Taking bus rides for about 2 hours on Wednesday afternoons, walking past rows of shabby houses and through thick veils of sand stirred up from piles scattered along sides of the road, volunteer teachers from a Beijing-based university would finally get to Xin Long (meaning New Dragon in Chinese) migrant school in Chaoping district to bring one session of HIV/AIDS prevention and health education class to students from Grade 6 to 8. Within 2 months, they played games, led exercises, and tried their best teaching methods, all in an effort to provide these young students with knowledge to stay healthy.
By no means were those students, seemingly lovely and tame at the first glance, lovely and tame in the starting sessions. Excited by the energy and roll-play games our volunteer teachers brought into the classroom, they reacted with all their enthusiasm, sometimes even, ‘wildness’.
But our volunteers teachers, though astounded by the response they got for the starting session and struggled to present the class loud enough to overcome the hoorays, instead of feeling feeling defeated, they actively participated in discussion sessions with each other, listed and practiced all tips or skills that could help them regain the control in the class. They cared so much about those children they finally realized they need not be their friends, they had to assume the authority of teachers.
Volunteer Teachers teaching HIV/AIDS prevention and Health education
In the following weeks, teachers had the best experience of volunteer work. They noticed students following their instructions, thinking about questions and playing hard when asked to. It became easy to let them know the difference between HIV and AIDS, and to watch out for their health.
The project concluded last week. Volunteer teachers hope they could return next semester.