Xu Bo Volunteers Star in ZhengZhou English Summer Camp
| Xu Bo volunteers Laura Visser and Heide de Vries, who hail from The Netherlands, made a lasting impression on the students, staff, and community of ZhengZhou, where they were the stars of the "Foreign Volunteers and Me" English Summer Camp held at Middle School #42 during July, 2009. At this camp, the main focus was on oral English and Heidi and Laura worked very hard to help the enthusiastic middle school students improve their speaking and listening skills. We are fortunate to have many videos of their experience, including a wonderful news piece that was broadcast on ZhengZhou television. Click on any of the five videos outlined in the photos below to witness some of the exciting moments of this special experience. You can also read a thank-you letter from school Director Peng Guo by clicking on his photo at right. Finally, check out Heidi and Laura's personal story which includes a video of their goodbye speech made at the closing ceremony. |
Thank-You Letter
Opening Ceremony
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TV News Show!
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Camp Activities
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"Snow White"
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Closing Ceremony
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Opening Ceremony
42 Middle School in Zhengzhou: “Foreign Volunteers and Me” English Summer Camp Start
Toward the goal of "cultivating the practical use of English and sociability," Middle School #42 held the opening ceremony of
the "Foreign Volunteers and Me" English summer camp on the morning of July 6th.
The education department of Zhengzhou’s government paid a lot of attention to this activity, especially Mrs. Wang Xiaopeng,
the deputy chief and secretary of Board of Education who attended the ceremony. She said that the summer camp was an extension
of characteristic cultural education and expressed her appreciation for the efforts of two volunteers from The Netherlands.
In the long run, learning English is a basic ability for building society and she has hopes that the students will improve
their English level in a short time.
The theme of this summer camp is “communication, improvement, confidence and happiness”. The content is
about the usual campus activities in western countries, teenagers’ physical training and entertainment, prevention
of epidemic disease and sickness, the major landmark of different countries and famous sight spots, modern technology,
science and so on.
The students that take part in this camp are enthusiastic fans of learning English at the # 42 Middle School and are will
be taught in small classes of about 30 people, with a total of 120 students participating in the camp. They will improve
their oral English skills through the close communication with foreign volunteers while, at the same time, learning more
about western culture.
The teachers from #42 Middle School say they will take great advantage of this special opportunity by participating in
this camp by means of attending lectures, having an informal discussions, etc. This will increase their level
of oral English, introduce new concepts of teaching, and allow the teachers to learn more about the teaching methods
of western countries, thus promoting the development of English teaching at ZhengZhou Middle School #42.
The volunteers from Holland intend to help students’ improve their ability to speak and understand English and to spend time
with students’ families, communicating with them. The volunteers hope to learn more about Chinese ancient culture and to raise
their level of Chinese language proficiency and service through more and more communication.
Summer English Camp the Topic of Local TV News Show
The camp drew the interest of the larger community through the airing of a special TV news show that can be viewed below.
Return to top...Video of Some Camp Activities
The video below starts with a short slide show of scenes from the camp and then moves on to show some of the activities that were used by our volunteers during the camp. You will see clearly that they successfully engaged the students' minds and hearts through use of several different kinds of games, some mental and some physical!
Return to top...Closing Ceremony: Performance of "Snow White"
Laura and Heidi directed these wonderful kids in an English performance of the drama "Snow White." This performance was one of the highlights of the closing ceremony, bringing laughs and enjoyment to the audience, which included many parents of the children. Bilingual narration, creative staging, enthusiastic dwarves, a charming prince, a pretty young Snow White, and a wicked Queen (played wonderfully by one of the boys) make this play fun to watch and making it undoubtedly helped motivate the students to learn more English. Enjoy the video!
Return to top...Closing Ceremony: English Demonstrations and Student Speeches
Part of the closing ceremony was to demonstrate to the school and the kids' parents just how much the students had learned during the camp. The video below shows some of the demonstrations and some heartfelt speeches by the students who had such a wonderful time.
Return to top...Heidi and Laura's Goodbye Speech
Another moving segment of the closing ceremony was the goodbye speech Laura and Heidi delivered. To see a video of the speech, go to the Volunteer Stories page for Heidi and Laura There, you can also see their personal photo galleries.
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