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祖国生日这天，Penni & Lady Lion 为大家带来国庆连载特辑。来信人是芬兰Hermanni学校校长Lisa Paavilainen。刚收到我们邀请时，她说给她点时间思考，因为信中提及的问题不是一两句话就能说清楚的。大约过了一周，她给我们回复了一封长邮件。今天，先从她的教育故事开始看起。

请读：

我从来没打算成为一个教育者。相反地，我还对自己说，永远不要成为一名老师，因为我不认为自己能当好老师。生活就是这样，我学会了永远不要说“永远”。后来，我成了一名老师，开始教英语和德语，教特殊儿童，最后成了一名校长。

进入教育领域之后，我开始质疑标准化的学习材料、教材和考试，以及“每个人都应该在同样的时间、以同样的方式、学习同样的课程”这个观念。我不再专注于教授学科知识，而是根据每个学生的不同特点进行教学，并且努力帮每个人寻找适合他们发展的道路。

我意识到，如果能够给学生启迪、让他们充满干劲，他们就能真正地从学习中受益。他们会更理解学习的价值，从而充满热情地学习。出于这些考虑，我不再直接把答案告诉我的学生，而是提出问题，向他们寻求答案。当他们遇到难题感到困惑，尝试着找出解决方法时，我会鼓励他们继续思考，并且适时地提出其他问题，让他们接受更多的思维挑战。我让学生去收集他们真正感兴趣的信息，用他们自己的语言写作，在此基础上教他们文法知识。他们的进步也特别明显。

这种教学方法非常成功，适用于从小学到初高中的不同年龄段学生。然而，对老师来讲，这却绝非易事。作为老师，我必须改变传统的教学方式，跳出自己的“舒适区”，允许同一个班级的学生做各种各样“纷繁杂乱”的事情。不过这也有好处。我有机会坐在任何一个遇到困难的学生旁边，提供个性化的、有针对性的帮助。我看到学生的眼睛亮起来了，这就是对我最大的奖赏，无价的奖赏。

I never planned on becoming an educator. The opposite, actually. I promised myself NEVER to become a teacher because I didn’t think I would be any good at it. Life happens, though, and I learned never to say ‘never’. I became an English and German teacher and later on a Special teacher and eventually a principal.

Once in the field, I found myself doubting standardized material, textbooks and tests, and the notion that everyone should learn the same material in the same way in the same given time. I changed my focus from teaching subject matter to teaching my students and opening doors for each of them individually. I realized that if I can motivate my students and inspire them, they would indeed learn. They would learn meaningfully and with passion. I started asking them questions instead of giving them answers. I started challenging their thinking and cheering them on when they were solving problems and puzzling ideas. I had them searching for information that really interested them and then I started teaching them language patterns through their own language productions. And they started making progress with leaps and bounds. So far the same method has been successful with all different age groups from elementary to secondary education. However, for the teacher it means jumping outside of any kind of comfort zone and living with a seemingly chaotic scene of students doing different things within the same class setting. On the other hand, it gives me the opportunity to sit next to anyone struggling and to offer individual and targeted help. The reward is seeing ‘a light bulb’ light up in the student’s eyes. It’s priceless.

感谢堆堆志愿者YinYin的翻译。

你有教育故事或教育观点与大家分享吗？

欢迎来信：lei.peng@jmdedu.com 或 chuying.liang@jmdedu.com.