A lost stone tablet
On August 24th, 20 16, I "parachuted" to Xiting Junior High School in Tongzhou District, Nantong City as the principal. Xiting junior high school is a typical rural school. Although it has a history of 60 years, it has never formed a school cultural system with its own clear expression and logo. Because of the continuous advancement of urbanization, the number of students is decreasing year by year, and the proportion of left-behind children and floating children is getting higher and higher. When I first arrived at Xiting Junior High School, I think the first important thing is to sort out the history of running a school and build a school culture, such as the establishment of the school motto. To this end, I began to go deep into teacher interviews and historical roots.
What teachers talk about most is Zhang Jian, the champion of the late Qing Dynasty who studied and lived in Xiting Town as a teenager, and his inscription on Xiting East Bridge. When Zhang Jian's brother repaired and expanded his ancestral home, he converted the wooden bridge in his hometown into a stone bridge in accordance with their father's wishes. Because there was also a stone bridge in the west of the town at that time, this bridge was called the East Bridge. Zhang Jian wrote the inscription of Xiting East Bridge for this purpose, and the monument was placed beside the bridge. As time went on, things changed. Later, when Xiting Town was rebuilt and the East Bridge was demolished, the stone tablet with the inscription of Xiting East Bridge was found. At that time, people just regarded it as a big blue slate, which was carried by the supply and marketing cooperatives as a platform for Xiting shortcake to make sugar. Later, it was discovered that the inscription on Xiting East Bridge was actually written by Zhang Jian. After the stone tablet was rediscovered, it was moved to the campus of Xiting junior high school after consultation with the local government, and has been preserved ever since.
What teachers talk about most is the glorious history of Xiting junior high school. In the history of Tongzhou education, there is another important event that happened almost at the same time as the eighth curriculum reform-ordinary high schools run private junior high schools. Later, according to statistics, whenever there are both high schools and junior high schools in the same town, almost all junior high schools are "eaten" by private junior high schools, and Xiting junior high school is almost the only exception! Although today's Xiting junior high school faces certain difficulties because of the social trend of urbanization, it can still survive under the squeeze of Xiting senior high school, an old four-star senior high school and a private junior high school. As long as we follow Darwin's principle of "survival of the fittest", we can imagine how strong the viability of Xiting junior high school was!
Regarding the collection of school motto, we suggest looking for it from Zhang Jian's collected works, based on the inscription on the East Bridge of Xiting and the historical origin of Zhang Jian and Xiting. I agree with everyone's ideas, but I also clearly suggest that the "school motto" should also reflect the accumulation of Xiting junior high school in the past 60 years. After repeated consideration and screening, everyone chose the word "diligence" as the school motto from Zhang Jian's "faithfulness, faithfulness and Excellence", which can completely inherit and express the school history of Xiting junior high school in the past 60 years. At the same time, according to the present situation of the school, the overall goal of "building an exquisite, modern and open intensive school" is put forward, including "intensive management, intensive classroom, intensive curriculum, intensive classroom and intensive service to realize the intensive life of teachers and students." Because Xiting Junior Middle School is a research and experimental school of Tao Xingzhi in Jiangsu Province, "unity of knowledge and practice, Excellence" has also become the essence of the school spirit.
At this point, because a once "lost" stone tablet triggered a cultural encounter across time and space, Xiting junior high school has its own theme culture construction direction-"being diligent and understanding".
Hulu technology has been "established"
On May 24th, 20 19, a public notice on the website of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education made junior high school students in Xiting really happy for a while! The development and construction of cucurbit science and technology course declared by Xiting junior high school successfully passed the evaluation of "Weak Junior High School Quality Improvement Project" and was determined as the connotation construction project of Jiangsu Province in 20 19. In fact, "Hulu Technology" was not called "Hulu Technology" originally, but "East Bridge Hulu Language"; "East Bridge Drifting Rain" was not originally called "East Bridge Drifting Rain", but called "Ghost Town Drifting Flowers in the Land of Rivers and Seas". Anyway, this is a long story. ...
In order to promote the cultivation of students' interest, I vigorously carry out community activities at school, especially in the first grade of junior high school, which is included in the class schedule and is divided into one or two classes every Friday afternoon. Because time is guaranteed, the walking club is very colorful. However, due to the financial constraints of the school and the economic conditions of Xiting junior high school students' families, children's interest training mainly focuses on "low-cost, easy-to-use" projects. In order to expand the content of community activities, I also actively consult experts and scholars. For example, after an art teaching exchange, I asked researchers at the city and district levels to help me with my ideas. After understanding the situation of his hometown in Chongqing, the researcher suggested that Ye could try to organically integrate Bayu culture and cultural elements, and perhaps find a new way out.
In this way, the "ghost town painting" of Chongqing Fengdu's "ancestral home" entered the art class of Xiting junior high school. However, Teacher Ye has two questions. One is that Nantong people don't like "ghosts"; The other one is very expensive in Hyouta. Teacher Zhai of the sports group gave it a new name-Dongqiao. "East Bridge" originated from the inscription written by Zhang Jian, and the word "shadow" was elegant to the extreme. Later, Teacher Ye "scoured" the paper ladle and the painting ladle from Taobao. So far, two problems have been solved. The gourd ladle is made of gourd. Teacher Ye took the children to paint on the paper ladle for a period of time, and then began to paint and pyrography on the gourd with the children. New problems have arisen again. In the face of large demand, gourd is also quite expensive!
Once, Dr. Kuang Hongjun from Beijing Normal University passed by Nantong, and I invited him to our school. After listening to my introduction about students drawing on gourds, he asked me, "Why not plant a gourd?" What a nice sentence "Why not plant a gourd?" Yes! As a biology teacher, I can take my students to plant a gourd on campus! The life of green flowering plants can make students "participate" seriously and open their minds. I remember that night, the sudden inspiration made me stay up all night. The next morning, I consulted teachers in biology, chemistry, physics, music, art and other disciplines, and a multi-disciplinary school-based curriculum gradually became clear. "A child, after three years of junior high school in Xiting, can plant a gourd by himself, conduct certain scientific experiments with the gourd, make a gourd silk instrument, carve or draw on it, or play a tune with this gourd silk ..."
Obviously, "East Bridge Piaoying" is not enough to cover all aspects of the gourd course, so everyone moved their brains and named it "East Bridge Floating Fish". Later, in the process of information inquiry, we found that many schools are doing gourd painting gourd ladle, but the systematic and structured "curriculum form" like ours is rare. Later, I met the president of Nantong, Gu Zhigang, and he suggested giving "East Bridge Drifting Rain" a more easy-to-understand "big name"-Hulu Technology. In fact, curriculum organization includes two dimensions, namely "vertical organization" and "horizontal organization". "Vertical organization" refers to the organization of various curriculum elements in the order of vertical development, such as Chinese, mathematics, English, physics and chemistry, politics, history, geography, music, physical beauty and so on. "Horizontal organization" refers to the organization of various curriculum elements in the horizontal relationship. The course "Gourd Science and Art" with "Gourd" as the carrier organically integrates various curriculum elements in the vertical dimension in the horizontal dimension and becomes a comprehensive practical course under the guidance of "aesthetic education".
Six topics in a school
Someone once asked, what is the principal's most important job? The more concentrated answer is to lead the professional growth of teachers. Xiting junior high school really needs teachers' professional growth, but how to promote teachers' professional growth in the face of teachers whose average age is over 45? When I first arrived in Xiting junior high school, I did an inventory of teachers. In fact, Xiting junior high school is not "nothing". The school has more than 60 teachers, including more than 10 senior teachers, as well as a number of district-level key teachers and academic leaders. Although the proportion of this kind of outstanding talents is really stretched compared with the old universities and famous schools, it is also my supporting force!
Teachers' professional growth needs motivation, one is from inner desire, and the other is from internal factors. In this case, just provide a platform and help. The other is external guidance, which is external cause and needs external "catalysis". Since the implementation of post competition, many teachers' promotion channels have been blocked by quota restrictions. However, the education authorities in Tongzhou District have found a new way, broadened the evaluation channels of famous teachers, and given some allowances to outstanding talents as encouragement. With the opening of the second channel, I found the external motivation to promote the professional development of teachers. In this way, I locked the group of teachers under the age of 45, and compared them with the conditions of learning excellent talents to help them make a comparative analysis-what honors, papers, open classes, lectures, competitions and so on are needed. It is found that among all the indicators, subject research is the most lacking shortcoming for teachers. In August, 20 16, there was only one district-level project and the Twelfth Five-Year Plan project "Application Research of Event Strategy in Biology Teaching in Middle Schools".
The research of the subject, from topic selection, declaration, evaluation, project establishment, research for several years, conclusion, etc. , is a long-term work, need long-term consideration. In order to adapt to the needs and conditions of school development, the perspectives and specialties that teachers pay attention to, and the academic norms and hotspots of project application, I invited experts and teachers to discuss, collide, refine and focus on many times, and organized everyone to "sprint" from three levels: district-level projects, municipal projects and provincial projects, and successfully approved 2 provincial-level key self-raised funds, 2 municipal-level projects and district-level projects 1. At this point, after the completion of the original "event strategy" project, Xiting Junior High School now undertakes two * * * six planning projects in provinces and cities, covering curriculum construction, classroom reform, student growth and other fields. This situation, both in quantity and quality, is among the best in all schools in this area.
Successful project application is the first step of the Long March, but dozens of teachers who have been riding on the back of tigers have no choice. The project needs mid-term evaluation and final demonstration, and the project research needs to be rooted in the practice of classroom reform and curriculum construction. In the next time, I just need to supervise the teachers' research progress in time and provide guidance and help for their research to go on smoothly. In fact, organizing everyone to declare the project is to directly prepare for the evaluation of outstanding talents, and at the same time, you can get the paper as the research result; Indirectly speaking, it is to guide teachers to participate in classroom reform and curriculum construction from the perspective of researchers; In the final analysis, teachers' professional growth has been realized and the development of the school has been promoted.
The Essential Connotation of "Event Strategy"
I remember a professor asked me in the graduation thesis defense of a principal training class: "Now there is a newly-built school that has recruited enough famous teachers from all over the country, and the source of students is not a problem. Excuse me, how can we make this school work fastest and best? " My answer is to use "event strategy" to build school theme culture. Xiting junior middle school covers the construction of "diligent and knowledgeable" theme culture in many dimensions, such as school management, classroom reform, curriculum construction, teacher-student growth and logistics service. , is the school motto with "diligence" as the core and the general idea of school culture construction with "integration of knowledge and practice and diligent education" as the pursuit. In short, the construction of school theme culture is to systematically plan the overall framework of school culture construction, define the development goal and promotion sequence, and realize the externalization and internalization of school ideas and core values through a series of theme events such as example leading and activities.
Using "things" is the "ontology" of event strategy. What is event strategy? In short, it is a strategy to actively use all kinds of "events" existing in school development around the theme of school culture construction, and even create "events" that did not exist originally, and finally realize school development in the form of "events". The determination of the construction direction of the theme culture in Xiting junior middle school is due to the determination of the school motto "diligence", and the original source of the school motto "diligence" is the inscription on Xiting East Bridge. A person, an event and an event can all be used as "event" resources in the development of the school. The "event" here is like the fulcrum in the lever principle. Find the fulcrum, and things will be solved.
Acting according to "things" is the "methodology" of event strategy. Everything has its inherent foundation for development. Event strategy emphasizes conforming to the original law of the development of things, that is to say, acting according to "things" is actually acting according to "potential" From the origin, development and initial formation of the course construction of "Cucurbitaceae and Art" in Xiting junior high school, we can see that things have never been smooth sailing, and it needs constant accumulation and adjustment to get the final desired result. From the introduction of ghost town painting to paper painting, from buying a batch of gourds to planting a gourd, from a single art subject to a comprehensive course covering biology, physics, music, art and other disciplines, it has experienced a spiral upward process from simple to complex and from low to high.
Taking "things" as the guidance is the "practice theory" of event strategy. Under the macro background of school theme culture construction, event strategy also plays a "task-driven" role. Xiting junior high school encourages and guides teachers to actively declare topics and participate in topic research, and skillfully uses the role of topic research in promoting teachers' professional growth. This is very similar to "material flow" or "energy flow" in "dissipative structure" to maintain system order. "For the sake of research", "through research" and "in research", it is the artificial research "event" that constantly drives teachers to run forward, thus achieving the goal of teachers' professional growth.
At this point, it is not difficult to find that for the sustainable development of the school, the construction of school theme culture itself is the application of "event strategy"
This article was published in the September issue of Shidao (the first half of 20 19).