On the morning of August 17, Principal Chris gave us a talk on “boundaries” in the school dancing room. When it comes to “boundaries”, we are most likely to think of the “boundaries” between parents and kids. Do parents, when entering their kid's room, knock on the door and get approval before entering, rather than just open the door and go in? Or can’t they help opening the diary in their kid's drawer when they notice something wrong? Should kids have their own space and privacy? All these can be explained by the concept of "boundaries". There is so much to learn and pay attention to about boundaries.

What kind of “boundaries” exist in our daily life then? Inspired by Chris, teachers gave a variety of answers.

boundary of cultural differences

People with different cultural backgrounds may react differently to the same practice.

boundary of time

Don’t disturb others too early or to late in the day.

(boundary of space)

Keep a healthy social distance.

"Boundaries" can be found in every aspect of life. Each of us will have all kinds of connections with other people. Developing a sense of boundary will not only avoid disturbing others, but also enable us to protect ourselves.

As teachers, when working on campus and facing students, we must build our own boundaries.

We must always remind ourselves: "We are adults and professionals. As faculty and staff, we shoulder great responsibilities entrusted to us by parents, meanwhile we must be responsible for ourselves and for the community we live in -- we need to create a safe, healthy and respectful environment where everyone in the community can live, learn and grow happily. We are also setting an example for our kids with our own behavior, so we must try our best to the best role models."

"We are the kids’ teachers in the first place, and then their friends in the second." Each year, the school offers teachers one training session on boundaries to help them establish appropriate boundaries for communicating with each other and getting along with kids and parents.

On the afternoon of August 18, Dr. Sheri Rosen gave us a lecture, and all teachers benefited a lot from it. “Understanding the differences in learning styles” sounded easy, but actually it required every teacher to contemplate.

Dr. Sheri Rosen first launched a group discussion among the teachers on those special kids they had encountered -----they might have common behavioral problems, such as refusing to take assignments seriously, social withdrawal and anxiety, etc. These behavioral problems were often mistaken for behaving badly at school, leaving the underlying reasons brashly ignored and kids failing to get the real help they need.

By drawing on the knowledge of psychology, Dr. Sheri Rosen helped us realize that individual students are vastly different from each other, and as their educators and guides, we should not get caught up in a fierce power struggle with children, but instead, we should discover and find the different underlying characteristics or challenges in each individual, and try to provide targeted help for them.

Dr. Rosen mentioned "gifted student with academic disabilities" in her lecture, which easily made people associate those kids with Will in the movie “Good Will Hunting”, who is extremely talented in mathematics, but is a "problematic boy" who cannot face up to his super talent. Mr. Lambeau, a teacher who discovered him, had no idea what to do with him, and all his efforts had just produced the opposite effects. He could do nothing but watch a "genius" waste his talent. But in the end, Mr. Sean kept trying and managed to find the hidden obstacles behind Will's behavior and helped Will step out of the shadow of his childhood.

Every teacher should learn from Mr. Sean and try to understand each individual and their differences, and thus respect their different learning styles. Education is just like this. Only when we have a deep understanding of their differences and face them can we finally help every kid live a brilliant life.