Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas.
It’s the time that we can access to all knowledge, but there are still some children who cannot read anything apart from their curriculum. The only books that they access are their text books which company them all day long. I could not help feeling sad from their sincerely eyes. They read their text books day after day. They have nothing else to read. Even though, they still eager to learn. They focused on what I have told them beyond text books with curious and eyes wide open. I would like to describe them as hungry as a wolf, fearing their pray would be rubbed. Yes, knowledge is their food and books are their fields. If you want the field to be more fertile, you have to read more books. However, it is a luxury hope for them. It’s difficult for them to find an extra-curriculum book to read. They would be greatly pleased if there’s a book to read. All students in a class would share it. Because of poverty, they could not afford to buy books. Because of poverty, they had to spend their time with text books. Some of children have been left at home, for their parents had to work in the city. There’s no one to care their study. With books, we know and feel the world. When the children are facing the situation of no-books to read, we should do we can to help and make their life better. We initiated the activity named Books for Development, which aims to help the children to develop with the aid of “speechless teacher”. Original article written by Ruiping Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang
Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas.
When worked with school, the teachers and principal said they had tight class timetable and it was not easy to complete teaching tasks in a week. We did not have much experience working at schools, so we had to hear what they said which seemed reasonable to us. When we thought for the second time, we could not help thinking the reason for such situation. The traditional teaching methods made students learn passively. As the cooperating school is a primary school and the participants are students from 2 grade-five classes. We did not start our teaching time with traditional methods. We watched them and tried to know what they were interested in, so that we could improve their capacity and grades in an easy way. For some time, we found they learned more from what they were interested in. With the information, we organized timetable. The picture above is about the story triggered the interesting of the students. They did not prepare paper, so when the instruction was sent, they learned to solve problem in a quick way. The girl named Lingling took out 2 pieces of paper and started to fold a little vegetable basket. It took a few steps to fold a basket. Apart from its shape, she had to make some decoration. We could see she was doing a nice basket which she did carefully. When I was watching Lingling doing handicraft, I reminded I had watching the children in the city who did their handicrafts with fine materials. The things were nice, but there was something missed which might be spirit or emotions. It’s better to cooperate in their interested learning atmosphere for children. They were willing to share when they were happy. The picture above shows Lingling was demonstrating on how to make basket to her classmates. The scene was as it in the village of 1980s. I admire their learning capacity. Handwork made 50% of the class time. Although some of them did not finish their works, they were happy. For the rest of 20 minutes, the children became focus on what I was teaching. The efficiency was out of expectation. I hope they would learn efficiently with our instructions and let them to spend a happy childhood. Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang  Bingbing and her whole family Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas. Li Bingbing is a 14-year-old girl and is unable to walk independently. She is extremely bright and ranks top 10 in her class, but her disability makes life very difficult for her and her family. For over 10 years, her mother had been taking care of her. Last year however, her mother passed away due to leukemia, leaving the 4 children and her father behind. To take care of the children, dad is staying home and working temp jobs around town. Grandma does all the cooking and housework but is getting old and the work is taking toll on her body. Li Bingbing’s younger sister tries to take on that responsibility since her older sister can't.
Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang
 Ruya got her allowances for education Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas. We were able to provide scholarships to 20 children in Ningxia province. We ran into some problems with distribution, as many of the families have moved since. These are all issues we have to take into consideration for the future. Here are some of our recipients: Huang Ruya’s mother collects grass and weeds and sells them for income. Shen Tongneng's parents work throughout the weekend and her and her brothers are left unsupervised for days. Ma Longhao’s father passed and his mother left. His uncle has been taking care of him. Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang
Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas. The China Health Promotion Foundation and Health Culture and Life Foundation launched at the "Health Cup Project" this summer in China's Ningxia Province. The goal of the project is to bring awareness to a little known problem. Many remote areas reuse plastic bottles as cups .These cups are used over and over again, at times in scorching heat. Our problem may seem simple, but in many areas these public education campaigns can save lives. The project gave out free non-toxic, heat resistance cups to these students. Hopefully, they can help spread the message to their communities, as well as the outside world. Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang
 Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas. Winter holiday is late in 2014. When we were preparing activities during winter holiday, the students were preparing for their final exam. When we came to the project site and held the first activity in the new year, most of the children were waiting for their final scores. We were not in rush. As I was born and grew up in the village, I understood situations. In a few days, the children would come back with their exam scores. At that time, Mingda will be the place they want to visit most. We were doing preparation for their coming. Thank TFish who bought an induction cooker for us. We enjoy the convenience which improves our serve enthusiasm. We prepare lessons, eat and talk together. We also discussed the issues on development of Guanshan district, improvement of accompany for left-behind children and teenagers and home visit. I have some of my own ideas. In rural areas, we should care more about the internal development of the students, instead of school grades. We should pay more attention to the students’ behaviors, instead of how many English words they memorize. I know some parents have different ideas or even opposite opinions, but I still insist on my own ways. I will not follow their likes or just copy from the school. In this money-centered society, each of us tries to get what we want, but in rural areas, the children are fighting against their fate toughly. Their goal is to get rid of poverty. In the city, most of the children work to achieve the goal made by their parents. Parents are steering their dream from kindergarten to university. Anyway, the dreams of rural children belong to their own dreams, though their parents urge them to study hard before being admitted by university. In the city, parents paved a way for their children with all kinds of connections. In rural areas, the children have to decide their own future. In comparison, the later may have more happiness. For the rural areas, poverty is an obstacle. We are hopeful. Though there are difficulties, we still provide spiritual food for the children. We hope to provide a relaxing place for the children to learn. Study is an activity, instead of a burden. If the children start to feel that study is a kind of burden, study has lost its original meaning. Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang
Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas. I felt somewhat worried about beginning this topic. I was planning to teach the students about puberty. When I talked about it with the volunteers, they blushed. They asked me why we should talk about this subject with the children in remote areas. Why not? Why can't children in the remote areas accept such basic education? I remembered when I was a middle school student, our teacher asked us to read books about puberty. But most of the students would only do the required homework, chat, or play, so I did not receive any education about puberty when I was a teenager. When I finally reached university, I found I had missed out on knowledge that I should have gained in middle school by reading those books. Though the mountainous areas tend to have more conservative thoughts, we still hope our children can gain knowledge that is appropriate for their age. We should not avoid this important topic. Though it was a lecture, the content was related to physical health. The volunteers attended this lecture with the students. They were told to speak freely, using words that they were normally too shy to speak. The children realized that there was nothing to be worried about. Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Vanne He
On July 29, 2013, Sarah, Janna (interns from the USA), and I visited the Mingda School. We left Lanzhou at 8:30 in the morning and arrived at Jingning at 12:30. We finally arrived at Xiji at 16:00. We met Teacher Zhang and visited the project - the Mingda School - on July 30.
The school is located in a small yard at the foot of a hill. The red tiles are quite obvious, especially in the middle of the green trees. The bookshelves have not been completed yet. There are 2 shelves at the moment. Some books were donated, and I am thankful for that. The reading room is the same room as the dormitory. With the expansion of the school, we expect to see more reading rooms. The two girls from the USA were popular among the children. They held a vivid, American-style English class for the children in spite of their fatigue from the journey. Original article written by Yujie Yun, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang Mingda School pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas. It rained a lot this summer holiday. We planned to enroll students on the 8th, and begin classes on the 10th, but the rain lasted for several days. We had prepared for the students to come enroll, but they could not access the school from the village. On the 5th rainy day, we went to the village, but it began to rain the next day. We were not sure how long the rain would last. The weather forecast was confusing. The experienced villagers said it would rain for many days. A volunteer from Shanxi Normal University could not afford so much leisure time so she asked to leave early. She agreed to stay for one more week, but we still could not start to enroll the students. The children had just started their holiday, and they needed to rest for some time. The rain added many inconveniences to life in the village. The volunteer decided to walk 3 kilometers to the village, the only place that has a bus to the city. She told me she didn't need me to accompany her to the bus station. It rained the whole night, and it was still raining in the morning when she left. Luckily, she sent me a text alerting me to her safe arrival in Xi’an. The students at Ningxia Normal University are taking their final exams. The final exams come late at this school. Perhaps these students need more time to prepare. Most of the university students went back home afterwards or found summer jobs. I am wondering when the volunteer teachers will come here. I cannot get a confirmed answer whenever I call. Maybe they need more time to take care of their own things. Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang
Mingda School pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas. The Rainbow Village just purchased 500 books for teenagers. The books were sent to the Mingda School yesterday. Fen Hu drove to drop off the books. Li Jia just went to take a look. When he arrived at our teaching site, he commented on the difficult path I have chosen for my career. I think it just makes up for my hubris when I was young. Working here helps me to think rationally. I used to work at the office of a state-owned school and I showed no interest in things unrelated to me, so it took courage to give it up. Eventually I was moved because of transformations taking place at the school and as a result of my persistence. Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang
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