school history! On this day, the modern people who created history are full of energy and start a new voyage with the courage to ride the wind and waves. The road ahead may be rough and windy and unpredictable, but modern people always believe that there will be times when the wind and waves break, and the sails will rise to the sea!

There is love here, and we have everything to look forward to! If you are also willing to work together to build your dream, be a modern person! Come to modern times