“Time of On-line Class”

As the world situation changes drastically and the impact of the epidemic continues, the word VUCA is destined to be a prominent label for 2022 as well. When facing drastic changes at both macro and micro levels, we should not panic and lose our senses. Instead, we should stay clam, hold on to our values, reflect carefully, plan ahead, and handle the sudden changes with prudence and steadiness.

March 11 (Friday), 2022 is a day to be remembered. During the morning P&B session, Shanghai Hongrun Boyuan School (SHBS), in consideration of the serious epidemic situation in some neighborhoods, encouraged its students to stay on campus at weekends, and put in place a corresponding supporting system, including canteen service, self-study rooms, and teachers on duty, etc., to ensure that it is safe and convenient for students. While having classes per usual, we received a notice from the relevant government department: all SHBS members shall take the Covid test this afternoon. Therefore, the administration and logistics staff entered the “war readiness” state and took measures promptly: collecting personnel information, communicating with external and internal parties, preparing the test stands, informing parents, etc., while the teaching routines remained unimpacted at all. We needed to respond to this emergency in a prompt and orderly manner, which tested our ability. When all community members finished their tests smoothly and efficiently, we felt relieved for a while.

“Start with Myself”

However, later in the evening, we received the notice from Shanghai Municipal Commission of Education: all K12 schools shall switch to online teaching. No prelude and pre-warning, just decisions and actions. In the face of the epidemic, life and health are above all else. We resolutely obeyed and strictly implemented this regulation and continued to respond to this sudden change in a calm and prompt manner. SHBS administration board held emergency meetings, analyzed the situation, prioritized the tasks, divided the work, clarified the responsibilities and rolled out the preparatory work quickly based on their previous experience. First, a letter was sent to all teachers, students, and parents, advising parents to pick up their children and brought back home all the learning materials they needed for online class; as for several students who had difficulty going back home, the school arranged accommodation and provided for them a safe and sound learning environment on campus. Secondly, we held online meetings for all teachers, students, and parents on Sunday afternoon to explain the transitional timetable, class requirements, attendance rules and expectations, etc., to prepare everyone for this online transition. We adjusted our timetable to give the students reasonable break time to relax their eyes and yet keep the same amount of academic learning at the same time. We teamed up a group of Teaching Assistants, mainly administration and logistics staff, to specialize on taking attendance and reminding the students if they are not in class on time or don’t meet the requirements, so that teachers can focus on teaching. All in all, we did our utmost to ensure the quality of online teaching, transferring our teaching requirements from offline to online and giving full play to the unique advantages of online courses at the same time.

Through intense and orderly preparation, we completed the "transition" and started our online classes on Monday successfully. P&B, academic classes, CAS, student union activities, faculty meetings, etc., went on as usual. We once again stood the test. As Tao exists in Yin and Yang, "crisis" also comes with "opportunity." It is because of the dedicated co-effort of faculty, students, and parents that we can turn this crisis into an opportunity.

In one challenge after another, our resilience gets stronger. Connotations of the values and principles we uphold to deal with drastic changes are richer and clearer. Our path ahead is brighter and clearer, and our steps are firmer and steadier. In this blossoming spring season, we look forward to bright smiles and pray for peace and prosperity for the world.

【Sources from：Shanghai Hongrun Boyuan School】