Reflecting on Washington, D.C. in Mandarin

The following reflection by Lin Cheng is part of a series of blog posts written by THINK Global School faculty members to showcase their thoughts and experiences from a recent weXplore trip to Washington, D.C. Lin’s blog was written in his native Mandarin language, with the English translation following after. To view the entire conversation, visit us on Spot.

Original Reflection in Mandarin:

为期一周的华盛顿游学活动结束了。坐在回波士顿的列车上，大家慢慢都睡着了。虽然在这一周内，我么走了很多路，起早贪黑。但是回想起来，我们在这一周内所看到的，听到的，学到的知识是那么的丰富，多样。而这些经历是无法从课本上学到的。包括自由新闻博物馆，二战集中营纪念馆，自然博物馆，艾未未艺术展，白宫，华盛顿纪念馆，总统大楼等等景点都给我们留下了深刻的印象。

当然，除了参观各种景点，我们也有幸和当地一些政府官员和学者们有所交流。学生们积极参与了讨论并提出了很多有深度的问题。我相信通过这些互动，学生们都为他们的研究课题找到了一些新的观点和证据。作为老师，我也从中收获不少。其中最让我记忆深刻的是和格雷格先生关于教育话题的讨论。在TGS，我们鼓励学生独立思考，而不是硬性地接纳知识。格雷格先生提到在教育中学生的创新能力和自主观点非常容易被教师的观点所影响。虽然我在教学中已经极力避开自己的观点影响学生，但是发现很多时候在不注意的情况下已经悄悄影响了学生的判断力。格雷格先生和我在这个问题上看法一致，觉得应该尽量为学生提出思考问题而不是简单的告诉他们什么是什么。因为学生在通过思考和检索的过程中，在筛选论证的过程中，他们会产生自己的看法和观点。而这正是一名国际化优秀学生所需要的能力。希望将来在教学中能够注意拓展学生思维，培养不同观点。

总之，在这一周的收获很多。希望不久后纽约之旅将会有更加丰富精彩的学习经历。

Translation:

The weeklong Washington D.C. trip was over. All of the students felt tired and exhausted on the train back to Boston. When we look back at the trip, it was so full of excitement. What we have seen, what we have heard, what we have learned are so incredible in both quantity and diversity. However, most of the experience is hard to find in textbooks.

Of course, besides all the cool places we have visited in D.C., we also had chances to interact with some incredibly honorable speakers. Students passionately participated in the discussions and asked some very good in-depth questions. I believe by participating in the activities, our students have collected a lot of evidence for their research topics. As a teacher myself, I have learned much from the trip. One of the most impressive conversations I had was with Mr. Greg Simon. At TGS, we encourage students to think instead of just absorbing information from the teachers without thinking. Greg mentioned that the abilities to be creative and an independent thinker are very important in education. In my teaching, I have tried to avoid inputting my own values onto students. However, it might have affected students’ independent judgments gradually. I agreed with Greg that it might be good to let students do research on certain topics by asking them quality questions. Students develop their ability to think by filtering info and processing data, and only then will they be able to create their own points of view on debated issues. And this is what they need to become a global student.

In summary, the D.C. trip was amazing. To quote from TGS about my learning from the trip: Don’t teach me what to think. Teach me how to think.