School life at Tsingua International School (THIS) isn’t just limited to academics – being a student here means not only spending time and effort on studies, but also becoming involved in school activities and using these activities as opportunities to learn outside of an academic setting and discover new interests. Though there are a lot of clubs and sports teams at THIS for students to participate in, there are also many special events that happen during the year and here are some of them.

Arts Festival
Every May, the students and teachers of THIS take a day to celebrate the arts and share the year’s works of art with the entire school. After talking with Ms. Peters, it’s safe to say that from performances to installations, the THIS Arts Festival is an event not to be missed.

Ms. Peters: “It is a beautiful way to showcase our students’ talents without the usual academic component.  It is clear that students are inspired as well as skillful at expressing their interests. Art gives us an alternative. It is not about ‘getting it right’ or fulfilling a task someone pushes on you, but finding an area of freedom in us that allows us take an active role in shaping our thoughts and our environment.”

International Day
Another popular event in May is International Day, a day where every homeroom is assigned a country and together, we have a big fair with booths representing each country. Students can go around and learn about other cultures, listen to different music, and try out different foods. The fair, called Global Village, also has a number of performances from homerooms that demonstrate their interpretations of the culture of their assigned country. This is a time when you can see remakes of  ‘The Fox’ right after a traditional tango, eat a dumpling, and then have some Danish cake. The gathering of different people and cultures in our little THIS community is a truly unique experience.

Stella Huang (Grade 10): “International Day was an opportunity for everyone to learn about different cultures by ‘being’ that culture, instead of simply reading about them from textbooks. It really opened up my view.”

Prom
For most high schools, one of the biggest events (arguably, the biggest) would be prom.  At THIS, prom is a chance for sophomores and juniors to have fun and for seniors to relish in one of their last events as high school students. On the last day of May, students gathered at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Beijing, dressed in lavish gowns and polished suits, enjoying the last of May together with a barbecue dinner in the garden, and a night of dancing in the ballroom. Prom 2014, themed “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” was a magical night for everyone who attended. From fairy lights to the faint summer breeze, this year’s prom was a dream indeed.

Philip Mo (Grade 12): "My favorite part of prom was definitely dancing with my date. To me, prom symbolizes the end of bad days. It’s a new beginning."

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com     

Photo courtesy of Rhea Jiang

When you walk through a school, it’s usually pretty easy to tell who’s a teacher and who’s a student. However, here at THIS, there’s one teacher who seems to possess the magical ability to blend in. If you just walk by a crowd, you’d never guess that the cheery person chatting with students is actually the high school chemistry teacher, Ms. O.

Ms. O’s friendly, lighthearted attitude, dedication to teaching, and diligence is what makes her my favorite teacher. She’s very enthusiastic about teaching chemistry, and is always looking to share that passion with her students. In class, she’s lively, creative, and patient, stopping to make sure everyone understands, telling us unique ways to remember formulas, and coming up with cool lab ideas to make learning chemistry more hands-on. Her approach allows us students to become much more involved, and makes chemistry class a much more engaging experience in general.

I’ve never been a science person. I’ve always preferred finding a good novel to read, and I’ve also never been particularly good at any science related subject. So I came into chemistry class at the beginning of the year feeling a little anxious and scared (the rumors of chemistry being a very hard subject didn’t help). However, Ms. O’s passion about her subject and eagerness to teach really opened up my eyes and made me realize that chemistry is not just a subject we’re forced to learn in school – it’s the study of our world, and what holds our world together. Things got a little challenging at times, and Ms. O was always there to help, patiently answering questions and explaining principles. She helped me become confident in a subject I had never studied before, helping me realize that chemistry wasn’t as difficult as I’d imagined and that studying chemistry is something meaningful and worthwhile.

Outside of class, Ms. O is easygoing, cheerful, and fun to talk to, which makes her just as good of a friend as she is a teacher – we’re able to talk about music, movies, and especially, share our doodles on the whiteboard in the chemistry classroom. She’s always very imaginative and has a great sense of humor, laughing along with us as we create our “masterpieces” in the time between classes or during homeroom.

As a teacher, Ms. O is enthusiastic, patient, and devoted. As a friend, Ms. O is positive, inspiring, and supportive. In the future, when I’m asked the question, “Who was your favorite teacher,” I’ll always smile because this question will bring back so many enjoyable memories of wonderful people like Ms. O who not only taught me valuable things, but also encouraged me to become a better student and person.

When did you come to China, and why?
My first year here was 2012, in September. This is my second year here at THIS. I came here because I wanted to teach internationally, and I’m also part Chinese. However, I’d never visited China before, so I took this as an opportunity to also learn about the culture.

What made you decide to become a teacher?
Right after college, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, so I ended up applying to a bunch of companies. I spent three years working for a finance company, but after a while I didn’t know if I wanted to continue that career, so I tried to figure out what it was that I really liked. I had always been involved with tutoring throughout college and I loved high school, so I think I found teaching to be a more interesting and meaningful job.

Why did you specifically decide to teach high school chemistry?
My chemistry teacher in high school was very inspiring, and I studied chemistry in college. When I thought about what I wanted to teach, it was the first thing that came to mind. It’s a high school subject, so I ended up teaching here at the high school. I always like high school students because they have their own unique ideas and opinions that are really funny and interesting, and they’re also more mature. I love watching everyone strive towards their own goals, and that becomes really evident in high school.

What would you call one of your greatest successes as a teacher, or what is something you’re really proud of as a teacher?
This year, every student successfully completed their science fair project, and that’s a success on both my part and the students’ – they were all independent projects students took on themselves with minimal guidance from me, yet they were all complete and well made. I’m very proud of all my students and their achievements in the science fair.

What is one thing you really look forward to in your future teaching career?
Continuing to teach but being able to hear about my past students’ lives, hearing about what they’ve accomplished, and where they’ve been. That’s something I really look forward to.

What is one big challenge you’ve faced while teaching?
As a chemistry teacher, students don’t always come in with a very positive attitude about my subject. A lot of students are scared of it, and hesitant to learn it. My goal is to erase the negative thoughts students have about chemistry and help them enjoy it more, and not find it as scary as they had originally thought. Sometimes that can be a challenge.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com

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