Our families work extremely close with the school, and parents’ careers, experiences and specialties are rich and valuable educational resources. In order to facilitate more active educational interactions between families and the school, give full license to parents’ precious educational resources, and expand students’ horizons, we launched parent classes across all grades this past November.
Grade 1 – the Americas
Class 1A Xana Li’s mom brought to the classroom an interesting geography lesson about the Americas, and the students learned that the continents have lofty mountains and fierce jaguars! Through the sharing of the American topography, students understood that the Americas also have spectacular sceneries with distinct seasons, and a variety of magical animals. There are grizzly bears hunting in the Rocky Mountains, bats with long tongues, white-bellied locusts howling at the moon, lively dolphins – and many more! The parent class stimulated the children’s love of nature, and enhanced their interest in science and natural exploration.
1B Kyson Cheng
I found the parent class so interesting. I want to experience adventure, to visit a famous volcano – the bat’s long tongue was quite frightening! The battle between rats was my favourite part because it was so exciting!
1B Jayden Wu
I think it’s really admirable that scorpions and mice do everything they can to survive. Scorpions are more effective, so I like scorpions. I am also interested in the birds perching on the caldera of the volcano because they are so brave! I envy their courage!
Grade 2 – Welcome to Canada!
Class 2I Ethan’s mom took the children on a journey to the beautiful ‘Maple Leaf country’ of Canada. From countless waterfalls, streams, peaks and hot springs, children could see its natural magnificence! Canadian maple syrup made the students imagine a plate of muffins in front of them. See! The children were extremely curious about ice hockey, which is not a common sport. But for Canadians, ice hockey is a way of life! The Grade 2 students said that they wanted to experience ice hockey when they have the opportunity, and make a few more friends on the rink as well! We believe that through this cultural trip, the students deepened their understanding of Canada and will continue to explore the mysterious lands of the Americas with even more enthusiasm!
2A Cherise
In our grade’s parent class, I learned that Canada’s national symbol is a maple leaf, and they have a maple leaf on their flag. We listened to the national anthem of Canada. In the video, we also enjoyed the beautiful vistas of Canada. For instance, there are towering mountains, vast open lands and grand oceans. We know that our Co-Principal Dr. Adam Neufield is a Canadian, and that he has much to share with us.
Grade 3 – Symphony
Class 3G Kiki’s mother brought us a lively and entertaining lecture on music: “There is music everywhere in life!” She also took us to ‘see’ a symphony orchestra and to learn about the four major musical instrument families. Since the students were very interested in concerts, she also shared some appropriate concert manners that students could learn, such as being on time, staying quiet between the songs and applauding to show appreciation. Finally, when it came to discuss American music, Kiki’s mom performed a wonderful violin piece, which ended this musical journey.
Subsequently, Class 3H Sean Zhou’s mother gave us a lecture on the theme of “Cinema in the Future and the Future of Cinema”. She led students through a review of the history of cinema and helped us all look forward to the future of moving pictures. During the discussion of movies, the possibility of collaborative AI writing was raised in order to increase the immersiveness of the experience.
3G Elina Xue
I was impressed by Kiki’s mother’s violin session. The music she played was beautiful. She also shared a variety of musical instruments which added to our musical knowledge! I look forward to every parent class!
3H Cici Bai
I really liked the movie shown by Ms. Xiao! I learned about the evolution of movies and I learned how to turn a good story into a good movie. I hope we will be able to create a wonderful future for the film industry!
Grade 4 – Youth Power
One lecturer for our Grade 4s was Xu Lidao, born in Heze, Shandong Province in 1983. He began his film and television work in 2004, studying under film director Jia Zhangke, and worked closely with music master Tan Dun. Through movie clips from “Gobi Walker”, students saw how perseverance was built – Mr Xu wanted the children to realize that parents will accompany them to grow up throughout their lives. He also demonstrated every child’s own inner strength and inner perseverance through the narrative of the movie. Combined with Director Xu’s observation in the field of education, he helped the children to realize that self-confidence is a state that exists in children.
The other lecturer was Ms. Huang Xi, a top domestic children’s book author, promoter of female empowerment, and mentor. “Ms Octopus” linked her own growth to the writing process in order to show students using vivid words the importance of long-term ambition. When interviewing students about their feelings reading and writing, “Ms Octopus” referred to many prototypes in the book so that students could genuinely feel that creativity originates from life. Finally, through interactive activities such as games exercising the left and right brain and a Q&A session, she taught students the three elements for writing a good story: a sense of picture, a twisting storyline, and a purpose.
4A Sophia Tang
After listening to Director Xu’s sharing, I felt both shock and admiration to see children at my age hiking the Gobi Desert, hoping that I could also hike with my parents to experience the charm of nature, and looking forward to growing up over time.
4G Yimi Huang
“Ms. Octopus” taught me how to control my emotions. For example, I can meditate when I’m feeling down. “Ms. Octopus” is so approachable, and she also gave us a lot of her own books, which are all worth reading.
Grade 5a—Hello, Adolescence!
Class 5B Leo Luo’s mother, Yisa Li’s mother, and Class 5C George Wang’s father were invited to bring parents lectures on adolescence. The lectures were divided into a session for boys and a session for girls..
The three parents gave boys and girls a glimpse of adolescence from the perspective of parents, who had of course already experienced it. During the lecture, they applied vivid language to explain adolescence from “adolescence is great!” to “adolescent psychological adjustment” for the students. In a relaxed and humorous atmosphere, students learned about what boys and girls will experience in the process of maturation, correctly understanding the physical and psychological characteristics and “rules” of growing up, and how to deal with and seek help in an emergency. On the way to becoming a young man and a young lady, the school and parents will work hand-in-hand with all children at SUIS Qingpu.
5D Mary Cai
The Grade 5 parent class was very useful, not only teaching us how to deal with many problems in adolescence, but also recommending useful books to read.
5C Kai
In our grade’s parent class, parents patiently told us to take good care of ourselves and helped us learn about what we will face in adolescence. In a way, we can prepare ourselves in advance and meet the arrival of adolescence with useful foreknowledge.
Parent lectures not only bring knowledge, but also accompany every child’s growth. There is no perfect teacher, nor perfect parent. With teachers and parents working together, home-school education can go hand-in-hand! Colourful parent lectures achieve the same educational feelings – we earnestly hope that parents will continue to enter our classrooms to nourish the hearts of SUIS Qingpu students.