Xingzhi Migrant Art School is a non-profit organization that offers art lessons for the children of migrant workers who otherwise would not have this opportunity. This update was written by Director Gu, the founder of and a teacher at the Art School in Beijing.

With the support of TFish in 2013, the Xingzhi Migrant Art School opened courses for children of migrant families. This is the first time we cooperated with TFish Foundation and it’s also the first time we worked with people from outside of the school.

Our course aims to help the children of migrant families. The students’ number increased to 88 this semester. 65 students are in the junior class whose ages are from 6 to 12, 23 students are in senior class whose age are from 13 to 18. The lessons we offer to them are English and graphic design. The Senior class has about 364 hours for English and junior class has about 156 hours. 728 hours were set aside for the  senior class in graphic design and 156 hours for the junior class.

English is not easy for the students, because they have almost no preexisting knowledge. They had to study the language from scratch. The other problem is their ages are varied a lot and their study capabilities are quite different. At the beginning, the teacher had to take care of the students who were slow, so the course developed slowly. Gu Xiaocheng, the founder of the school, discussed with the English teacher how to solve the problem. After discussion, their found a way to take care of the students who made slow progress. The quick learners help the younger students or relatively slow learners after class. Thanks to this plan, each student's English level improved 1 year later. They can now do a self introduction and perform basic communication.

The mutual-help study method was also implemented in painting. The capable students teach other students how to choose materials and help them learn new drawing techniques and relevant software. 

Xingzhi Migrant Art School is a non-profit organization that offers art lessons for the children of migrant workers who otherwise would not have this opportunity. This update was written by Director Gu, the founder of and a teacher at the Art School in Beijing.

Respectable staff of Transparent Fish,   
        
All teachers and students of Xingzhi Migrant Art School thank you so much for your support. So far, 65 persons have benefited from your support. Through training, the children have achieved a lot in graphic designs and English, which reached our goals.

Xingzhi Migrant Art School was set up in March of 2007. 300 persons have been trained, who are children from migrant families. With 7 years’ efforts, Teacher Gu gave training for the children for free. They grew up to skillful and confident juveniles. Some of them had never held a paintbrush before, not even art class. Now they could create realism works on their own, such as 100-meter long mural painting, decoration design and home design.
During the period, Teacher Gu met financial difficulties. TFish gave a great deal of support so that English and graphic design courses could be going smoothly, which created opportunities to students and removed heavy burdens from Teacher Gu.

Xingzhi Migrant Art School is a non-profit organization that offers art lessons for the children of migrant workers who otherwise would not have this opportunity. This update was written by Director Gu, the founder of and a teacher at the Art School in Beijing. 

Our new course-- Graphic Design—has started. Gu is the teacher. Seeing his blood-shot eyes and the materials he had prepared for us, we knew he must have been staying up late to prepare the course for us. He must have checked and read many documents to find the knowledge that would suit us. We knew he must have been tired, for he just had a heart stents operation. He gave us a lot and nothing can be compared to his generosity. 

WE want to thank TFish for their support, for we have another teacher now. The students will work hard and cherish every learning opportunity. Our new teacher, Mr. Liu, will give us lessons on plane structure. 

Original article written by Xiaochen Gu, translated by Maggie Li, Edited by Yanyan Zhang

Xingzhi Migrant Art School is a non-profit organization that offers art lessons for the children of migrant workers who otherwise would not have this opportunity. This update was written by Director Gu, the founder of and a teacher at the Art School.

Thegraphic design course at our school has opened. Before the design course, I thought art was random decoration. In the course, Teacher Gu and Liu gave us a detailed explanation of graphic art. I got to know that design is not as simple as I have considered. It can be divided into various categories: furniture, gardening, home decoration, architecture, cartoon, etc., and each category can be divided into even more subcategories. All in all, it’s an amazing course. I am also curious about the word “design”. 

Original article written by Xiaochen Gu, translated by Maggie Li, Edited by Yanyan Zhang

Xingzhi Migrant Art School is a non-profit organization that offers art lessons for the children of migrant workers who otherwise would not have this opportunity. This update was written by Director Gu, the founder of and a teacher at the Art School in Beijing. 

Before the Dragon Boat Festival, Teacher Gu led our students on a study tour to the National Art Museum for its 50th anniversary exhibition. 

Gu Xiaochen introduced the students to the development of modern art and hosted an art appreciation class. 

Original article written by Xiaochen Gu, translated by Maggie Li, Edited by Yanyan Zhang

Xingzhi Migrant Art School is a non-profit organization that offers art lessons for the children of migrant workers who otherwise would not have this opportunity. This update was written by Director Gu, the founder of and a teacher at the Art School.

We had English speaking class today. Teacher Luo gave us a topic—self introduction and introduction of friends. She gave each of us a model conversation. After learning some sentences, we began to practice within group. Then we had 5 minutes to select our topic. It’s time to do presentation. We picked up the group losing in paper, stone and scissors game to do presentation first. Each group would speak no less than 3 minutes. No Chinese during conversation. Some students set their scene in the classroom, some of them in the library or birthday party. Teacher Luo said English learning can be flexible. The scenes can be various. Our pronunciation developed a lot through practice. 

TFish support our English communication course and 25 people were benefited from the course. 

Original article written by Xiaochen Gu, translated by Maggie Li, Edited by Yanyan Zhang

Xingzhi Migrant Art School is a non-profit organization that offers art lessons for the children of migrant workers who otherwise would not have this opportunity. This update was written by Director Gu, the founder of and a teacher at the Art School.

In the teacher Luo’s English class, you can see active atmosphere. The students are happy to have English classes. English is important for them, for they were anxious but unable to speak when foreigners or foreign organizations came and visited the art class. With language barrier, they could not introduce their works and the school. Visitors just saw their paintings and the students could not understand what they were talking about.

I am glad to see their attentiveness during the English classes. Every one of them wants to learn English and do something for the school. I witnessed their efforts. They value every period of English class, though their English is poor. With the instruction and guidance of teachers, I believe they will improve. 

Original article written by Xiaochen Gu, translated by Maggie Li, Edited by Yanyan Zhang

Xingzhi Migrant Art School is a non-profit organization that offers art lessons for the children of migrant workers who otherwise would not have this opportunity. This update was written by Director Gu, the founder of and a teacher at the Art School.

I saw your photo accidentally today and I turned to the door of the art classroom. Looking outside, my eyes were full of tears. It seems I get a talkative ability, but it seems so hard for me to express my feelings at the moment. I was happy by seeing your smile.   

Thinking of the time when we were walking along the playground of the school, the time when we spent under the phoenix tree, you helped me how to comb and set my hair, it seems everything happened just yesterday. Every time when I walked along the road to school, I could not help noticing one of the trees, because you had carved my name and your name on the one of them.

Xingzhi Migrant Art School is a non-profit organization that offers art lessons for the children of migrant workers who otherwise would not have this opportunity. This update was written by Director Gu, the founder of and a teacher at the Art School.

The purpose of teaching English to let the students expand what they have learned and gain knowledge from different parts of the world. With the development of the Xingzhi Migrant Art School, more foreigners have been coming and visiting the School. They tend to ask Director Gu questions involving educational idea and method, the works of the students, the themes of the drawings, symbols, inspirations, etc. Most of the students can't answer such questions, and many interpreters can't understand well what the children want to express, leading to confusion among teachers and students. If our students could communicate with the foreign visitors directly and talk about their works, the understanding between the two sides can be vastly improved.

The students were very happy that they started to learn English. Our English teacher taught the 26 alphabets and their pronunciations for the first period. Then the students learned some simple sentences. They enjoyed English classes very much and everyone worked hard. 

Original article written by Xiaochen Gu, translated by Maggie Li, Edited by Yanyan Zhang