Aiming for higher ambitions and life-long learning – Parent seminars in progress

Every moment of warm education begins with an encounter. Parents entered the classroom in love, educated students for a better future, and empowered their aspirations.

In order to enhance students’ interests and inspire them to aim high, our Middle School carried out the theme of “Parents enter the class” on October 13th, parents in different grades were transformed into “Aspiration Mentors”. These “Aspiration Mentors” brought students lessons filled with interesting and useful parent lectures. Let’s explore their topics together!

G6 – Aspire to be a “Guardian” of Social Security

——6E Kitty Luo

In order to help youth understand the law better and raise their legal awareness, the Grade 6 team invited Ms. Liu Fang, Class 6E John’s mother, to give a talk on the legal knowledge related to middle school students.

At the beginning of the lesson, Ms Liu addressed a series of questions such as “Which age group do we refer to as ‘teenagers’?” “What rights do teenagers have?” etc. She then introduced to the students, who were full of curiosity, the basic rights of teenagers and the legal responsibilities they need to bear, by combining many real cases. For each case, she shared her thoughts as well as the legal responsibilities of the people involved. Finally, she told the students about the various protection measures that are in place to protect them, such as family, school, social protection, and internet protection.

The atmosphere was warm and enthusiastic. Students had a keen interest in law and raised their hands often to both ask and answer questions. We offer our sincere thanks to Ms. Liu and her team for opening the door to legal knowledge for the students. All the students expressed that they would abide by the law, stay away from unhealthy behaviours, be aware of the law and abide by it from a young age.

Let’s see what our students have learned.

Ellie Zhu

What is the law? Laws are rules, an umbrella to protect the masses. Everyone must abide by the law. The law makes our life peaceful, beautiful and defends the safety of each person. We are young people, the future pillars of the motherland – we should know the law and understand it. Ms. Liu and her work partner, Lawyer Mr. Lin, informed us about the law, and introduced the Underage Protection Law and other related legal knowledge through a wealth of cases. This knowledge let us understand how to use legal weapons to protect ourselves and others, and I now know that the law is the base upon which society is built.

Hebe Du

We were honoured to attend the Parents’ Class, “Know the Law, Understand the Law, Grow Up Happily”, led by Ms. Liu and Mr. Lin, lawyers from the Fangda Law Firm. The session mainly discussed topics related to the basic rights enjoyed by teenagers and some of the legal liabilities that teenagers have to deal with. At the same time, students learned how to deal with problems in a better way.

G 7 – Aspire to be an Engineer for Human Life

——7A Daniel Wei

Drones flew at the SUIS Qingpu campus, and Grade 7 enjoyed a PBL activity with the theme of “Drone Competition”. Under the guidance of our professional teachers, we learned about the different types of drones and experienced the fun of drone competitions in this hands-on session.

Drones are slowly changing our lives and are widely used in various fields.

My views on drones can be captured by mainly the following two points: firstly, the field of drones is very prevalent in several areas of life, such as those involving military, civil, agricultural and athletic applications. Secondly, drones are easy to operate and the drone body is also very small, making it easy to carry and assemble.

In agriculture, drones can sow seeds or spray pesticides. In the military, drones can survey the enemy or carry weapons to attack. In construction, they can carry out three-dimensional landscape modelling and construction monitoring. They can carry out search and rescue activities, fire-fighting operations, geomorphological surveys, and more.

Through this activity, we were able to deeply appreciate the charm and prospect of drone technology. I believe that in the future, drone technology can be used with artificial intelligence technology in more real-life scenarios and will continue to benefit mankind. We have been inspired to study harder and aim to become an engineer for the benefit of mankind, meeting the advent of the artificial intelligence era.

G8 – Aspire to be a ‘Designer’ : one who expands on the aesthetics of architecture and a ‘Targeter’ with a plan

——8A Flora Meng

The Grade 8 team invited Linham’s father to give us a lecture on “The Aesthetics of the Bund”. Mr Lin introduced the architecture of the Bund with pictures and theoretical knowledge, from its overall appearance to close-ups of doors and windows. The class was full of interesting content – we not only learned about the historical changes of the Bund in Shanghai and its architectural changes, but also the current situation. We also learned about the “expansion of the world’s architectural aesthetics”, which allowed us to profoundly understand the mysteries of the architecture and the development of the times.

What surprised us even more was the fact that Mr. Lin was also involved in the construction of Shanghai’s ancient buildings and the Chinese Grand Theatre. This planted a small seed in our minds of the rich variety of architectural styles, the uniqueness of what is different, the preservation of our existing buildings, the stimulation of the spirit of creativity, and the future directions that this career could take.In addition, the Grade 8 team also invited Grace’s mother to bring us a class on “Financial Thinking”. In the class, we were guided through the definition of financial integrity, financial literacy and practices, as well as ways of earning money, managing money and using money, important for understanding the process of setting goals and accomplishing them.

Through the session, we understood that in the era of material excess, we need to learn to choose happiness. This can happen when we achieve a short-term goal, and can give us courage and motivation for our next goal. We learned that financial literacy thinking is not for the sake of earning much money, but to learn to use a mode of thinking to identify goals, to become a ‘focused person’ with a plan, and to work hard towards achieving it.

The students also learned a lot from these seminars.

Mia Qiao

After listening to Mr. Lin’s talk, I learned to appreciate the ultimate aesthetics of architecture. Starting from the famous buildings in Shanghai, the historical frontiers of architecture to the frame structures of buildings were explained in great detail. The richness and diversity of architectural styles, which are all very different and unique, have opened my eyes and interested me greatly.

Shawn Luo

Today, I listened to a class on financial literacy and it dramatically changed my perspective on financial literacy. Everyone wants to make themselves successful and do what they want to do. For some, those are their goals, and for others, they relate to their chosen careers. However, nowadays, we seem to be so far removed from these things. These were my perceptions before I participated in Financial Thinking. However, after listening in this session, I have changed my view. From the beginning, the teacher explained to us her determination to earn money from her own experience. Her first step was to establish a long-term goal. For the second step, she went to study in Japan in order to set up small goals for the future. Then, by branching out the small goals into step-by-step actions, she moved towards the larger goals in an invisible way. I now think that her second step was the hardest, requiring self-discipline and persistence on her part. So why not make a plan? Take steady steps, step-by-step, and your dreams will eventually come true.Home and schoolwork both create a ‘classroom’ that opens a different window of knowledge for children, not limited to textbooks, but going deeper into life to broaden their horizons, enrich their lives, encourage excellence, and inspire aspirations. Parent-child co-learning improves the quality of school education, with the joy of preparing children to grow up healthily and happily! We wish to build a river of stars through home and school co-education, and to promote growth together! We wish that everyone could climb the ladder of life, always striving to do better!