Letters convey the wisdom and affection of education

Wang Guixiang

I am an ordinary rural junior high school teacher and have been a junior high school teacher for many years. Looking back and reflecting on my work as a class teacher over the years, as well as reading related educational psychology books, I found that many students in the class are left-behind teenagers who are emotionally deficient and need the giving, transmission and expression of emotions. For left-behind teenagers, emotional communication between teachers and students is particularly important.

In rural boarding schools, we get along with students day and night every day. What is the best way to communicate between teachers and students?

I have been doing this face-to-face talk with students, and I believe many class teachers do the same: using the morning self-study tutoring time every day, I will find six students to communicate with each other, or talk about learning methods, or guide interpersonal interactions, Or channel bad psychology. However, this method can easily become the teacher's one-sided speech, and it is not easy for students to open their hearts in front of the teacher.

Judging from my practical experience, letter exchanges between teachers and students can penetrate deeper into students' hearts and achieve two-way communication than face-to-face conversations.

From the spring of 2011 to now, I have used letters as a carrier to communicate with students, and achieved good results. The letters I wrote to them were called "love letters" by students. Ting, a girl from the class of 2013, compiled dozens of letters before graduation and said to me: "Teacher, I will treasure these love letters for a lifetime!"

In the blink of an eye, I have been communicating with students through letters for ten years. , there are mainly three categories: weekly letters, daily notes and birthday letters. Of course, there are also occasional letter exchanges when students encounter psychological problems. There are about 40 weekly letters every year, nearly 150,000 words; daily notes are regular, and it is impossible to count; birthday letters have been written since last semester, and 36 letters have been written.

Years of experience in letter communication have allowed me to experience that in the process of letter communication, teachers and students are more attentive, candid, and full of trust; letters are more convenient to review over and over again than the voice of a heart-to-heart talk. One time is equivalent to one communication; you can have enough time to feel and understand the words, the emotions and principles behind the words, so it can move and inspire the soul more. This is probably why I have chosen this method of communication for ten years and never tire of it.

Weekly letter, theme communication

The impulse to write a weekly letter came in the spring of 2011. At that time, I wanted to motivate students who were about to face the high school entrance examination. Half a year later, I felt that The effect was very good, so I stuck with it.

Every weekend, I sit in front of the computer, with the lively and lovely images of the students in my class floating in my mind. I type characters one by one on the computer to communicate spiritually with the students. First, it is introduced by the changes in the surrounding scenery, then reviews the lessons and activities of the week, then focuses on a certain topic, and finally conveys blessings to the students.

Letters are not chicken soup for the soul, but mainly discussions on topics that are interesting or important to students. There are roughly 10 themes in a school year. Taking the 39 letters in the 2019-2020 school year as an example, the themes of each month are: September, discussing ideals; October, exploring the meaning of learning; November, promoting reading; October In February, personality development is discussed; in January, the theme of "The Merchant of Venice" is discussed; in March, learning qualities are exchanged; in April, learning methods are discussed; in May, role models are introduced; in June, successful traits are discussed; in July, the growth of heroes is shared journey.

Last week’s letter was the fourth letter of this semester. The title of the letter is: Persistence is not as difficult as you think. This letter consists of five parts: the introduction of the weather topic; a review of a week of campus life; the meaning, significance and local examples of persistence; foreign examples of persistence; stories of persistence within the class and sharing of famous quotes about persistence.

In the past few years, these letters were written on Thursday or Friday, and then the school logistics office was asked to help print them out and distributed to the students before they went home from school on Friday afternoon. It is really very important here. Thank you to our school leaders for supporting us! Students take letters home and read them with their parents in the evening. Some parents are not at home, and students read to their grandparents. In recent years, with the popularization of smartphones and the Internet, we have established a home-school WeChat group, and our letters are sent directly to the group. The recipients of the "love letters" have expanded to more parents, because they are also our allies in education. . If the letter is written a little late and the students don’t have time to read it at home, they can use Sunday evening to study in class. We will discuss while reading, and the content and theme of the letter will be more penetrating into the students’ minds.

The COVID-19 epidemic became serious after the Spring Festival last year. Teachers and students were unable to start school normally, and students were educated at home for several months. At that time, weekly letters became the best way for our teachers and students to communicate spiritually. In the letter, I encouraged the students, reminded them how to manage their time at home, and encouraged them to be self-disciplined and self-reliant.

Ten years have passed, and my computer has stored hundreds of letters, about one million words. I think this is the best gift of life I can give to my children!

Daily notes conveying strength

Last spring entered the end of April, and I was finally able to return to school! But as teachers, what we see is the panic of students: because of the lack of effective supervision during home schooling during the epidemic, the learning effect is very unsatisfactory, and the high school entrance examination will be taken in three months, and their panic is inevitable.

How to inspire students to study and enhance their confidence in facing the high school entrance examination? What else can I do besides writing every Monday? I accidentally saw a post-it note given by the seller when I was shopping online. The pattern on it was very beautiful: a few beautiful purple iris flowers, very much like the artistic conception of classical poetry. So I came up with an idea: use morning self-study every day to write a short note for each of several students with words of encouragement. It can not only play an inspirational role, but also accumulate materials for students to write. It kills two birds with one stone.

In more than three months, I forgot to use a few sticky notes. Each student received an average of three short notes. The content of each short note was an inspirational buzzword on the Internet in May, and in June. With quotes about diligence, cherishing time, and reading, July is an ancient poem containing the names of students.

The month of May is to give away Internet inspirational quotes. For example, on May 20th, I, as a teacher, must seize the opportunity to "confess" to my students. My "confession" to Ya is: the best way to love yourself is to make yourself better. When we meet again, I hope we will be at a higher place. The world will not let down every effort and persistence. The "confession" given to Qi is: once in this world, be positive; not be afraid of the future and never think about the past. The road ahead is vast and we can expect everything.

The month of June is the theme message. On June 16, the theme of the short note to Hua was persistence: if you don’t accumulate small steps, you won’t be able to reach a thousand miles; if you don’t accumulate small streams, you won’t be able to build a river. ——Xunzi Tell you the secret that enables me to achieve my goals. My only strength is my persistence. ——Pasteur Whoever has the will to go through all kinds of hardships can achieve any goal. ——Menande "Be poor and strong, and you will not fall into the clouds." ——Wang Bo

In July, inspirational ancient poems containing students’ names will be given away. To make it easier for students to understand, I also copied the translated sentences at the back. On July 2, the content of the short note sent to Yun Chao was——

Yun Chao:

The reason why great things were accomplished in ancient times was not only due to extraordinary talents; Perseverance. ——Su Shi's "Chao Cuo Lun" (People who achieved great things in ancient times not only had outstanding talents, but also must have perseverance.)

Dear Yun Chao, you have "super-worldly qualities" "talent" and "perseverance", I believe that I will definitely win the high school entrance examination in ten days' time, come on!

Yours, Teacher Wang

2020.7.2

Very beautiful sticky notes, beautiful sentences, and my relatively neat fonts, short daily Notes are deeply loved by students. Many students tape short notes on their desks to remind and motivate themselves. Not only that, at their suggestion, we used the back blackboard in the classroom to carry out "daily quotation push". Students who received blessings copied their favorite sentences that they wanted to share with everyone on the blackboard. Other students saw that there were If you like it, write it down and accumulate it.

Daily notes quietly convey the power of motivation. We will continue this form of communication.

Birthday letters, full of blessings

Our Huahe No. 1 Middle School is a rural boarding junior high school. Most of the children in the class are left-behind teenagers. In addition to learning, their needs are more. Emotions, you will understand if you think about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Therefore, at the beginning of each school year, I will count the birthdays of all students in the class. When the student celebrates his birthday, I carefully select a poem for him, make a birthday poem PPT, put a birthday hat on him in the birthday class, read the birthday poem, and send it to him. Printed birthday poems, gave them a big hug at the end, and the whole class shouted happy birthday in unison.

This school year, I added two more links, sending a book and writing a letter. So far, 36 birthday letters have been written. The content of birthday letters is mainly based on encouragement and blessings. The main sections are: interpreting students' names and reading out the expectations of relatives; listing famous people who have the same birthday as the students so that students have high expectations for themselves; interpreting birthday poems and reading out the emotions or philosophies contained in the poems as well as the expectations of teachers and students; Introduce the contents of the books you are sending and explain the purpose and expectations of sending them.

Birthday letters are usually written and sent to students one or two days after the birthday class, which is equivalent to expressing birthday wishes to students for the second time. Haizi said: From tomorrow on, I will communicate with every relative and tell them my happiness. I will tell everyone what the happy lightning told me. The feedback my students gave me also made me feel as happy as Haizi. For example, when classmate Jiawei received a birthday letter, he wrote a letter to me on the Internet over the weekend. In the letter, he copied the reports on my deeds and various honors that he found on the Internet, and also listed the names of people who share the same relationship with me. The celebrities and great people in the world also inspire me to reach a higher level in my work. Student Hua was even more romantic. She wrote me a letter on a huge sycamore leaf, expressing her gratitude and gratitude to the teacher. She also wrote about the impact of the teacher on her academic and spiritual personality, and said that she would also like it when she grows up. Be a teacher and spread the seeds of truth, goodness and beauty like a teacher.

Although it takes a certain amount of time to write these letters, I think it is worth the time and energy to send care to these children!

Many years of experience in letter communication have allowed me to see the good effects of letter communication. Letters convey educational wisdom, which can give students positive psychological hints, open students' hearts, and achieve barrier-free spiritual communication; letters convey educators' deep affection for education. Because they love education, they strive to get closer to students through letters. Give students as much guidance, care and spiritual guidance as possible. Letter exchange has become an educational lifestyle, a normal educational life, and a spiritual landscape for our teachers and students.

In the future teaching life, we will continue to use letters as a communication method and continue to use letters to convey educational wisdom and affection!