Guangyuan Project Activities Update
Guangyuan Teacher Librarian Training Graduation Ceremony & Project Experience Sharing Meeting
We are delighted to share that the first Guangyuang schools Teacher Librarian training graduation ceremony was held on July 13 at Nanying School. In total 30 teachers received the graduation certificates and 9 schools received “Book Fund” awards to acknowledge the positive progress achieved as they strive to improve their students’ reading environment over the 2021/22 school year.
Two graduate Teacher Librarians represented the group by sharing what they had learned from our courses and how they transferred these learnings after implementing changes to their work plan. These sessions were very impactful and practical examples of how to bring the joy of reading to their students. In addition, a project executive leader of their school and a School Principal also introduced thoughts and important factors regarding the construction of their inidividual campus reading environments. All of them reflected challenges faced as these concepts require time to be accepted and adopted. The Foundation and the Education Bureau will consider planning the project focus for the next academic year according to the needs highlighted in these sharing sessions by the schools.
Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) Online Seminar
The Foundation invited two speakers from “Reading For Taiwan” to host an online seminar titled “Sustained Silent Reading” on July 14. There were 444 online viewers, most of them are teachers from our partner schools located in Hefei, Guangyuan and Dalingshan.
Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) is a form of school-based free voluntary reading, where students read silently in a dedicated period every day. Both the Foundation and Reading For Taiwan emphasise the importance of this and encourage schools to incorporate SSR time into the school schedule. There have been numerous studies conducted that confirm gains in several literacy domains for students that have daily silent reading periods, thus creating healthy reading habits that improve learning.
The seminar is aimed at encouraging schools to optimize SSR activity in coming school semester and to implement the program to ensure maximum effectiveness. The speakers shared their experience on SSR promotion – both the positive and negative. They answered teachers’ concerns and questions collected from the questionnaire circulated before the seminar. In doing this, the attendees of the seminar were able to understand the challenges faced and to plan accordingly. The good progress points were celebrated and these factors are embedded in the program plan to ensure continued success.
Recording of the seminar (in Chinese only): http://www.cysffreading.org/news/1539
