A Tale of Two Cities Supporting Xinjiang

Watching Abudu's joyful departure, Chang Peng turned to look at Wang Dezhong at the door.

Wang Dezhong walked over, his tone changing from his usual style, now filled with admiration: "Chang Peng, you're really something! This lesson was definitely worth it. Look at the kids' enthusiasm; they're much more attentive than in their usual classes."

But as soon as he finished speaking, he added, "However, this method is only novel for a short time. After a while, the kids will forget what they were going to forget."

Chang Peng didn't call him out on his "stubbornness," but just smiled and said, "Teacher Wang, next time we have an interactive class, can you come and help out? Let's figure it out together."

Wang Dezhong readily agreed: "Okay! I'll do it with you next time, but I think we still need to memorize the words we need to memorize, we can't just do it for fun."

After that class, the changes in the class became increasingly noticeable. In Chang Peng's English class, the kids would actively raise their hands and ask, "Can I chat with the students from Dalian today?"

"Can I tell you about my family's cotton field?"

But when it came to Wang Dezhong's class, the atmosphere cooled down. Wang Dezhong was still the same as always, holding the textbook and explaining the grammar sentence by sentence, making the children bury their heads in memorizing words.

That day, Wang Dezhong had just written "simple present tense" on the blackboard when he heard some students exchanging thoughts: "Professor Chang's class is still the most interesting."

"Yeah, I find memorizing vocabulary boring now. I wish I could talk about things we're familiar with in English, like Teacher Chang does."

Wang Dezhong felt a little uneasy when he heard this.

During the last break, Wang Dezhong saw Abudu holding his English textbook, actively practicing the English expression for "spraying pesticide with cotton" with Chang Peng. His earnestness was something he had never shown before. But he just wouldn't admit defeat, always feeling that "traditional methods are more solid."

After class, Wang Dezhong walked down the corridor and overheard several students talking: "Teacher Wang's class is so boring, it's all grammar and vocabulary, it's not interesting at all."

"It would be great if Teacher Wang could also collaborate with Dalian, so I could broaden my horizons."

Wang Dezhong stood there, privately pondering Chang Peng's method, and even secretly researching marine information in Dalian, wanting to try designing an interactive lesson.

But he was too embarrassed to ask Chang Peng for advice, and he was even more afraid that he would mess things up and be laughed at by the students.

The next day in class, Wang Dezhong reluctantly changed his approach. He drew a cotton bud on the blackboard and asked the students to describe it in English.

But as soon as he started to say, "Now let's use the present tense to describe cotton," the students below sighed, "Teacher, it's more interesting to talk to the students from Dalian. Just describing it is too boring."

Other students chimed in, "Yes, teacher, we want to talk to the students from Dalian!"

Wang Dezhong originally wanted to follow Chang Peng's example and make the class more lively, but without the collaboration between the two teachers and the interaction with the students from Dalian, he couldn't get the students interested at all by just drawing cotton on his own.

After class, Wang Dezhong sat in his office, watching Chang Peng discuss the topic of the next interactive class with the students, whose voices were full of anticipation. He finally couldn't resist and got up to go to Chang Peng's office.

When Wang Dezhong knocked on the door, Chang Peng was on the phone with Teacher Jiang. Seeing Wang Dezhong come in, he smiled and waved, "Teacher Wang, come and listen! Teacher Jiang said he could take the students from Dalian to see fishing boats next time, and we're talking about cotton processing here, so it's a perfect opportunity to collaborate!"

Wang Dezhong scratched his head, a little embarrassed, and said, "Chang Peng, I have something to tell you... Yesterday I tried to learn your method and had the students describe cotton in class, but the kids weren't interested. They even said they wanted to talk to the students in Dalian. I... I'd like to learn from you how to coordinate with Dalian."

Chang Peng paused for a moment, then laughed: "Teacher Wang, you should have said so earlier! It's not difficult at all. Let's decide on a theme with Teacher Jiang first, such as cotton products vs. ocean toys. Let the students bring their own cotton dolls, and the students from Dalian bring their seashell toys, and they can talk about it. It'll definitely be interesting!"

Wang Dezhong's eyes lit up. "That's right! How come I didn't think of that? We can also have the kids make up short stories in English, like 'The Cotton Doll Goes to the Beach.' That way, they can practice their spoken English and develop their imagination!"

Chang Peng said excitedly, "If we work together, we're sure we can make the kids love learning English even more!"

In Jiang Hengli's Chinese class, he stood on the podium, holding the textbook "My Hometown" in his hand, wishing he could immediately teach the students the essence of this text all at once.

In the past, whenever Runtu was mentioned, as long as he brought up the topic of what was the secret behind Runtu's changes, the classroom would immediately erupt in excitement.

"Teacher, this is due to the social context before and after the Xinhai Revolution. The oppression of feudal forces combined with imperialist aggression made the lives of the lower-class peasants increasingly difficult!"

"What kind of background does he have? To put it bluntly, he just lost his talent because he was poor. He was such a handsome boy when he was young, but he turned out like that when he grew up. It's all because he was poor."

"I feel sorry for Runtu. He dared to stab badger when he was a child, but he didn't dare to look up when he saw Xun Ge'er later."

Then, they chatted back and forth, their discussion ranging from Runtu's changes to the people's livelihood in old China, and then back to the people and events around them, making it exceptionally lively.

Once the students had finished their discussion, Jiang Hengli would then summarize the key points clearly, making the class both easy and efficient.

But inside this classroom, it was eerily quiet.

Jiang Hengli cleared his throat, deliberately making his voice sound friendly and infectious, even more patient than when he taught in Dalian: "Classmates, Runtu in Lu Xun's story was a lively and brave boy when he was young. He dared to poke the badger that was stealing melons in the melon field, dared to go to the beach with the adults to watch the tide, and could catch small birds and collect seashells at night. How amazing he was! But what about when he grew up?"

He became numb and dull, not daring to look Lu Xun in the eye, and even afraid to speak properly. Behind this lay the tragedy of an entire era. Who can tell me what you felt from the text?

As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of eyes stared at him.

Some looked bewildered, some were confused, and some simply lowered their heads.

Jiang Hengli's burning confidence was instantly extinguished by a bucket of cold water.

He prepared for this lesson for several days, staying up late to research Lu Xun's life, the rural background during the Republic of China era, and even found information about the prototype of Runtu. So why is no one buying it here?

He raised his voice again: "It's okay, any student can say something, even just a simple sentence. For example, if you feel sorry for Runtu, or you think the melon field in the text is interesting, or you even want to ask a question, you can say it. The teacher will not criticize you if you say something wrong."