Entering the Minds of Students - Junior High School - Xu Huabin

Students enjoy my physics class. Inside and outside the classroom, students like to discuss problems with me, share their mistakes and errors, and share their joys, sorrows, and even secrets from their lives; to see the experimental phenomena or the blackboard clearly, students can sit in the front row; during discussions or peer-to-peer assistance sessions, students can go to any classmate to discuss and exchange ideas; students can express their learning emotions at any time: when the learning content is relatively simple, the classroom atmosphere is very relaxed and pleasant, often filled with laughter; when the learning content is more difficult, some students will cry in front of me after class, throw their books, venting their frustrations, and I do not scold them.

This always makes me feel intoxicated. I believe that getting into the hearts of students and establishing a good teacher-student relationship is a dual requirement of educational responsibility and teaching art.

Physics is abstract and not easy to learn. There are many students with poor learning foundation and failing grades, but I never discriminate against or give up on them, instead focusing on praise and encouragement. I also call on classmates in the same group and class to care for and help their learning, so that every student receives care and respect. I pay attention to giving students of every level the opportunity to perform, with problems of different difficulty levels answered by students of different levels, especially finding ways to give “struggling students” opportunities to perform. In class, whenever a “struggling student” answers a question correctly, I have the whole class applaud to congratulate them. After a period of time, whenever a “struggling student” answers correctly, the whole class is in tacit understanding, applauding, shouting, and praising exaggeratedly. The “struggling student” feels the warmth of the collective, gradually regains confidence, and gradually increases their interest in learning physics. 欧阳思义 from class 903 had poor grades in all subjects. Once, I deliberately had him correctly answer a simple question and praised him, saying: “You are not欧阳思义, you are incredible!” The classmates laughed, and he was also encouraged and began to study physics seriously. Now, he has passed several physics exams, and this semester's final exam he achieved a good score of 52 points.

In order to inspire the learning potential of “struggling students” and build their confidence, I always choose the students with the worst physics grades to be the physics class representatives, two at a time, requiring them to pass the physics exams twice in a row within half a semester. Over the course of a semester, in the two classes I teach, 803 and 903, a total of eight students have become physics class representatives. Three students, 王思博 and 吕秋悦 from class 803, and 何杨 from class 903, achieved their goal and were honorably “retired,” while the remaining five students also passed intermittently. All the “struggling students” who became class representatives showed a significant increase in their self-discipline and their physics grades improved significantly, with many students vying to become physics class representatives. The facts show that to improve academic performance, we must start by building confidence, increasing interest, and making students want to learn and be able to learn.

A female student surnamed Cheng in class 903 had consistently poor grades, lost confidence in learning, and became self-defeating, either dozing off or daydreaming in class. I asked her to sit in the front row to listen to the lecture, but she refused after one time, saying that her classmates didn't like her and she felt uncomfortable sitting in the middle. When I talked to her, she said without hesitation: “I don't like physics, what am I doing not sleeping?” I said: “You don't dislike physics, you just don't understand the class, right? Don't worry, take it slow!” From then on, I paid more attention to her in class. At first, as long as I found her listening, I would praise her for being able to listen attentively; later, as long as I found her listening, I would deliberately ask her a simple question, let her answer correctly, and praise her for being able to answer correctly after effort, and have the whole class applaud to congratulate and encourage her. After a while, she stopped sleeping in physics class. But because she didn't understand, she still spaced out from time to time. Once, she spaced out again in class, so I stopped the class and said in front of the whole class: “Cheng ××, I will not give up on you!” The classmates laughed kindly, and her face turned red. From then on, she started to listen attentively. The classmates also actively cooperated with my work, inviting her to sit in the front row. After class, I promptly helped her with individual explanations and solved her learning difficulties; for more difficult problems, I told her not to worry about them yet and to master the basic questions first. Now, she consciously moves her chair to the first row for every class, and can correctly answer some physics questions. In December last year, in preparation for the parent-teacher meeting, she planned the agenda, prepared the speech, debugged the presentation with several other presenters, and was responsible for the presentation at the parent-teacher meeting—she has gained confidence and integrated into the class collective. Cheng's transformation makes me feel sincerely relieved. This kind of transformation is far more important than understanding a few physics problems; perhaps, it will even change the child's life.

Frozen three feet, not a day's cold; thawing ice, not a day's work. As long as teachers look at problems from the students' perspective more often, give students more care and help, and have more love and patience, students' silent hearts will surely be touched, the ice will surely be melted by the deep teacher's love, and teachers can truly enter the hearts of students. And when you enter the hearts of students, you will find that every student is so lovely, and the world of education and teaching is so clear and beautiful!