In the September of 2017, Li Feiyu and Li Mengyu, a set of twin sisters from Tai’an City, Shandong Province who both scored 630 points in the College Entrance Examination, came to CCNU for their university life. The twins chose the School of Life Science and made an appointment to become biology teachers together in the future. Three years later, the dream came true, and the two sisters synchronized again. They signed contracts with Dongying No.1 Middle School in Shandong Province at the same time.
1) The Similar Growth Experience Creates Different Personalities
Like many twins, Li Feiyu and Li Mengyu have become the closest partners on their growing path since the day they were born. Along the way, though seemingly "copy and paste"，the two sisters have always been in pursuit of being different. They deliberately chose different clothes, different hairstyles and kept a proper distance from each other.
"We don't wear the same clothes anymore since high school. We both want to have our own space, and we can't be together all the time." The elder sister Li Feiyu said. Although they often make the same decisions because of their similar life experiences, they do not want to be the mirror images of each other. Their independent thinking makes them have different preferences and personalities. The elder sister said that her younger sister would be more stable. "In fact, our personalities are complementary. She is more decisive than me when making decisions. Actually, I rely on her more often."
"In our growing process, the two-and-a-half-months senior education practice was the longest time we have been apart." One of the twins was in Qingdao No.9 Middle School while the other was in Qingdao No.2 Middle School. They were used to the state of being around with each other, so during the separation, they called each other every day to share their daily experience, internship experience and interesting things. “Dongying is far away from home, we think it's better for two people to take care of each other in a strange place, taking care of each other and giving each other psychological supports. It will be more reassuring to have her by my side when there is any trouble.” They said.
The twins encourage and promote each other both in their study and in their life. Because of the blood bounding of family, they finally chose to accompany each other and continued to become more experienced teachers together.
2) Training of Teaching Skills in CCNU
Influenced by their high school biology teacher, the two sisters have always had a teacher dream. Both of them have excellent professional performance, and they have already begun to expose themselves to teaching skills education courses in their junior year. They found that it was not easy to be a good teacher, which required a variety of abilities. The twins said that CCNU has always attached great importance to the cultivation of normal students' professional skills, especially the high standards. And after studying the follow-up micro teaching courses, they have gotten enough confidence in their ability in teaching. Although microteaching can only be carried out in the form of online classes affected by the epidemic，they can still give lectures to each other, evaluate and help each other, to constantly honing their teaching skills.
"The internship organized by the college is the most helpful element to us." Li Feiyu said. During the epidemic period, the school organized normal students to have a half-month online internship, giving each student three chances of live trial, each half-hour, making the normal students experience the feeling of teaching personally." Tutor Ding Shumao asked us to copy the state of class, to design a question session, and to ask questions randomly during the lecture, which has trained our on-the-spot adaptability greatly.
When they were asked how to evaluate their basic teaching skills, the twins just gave themselves a passing score modestly, saying that there was still a lot of room for improvement. Li Feiyu said that her blackboard writing skill still needed more practice. Li Mengyu also said that she has found many problems during her internship. She said that there was still much room for the integration of high school knowledge and university knowledge. “In the future, we should keep up with the changes of teaching materials and the reform of curriculum standards, being familiar enough with both the new and old teaching materials.” They said.
In order to train themselves, the two sisters worked as a substitute teacher in a tutoring class in their hometown Tai'an in their sophomore summer vacation. The elder one taught junior high school biology to three grades at the same time. And the other has been to the zoo to be a commentator in grade three. "It inspired me a lot and made me feel that I could speak in public actually." She said.
In the interview, the twins confidently told us about their growing up experience. It's hard to imagine that they were shy and introverted girls in Wang Di's eyes when they just entered the school. "When I was in primary school, I rarely said a word to others, until entered CCNU, I still didn't like to talk. But I'm more confident now." Li Feiyu said.
3) Fight Together Along The Dreaming Path To Dongying No.1 Middle School
With the graduation season coming closer, the sisters confidently embarked on the road of job hunting. During the internship period, the two sisters have already been dedicated to the recruitment information of schools in Shandong province, and fully prepared for the resume and recruitment interview. And with the great improvement of teaching skills on campus and internship positions, good news came one after another in December that the two sisters got the offers from Shengli No.1 middle school and Dongying No.1 middle school at the same time.
"Both Shengli No.1 middle school and Dongying No.1 middle school are very attractive to us." In the choice of two schools, the twins made a difficult choice, but finally chose Dongying No.1 middle school. They believed that Dongying No.1 middle school was more sincere because they lead a team to organize recruitment at the beginning of month.
Dongying No.1 Middle School sent two experienced teachers for the online job interview. After the interview, they gave high praise for the twins' biological professionalism and were very satisfied with their performance. "In the interview, we found that the two sisters had a deep understanding of education. They love education, love students, and have high professional qualities and outstanding teaching abilities." This is the evaluation of Ma Zhanwu, director of the Academic Affairs Office of Dongying No.1 Middle School , who was in charge of this recruitment. "I hope that the two sisters can adapt to the stressful life of middle school work as soon as possible. Our school will provide the best instructors for the two sisters to help them quickly complete their career transformation. I hope that they can help more middle school students realize their dreams and achieve greater progress in the future." Ma Zhanwu raised such expectations.
After signing the contracts, the two sisters expressed strong desire to cherish their last time in CCNU, continuing to improve their teaching ability, and study the college entrance examination in recent years, so as to lay a solid foundation for being a real teacher. The two sisters said that Dongying is still far away from their hometown Tai'an. They plan to take their families to Dongying to live together in the future, and take root in this beautiful city which is at the mouth of the majestic Yellow River.
Translator: Wang Xiaoyu
Date: January 23, 2021
