Time flies, especially so when you’re quite busy. It is the last week of our third semester in the blink of an eye, we have already adapted to our teaching task in New Zealand. My life seemed to have become plain and simple until a few days earlier, I felt deeply touched by a piece of news about one of our students on Facebook. And that’s what has led me here, to write something about the lovely kids that I have taught in New Zealand.
1. The Lovely Kids of Kindness
In the video posted on Facebook, Malia, an 8-year-old girl in her fourth grade, is determined to cut off her long hair and donate it to make into wigs for people with cancer, and initiates an online fundraising campaign with the help of local authorities, hoping to raise USD1,200 for such patients. This Monday, the students from 5 or 6 classes sitted on the playground and watched a barber cut off her 15-inch-long hair, giving a big round of applause when the barber made the first cut. A total of NZD 1,870 has been rasied up until today. I was overwhelmed by the kindness and courage this 8-year-old girl demonstrates the moment I saw the video: not many kids as young as Malia would be so compassionate towards others and so attentive to social issues. But it is exactly such rarity that makes her kindness so amazing!
Of course, she is not alone in being so kind and lovely. While giving a lesson to her class this week, I saw the kids taking turns to paint a “big house” that had just been made. I got to know from their Room Teacher that it was a “Bugs Hotel” made by the students to accommodate all kinds of bugs. When I heard this, the scene of countless bugs gathering together in the house came to my mind and I freaked out, as I had just taken two days off because of getting bug bites. But on second thought, I was moved by how these sweeties were caring and loving to everything that exists in nature.
2. The Lovely Kids of Courage and Help
Once a year, a grand race called Cross Country Championship would be held in all the schools in New Zealand, from elementary to high school. Each school would hold its own race and divide students into different age groups, who would then run around the school, on the grass, in the bushes or on the highways. Those who made it into the top ranks would be eligible to compete in the races at the town, city, island and state levels.
One Tuesday, I was told at the Whangarei Heads School by a colleague that all the classes would give way to the Cross Country race that day. I thought it would be a good idea to be part of the audience. The first group was seventh- and eighth-graders. I saw how those high-spirited students dashed from the starting point and sprinted to the finish line with mud all over their bodies after completing a lap. It reminded me of my own middle school life. Some kids fell down, but managed to stand up and run again. At the sight of it, I couldn’t help but praise their courage and resilience!
Two senior girls were arranged by the school to lead a group of junior students running as their running routes were different. You can see how those lovely little kids were chasing after their bigger sisters and some of them even ran ahead of them. When these 5-year-old or 6-year-old kids were running on the second lap, some senior graders were seen running right beside them and cheering them up. A little girl fell down on the grass, and the president went over and supported her to the finish line. They received thunderous applause as they walked towards the finish line, which construct such a beautiful picture.
The friendship and mutual help between the senior graders and the junior ones in the race were reminiscent of those occurred when kids learning to bike at the school. That was the first time I got to know that students were allowed to learn biking in school and that students of different ages could have classes together. Every two senior students would help a junior student to learn how to bike by holding the saddle, or running in a sweat after the bicycle to encourage the kid on it to carry on. In retrospect, I rememebered that it was impossible for us students of various grades to have classes together or sit in other classrooms while I was young. So most of us didn’t have the opportunity to make friends with anyone other than our classmates. I feel so nice and warm every time I recalled their biking experience.
3. The Lovely Kids Learning Chinese
In this semester, I had the opportunity to teach in other classes, and I found some of them especially fond of learning the Chinese language, and some got much better after having quite some difficult in learning the Chinese language in the previous two semesters. I was often amazed by a five-year-old who could greet me with “Hello, my name is Savage” in Chinese after having the class for only three weeks, by a Room Teacher for third graders who would have the Chinese class five days a week, take better notes than the senior graders and could write “China” and “New Zealand” in Chinese, and by the senior graders who demonstrated better calligraphy skills than me the first time they wrote Chinese characters with a brush. Also in this semester, I found relish in the first graders greeting me with a smile when we bumped into each other in supermarkets and saying hello in Chinese, in the kids waving and saying goodbye to me from the windows on the school bus passing every Tuesday while I was walking, and in the kids saying hello in Chinese with their lovely eyes looking at me every time I opened the classroom door and surrounding me with their warm hugs when the class was over.
People say teachers should learn while teaching and they should teach not only knowledge but a lifestyle. I learned so much from my students during my stay in New Zealand. They gave me different perspectives on education and helped me see a different world. I feel so grateful for everything they have taught me and sincerely wish these wonderful kids a bright future!
【About the Author】ZHANG Meng, master of Class 2016 in Linguistics & Applied Linguistics at SJTU and Chinese volunteer teacher to speakers of other languages at the University of Auckland Confucius Institute. She now teaches at the Onerahi Primary School, the Whangarei Heads School and the Raurimu Ave School.