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[Teacher Chun-ming Lin]
For many years Taiwan’s middle school system has been focusing on a learning environment which centers on exams. Most students in the hope to be ahead academically would take part in cram schools and be forced to do tremendous amount of practices, and tests in order to achieve fluency in all academic subjects!
Nevertheless, a cramming education can only nurture students into studying machines. It would not teach them to have the ability to think or be creative. Are all the questions worth thinking about restricted within the borders of the textbook?
Therefore, I believe students should be encouraged to participate in a wide array of activity. The experience of taking part in group discussion and operational activities would give students knowledge more valuable than any textbook. Furthermore, this knowledge was accumulated through free will and active thinking. Therefore, the encouragement of students to participate in art, science and language art competition is an extreme must for educators.
Students of the Cyberfair project acted as ambassadors representing their own town. They are responsible for letting the world know about the uniqueness of their hometown. Through careful research, interviews, seminars, photo taking and recording of data, their works were integrated and made into a web page. The teams of the competition would look at the work of each team and come up with the best work. The winning team would then be granted a certificate in honor of their work.
This year I was honored to be given the opportunity by the school principal to act as an advisor for the students with the Cyberfair Project. Although I was an amateur in web page making, with the assistance and support of Principal Cho and parents I was able to take part in students’ wheat planting project. As I saw the students plow the garden, sow the seeds, water the plants and record the growth of the plants, I was happy to take photos for them. Actually, I was born in a farm in Fuxing village, Changhua County and my family had planted wheat during the Japanese Colonial period! Through this opportunity, I was given the chance to walk into the field and re-experience the aroma of the soil. This is probably my greatest reward from taking part in the project!
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