Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Wang Xiaoxiao
49-year-old Xue Dong has almost 30 years of teaching experience. Since 2015, Xue Dong, as the principal of Dianchan Road Primary School in Shijingshan District, has led all teachers and students in the school to go on the ice and snow to carry out ice and snow sports and Olympic education, making a name for himself in Beijing and even the country.
"Our responsibility is not to train athletes, but to stimulate children's interest through penetration bit by bit." Xue Dong said that a person must be down-to-earth, "The ancients said, walk with your head down and look up at the sky - mine 'Heaven' is to educate the children well."
At the beginning, everyone had to "run" by themselves
Xue Dong is a native of Beijing. He has been a teacher since 1994 and has taught physical education for 19 years. 11 years ago, he was transferred to Dianchang Road Primary School as the principal. "At that time, the school was relatively single in terms of sports. I came from a sports background, so I wanted to expand it."
In early 2015, there were calls for Beijing to bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Getting higher and higher. Xue Dong started thinking: Can the Winter Olympics become a starting point for physical education?
"China is hosting the Winter Olympics. What can children do? I think the first thing is to understand the events. Don't look back. The Olympics have started. We can't even understand the competition."
On April 11, 2015, Xue Dong and several teachers rented A car bought tickets on the official website and took 32 students to the Capital Gymnasium to watch the Women's Ice Hockey Group B World Championship. Xue Dong had never seen an ice hockey game at that time, but he had heard about the crowd-pleased event when Beijing first hosted the World Ice Hockey Championships in the 1980s. “Nowadays, most people in Beijing have no knowledge of ice and snow sports. This tradition must be picked up,” he said. Come back."
That game became the beginning of Winter Olympics education at Dianchang Road Primary School. When the players from both sides began to enter the stadium at lightning speed, the children who were chattering a second ago suddenly fell silent. Driven by the live broadcast, the children soon began to shout and scream, completely attracted by the game. "With such excitement, there is no need to organize at all." Xue Dong felt that he had found the right way, "This trip was not in vain."
At that time, Xue Dong simply hoped to bring his children to have more exposure to projects, but this was not the case. easy. "We are an ordinary primary school, and the children are from ordinary working-class families. I am also an 'outsider' in Bingxue, with no skills and resources. In the beginning, I had to run for all opportunities by myself, and I had to plan carefully. ”
In 2016, after taking students to watch several competitions, Xue Dong began to think: Let the children skate! With limited funds, he found a way. "At that time, some social ice rinks had free trial periods during their free time as a promotional tool. We asked parents to make an appointment at the same time and bring their children there with them." In this way, school moved through several ice rinks. , experience it grade by grade.
In the following years, as social ice and snow activities heated up rapidly, Dianchang Road Primary School received more opportunities and more funds. "In addition to limited resources and funds at the beginning, going out to carry out ice and snow teaching is also very troublesome. You have to connect with venues, mobilize parents, insure children, rent cars..." There are difficulties and grievances, but Xue Dong never thought of giving up. , "I am a person who is 'persistent' in my work. My ability to persevere has something to do with my personality."
"The principal who always plays with us" is popular among students
There is a joke in the education circle: Third-rate schools only rely on their principals. But Xue Dong took it upon himself to lead the school to become a "top class". In 2019, the school realized that all students can participate in ice and snow, and was named a National Olympic Education Demonstration School by the Ministry of Education. In 2021, it was awarded the only "Ice and Snow School" in the country by the State Sports General Administration.
Now when Xue Dong is mentioned, everyone in the ice and snow industry gives him a thumbs up. They all know that his ice and snow education is not just for show. In order for his children to go to the snow, he went to many institutions to ask for ski tickets. Finally, he got 50 dry ski tickets and took his children to ski for the first time. Cross-country skiing, which has now become a specialty of the school, was initially made possible by him running it four times, and he painstakingly obtained a preferential price from the company and bought 20 sets of cross-country skiing equipment.In 2018, the Municipal Ice Hockey Association organized a training for land ice hockey coaches, and Xue Dong also went there. "Everyone in the school is a physical education teacher, and I am the principal. I usually don't have time to exercise, and I am quite tired after three days of training..."
Not only that, Xue Dong personally leads almost every extra-school activity the children have. He said that there are certain safety risks in ice and snow sports. As the head of a school, he must bear this responsibility and be able to make a decision as soon as possible if something goes wrong. In the past seven or eight years, he has hardly had any Saturdays or Sundays off.
And what Xue Dong did was not just be present. The school ice hockey team was playing a game and he bought a big cake for the children. In order to make the children more focused and efficient in participating in the activities, he taught himself ice and snow culture knowledge and used his bus time to open a "Principal's Lecture Hall". The daily work is complicated, and Xue Dong can only use his rest time to check information, do homework, and study every ice and snow project from scratch. It is common to sleep at two or three o'clock.
Xue Dong has no airs, and the children all like this "principal who always takes us to play". Xue Dong has become a semi-expert in ice and snow. He was able to "slope" the intermediate trails before Beijing's bid for the Winter Olympics, but he hasn't skied for a long time. "Every time I take students to the ski resort, I feel itchy, but I don't dare to play."
“The physical fitness of our students is so good”
In the past month or so, the schedule of Dianchang Road Primary School has been “rather crazy”. Beijing hosted five top international ice and snow events in a row, and the school’s “watching group” was not absent from all competitions. All members also skated and went snowboarding at the snow resort.
"Although the Winter Olympics are over, the Winter Olympics spirit will not end. It is still an important platform to lead school construction and children's growth." Xue Dong made up his mind to combine campus ice and snow sports with sports in the post-Winter Olympics era. Olympic Education will continue to do so.
On February 2, 2022, Xue Dong participated in the Winter Olympics torch relay as a torchbearer for the Beijing Winter Olympics. At the opening ceremony at the end of that month, he brought the Winter Olympics torch back to school and held a simulated torch relay, allowing every child in the school to touch the Olympic torch and take a photo. "The children were very careful and felt very sacred." Xue Dong was very pleased and determined to continue. "The children's eyes made me feel that they recognized what I was doing."
made him determined Confidence, and the real changes in the children over the past few years. Because of campus activities, many children fell in love with skating and skiing. During the holidays, they took their parents and friends to ice and snow venues, and even began to receive off-campus training to pursue their dreams and loves. "Our students' physical fitness is very good. They are among the best in the district's random tests." Xue Dong said proudly.
The growth of children is not only reflected in sports. "The mission of the school is to educate people, and education and teaching cannot be delayed in order to create sports characteristics." In his view, bravery, strength, patience, awareness of rules, team spirit, decision-making ability...these are the things that children can learn from sports. learned and benefited throughout life. There are also endless subject courses derived from ice and snow education. Children learn friction in the curling hall, and music and art classes are also integrated with Olympic culture. The idea of “using sports people to promote four educations” has run through Xue Dong’s 30-year education career. “Carrying out ice and snow sports is not just about practicing sports. Children do not necessarily have to achieve success in sports skills, but they must be able to gain universal , comprehensive development."
This year, it will be 11 years since Xue Dong came to Dianchang Road Primary School, and it will be two years since the Winter Olympics ended. But his enthusiasm for sowing ice and snow fire has not diminished at all: "Let me do it, and I will continue to do it well."
