School Setting🏫

My internship school (CDSJ1) is a Catholic school affiliated with the Catholic Diocese of Macau. In the school, it is not difficult to see that the small statue of Jesus crucified on the wall of each classroom will be hung high, and there is also a statue of the Virgin Mary in the prominent place of the campus. The school motto is "LABOR ET VIRTUS", always adhering to the "people-oriented" education concept, students and teachers are focused on "self" and "self-love" growth. While being yourself, you can also do not discriminate, do not exclude others, appreciate yourself and know how to respect others, everyone is equal. The school values the growth of each student, each student has their own unique characteristics, and sincerely believe that they will succeed. Therefore, it is very important to teach students according to their aptitude, and teachers should pay love, patience and confidence in teaching wisdom.

CDSJ certainly has more than one school campus! It has a total of four campuses for the Chinese Section and the English Section, of which the first and third schools belong to the Chinese Section, and the second and fourth schools belong to the English Section. The Chinese Section and the English Section are both "one-stop" services, with kindergarten, primary school and secondary school respectively (the highest grade of the English Section is currently secondary tow grade). As mentioned above, my internship campus was in the first School. The first school is the Primary school within the Chinese Section. There are three grades of Kindergarten and Grades 1 to 4 of Primary School on campus, with a total of 14 classes. In the primary school of the first school, the average number of students in each class is 30, and there are about 20 teachers. According to my observation, since the primary school of the Chinese Section is divided into two campuses, some teachers and directors need to move between the two school campus, which is a little hard!

The school has two periods of the first and second semester, Monday to Friday is also a school day, and occasionally on Saturday the school will hold activities to invite students to come back to school. During my internship, every class was intruding into the classroom, so I had a better understanding of students' curriculum routine. For lower school students, they will have 11 classes a week, for a total of 35 classes. They are Chinese, English, General Knowledge, Mathematics, PE, Music, Art, English Conversation, Putonghua, Computer, Religion. The school has a child care center class for parents who are unable to pick up students from school at normal after school hours, so that their children can continue to stay in school for self-study. On Thursdays, the after school day turns into a leisure activities time for students to participate in the activities for which they have signed up and are accepted. There are also many kinds of leisure activities, such as sword fighting class, Portuguese class, robot maker class, singing class, etc. Students love these classes!

In the school, most students eat in the school after noon, and lunch is provided by the school's lunch supplier. Students are required to bring their own lunch boxes, and students are allowed to distribute their own meals to train their self-care ability. Lunch every day is two dishes with rice, one fruit. Every Friday, it is a school small fast. The lunch on that day was vegetarian. In order to foster a balanced diet in students from an early age, the DSEDJ implements the Milk and Soy Milk Programme every year for all children in primary schools in Macau. Therefore, the school will distribute milk or soy milk to students who have applied every day.

The students come to school every day is happy, I believe they also like this campus. The students also play in groups on the playground when class is over. Seeing their innocent looks every day also reminds me of the good times I had in primary school. Most of the teachers in this school care about the students. Although the class is over, they often stay in the classroom to help the students who have not finished the class task. Students are willing to help when they need help.

CDSJ is also many years old, and the deterioration of the school environment and facilities is inevitable. Since the school is built around a church with many years of architectural history, any reconstruction or renovation requires a certain degree of measurement and decoration over time. In the absence of danger, I believe the school will still maintain this unique historical appearance. I do not know whether it is because of the limited space of the school, there are many facilities that the CDSJ1 have not, such as the auditorium, the canteen, the elevator is not available. Music room, art room, etc., are used to replace the original classrooms, teachers and students have only one toilet (of course, there are men and women), for the primary school students and teachers to go to the toilet is a very troublesome thing, because they have to walk up and down the stairs. In terms of teaching equipment, since the third school is the main campus, more resources are also invested in the third school. For example, if a school wants to use a tablet computer for classes, it has to fill in an application form and bring it back from the three schools, which is also a relatively inconvenient process.

CDSJ is "people-oriented", so the school will also accept students of different races and learning abilities. In today's society, which pursues equality and integration, integrated education is also a manifestation of this goal. CDSJ is a school that implements integrated education, and there are some integrated students studying in this school. During my internship, I also had the opportunity to contact and assist the integrated students. These integrated students are taught in the same class as regular students to achieve true integration. And school teachers will also have daily tasks, called "remediation", to note that it is not a cram school. The aim is to provide extra catch-up lessons outside the classroom for students who are not learning as well as they should, so that they can keep up with the pace of learning as much as possible.

Attached below are photos of the school, school calendar, organizational structure, members of the organization, etc., to better understand the school's schedule and management.

The school building of CDSJ1 is not large, and naturally, the classrooms are not spacious either. The school building is in an "L" shape, and the area of each classroom and corridor on different floors varies. However, it is sufficient for these primary school students to have classes and activities. Excluding the ground floor, the school building has two floors. In this year, the ground floor has the classrooms for the K1 and K2 classes, the first floor has the classrooms for the K3 and P1 classes, and the second floor has the classrooms for the P2 to P4 classes. On one side of the corridor on the second floor, there are some interesting knowledge posters and posters for upcoming events.

There is an interesting phenomenon in the classrooms of CDSJ1. The names of the students are pasted on the walls according to their seats. This is a school-wide practice. Perhaps it is to help teachers quickly know the students' names and call them at any time.

Each classroom is equipped with a computer that the teachers use. The class teacher uses it to handle class affairs, and the teachers use it during classes. The classrooms in this school use blackboards, which are movable. In the center of the blackboard, there is a screen, which is a regular screen. Its function is for the projector to project onto it, and it has no touch function. There are also several prayer texts posted in the classrooms, such as the grace before and after meals. In the classroom of P2B, there are some classroom instructions posted on the walls, as well as a display area for students' works. On the inner side of the classroom, there is a bookcase and a cabinet for students to store their personal items. We call it the "purple cabinet" because it is purple.

The students spend their days in such classrooms, having classes, having meals, doing homework, playing, and participating in after-school activities. I think this will be the happiest place in their school life!

During my internship, I focused only on P2B, and thus became quite familiar with them. I also developed a bond with these children. There are 32 students in this class. Each of them is actually very smart and cute, and each has their own unique qualities. Just like any other class, there are some students who are quiet and some who are lively. Of course, there is also a student who always looks unhappy when facing the teacher's scolding and never looks at the teacher or responds. I have been observing this student for a long time. At first, I was really annoyed by her behavior. How could a P2 student be so "naughty"? Later, I learned about her family background from other teachers. I believe her behavior is definitely related to her family upbringing. During this period, I also paid attention to her performance in class. In fact, apart from the behavioral problems caused by insufficient guidance, she is also a student who likes to participate in classroom activities and is eager to raise her hand to answer questions. Many times, she can give a good answer. She has also tried to chat with me during breaks. I found that inside, she is also a naive and innocent child. She is not bad. If the teachers at school can give her appropriate and continuous guidance, I believe her performance will definitely change a lot. She is only a P2, and her malleability is definitely great. It's a pity that I didn't have the opportunity to do this.

Regarding P2B, it is necessary to mention that this class is unanimously recognized by all the teachers as the smartest and most well-behaved class in the school. I was fortunate to be assigned to this class for my internship, which was a great honor. Therefore, during my several teaching practice sessions, they all went smoothly, and the students in this class performed very well. There are several boys in this class who are good at science. They have participated in some public math competitions and achieved good results. The two girls class monitors in the class are also well-behaved and smart students. Their behavior is very polite and refined, and they perform well in all subjects. Of course, these students have received the love and care of the teachers to a certain extent. When I was observing classes in the classroom, I usually sat near a certain female student, so my relationship with her was quite good. We were both teacher and friend. She often shared with me what happened in her daily life. Every time  handed out test scores, she would tell me what rewards she would get at home and so on. I also like this student very much. Although she is not very intelligent, and even if she tries hard, she may not get an ideal result. But she is definitely a well-behaved and diligent girl. Attitude determines everything. As long as she has a good learning attitude, she will surely succeed.

Despite this, even in a class recognized as the smartest and most well-behaved, there are still a few students who lag behind. There is a boy in this class who is a SEN student. His academic performance is poor, and he has difficulty learning daily life skills. However, I think he is a well-behaved boy. Even though he doesn't understand, he still tries his best to listen and do. Maybe he still makes mistakes even after the teacher tells him ten times what to do. In the main subject classes, there are times when other teachers sit beside him to assist him. Interestingly, this student once wrote several "love letters" to me, all saying "I love you" in simple words. At this age, children are very naive. Maybe they don't fully understand the meaning of these three words, but I know that for them, it is a very pure and straightforward expression because they like you.

In addition, there is also a student in the class who seems to have learning difficulties. He is a new student who just came to this school this year. At the beginning, we found that this boy didn't even recognize the simplest English letters A to Z. But from his daily behavior and speech, he seemed to be quite capable. What exactly happened to him in his previous school? How could he be at a level lower than that of a kindergarten student? From what other teachers told me, it turned out that during his interview, he didn't even know which school he had attended before. This really surprised me. From my observations, I saw that this boy was actually a very smart person. He could generally complete the instructions and tasks given by the teachers. I also noticed that during PE class, he was the best among all the students. If I could have a longer internship at the school, I believe I would be able to understand him more comprehensively and help him better.