征服9999级台阶的“白水寨天南第一梯”活动纪实

白水寨

白水寨风景区位于广州市增城区派潭镇，景区内崇山峻岭，群峰挺拔，拥有原始森林、浅滩湿地、峡谷天池等广东罕见的自然生态资源，其中最令人瞩目的当属落差高达428.5米的全国内地落差最大的瀑布——白水仙瀑布。从山脚至山顶，修建在白水寨山丘陵线上的是远近闻名的“天南第一梯”。这条广东省最长的登山步道，横跨三座高山，连接两大天池，共有9999级石阶。

Located in Paitan town in the mountainous northern region of Zengcheng district, the Baishuizhai Scenic Spot consists of several mountains. The main one is Baishuizhai Mountain at a height of 828 meters.

The Baishuizhai Waterfall, with a drop of 428.5 meters, flows down from the Baishuizhai Mountain like a giant white ribbon. The scenic spot consists of several routes for visitors to enjoy their time at Baishuizhai. They can choose to climb the "foremost ladder in South China"—a hiking trail with 9,999 steps – or take a sight-seeing bus.

课程目标

Grit is proposed by Angela Lee Duckworth, an Asian American psychologist and associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. It refers to persistent enthusiasm and persistence for long-term goals. According to Duckworth-Lee's research, grit is the most critical factor for a person's success, which is more influential than IQ, test scores, family income, and other factors.

FCG Middle School aims to cultivate students to become international talents with GRIT characteristics.

GIRT 是什么？

What is GRIT?

Through the careful design of written curriculum, taught curriculum and assessed curriculum, our middle school pupils are expected to complete not only the physical and endurance challenges of mountaineering, but also gain knowledge of local cultural and comprehensively improve their perseverance, resilience, self-confidence and leadership.

课程准备

On May 8, all the teachers and students of Fettes College Guangzhou Middle School set out to Baishui Village to take the challenge of climbing the 9,999 steps. This is a programme that requires enthusiasm and tenacity as well as courage and perseverance. To prepare this programme from the aspects of psychology, physical fitness, academics, teachers of Fettes College Guangzhou spent more than a month deliberately designing an interdisciplinary project.

组建学术团队，编撰跨学科学习材料，让学生在出发前对白水寨及周边相关问题提前进行了探究。

An academic team was set up to compile interdisciplinary learning materials, so that students could explore Baishui village and its surrounding areas in advance.

PE teachers used their lessons and weekend time to carry out mountaineering practice. From warm-up exercise to endurance training, from running with resistance umbrella to organizing climbing corridor, from training in formation to hiking of the mountains around the school. The training before mountaineering were carried out systematically, scientifically and orderly.

In order to ensure the safety of the trip, under the leadership of Chinese Deputy Head Mr. Nelson Chen, both school leaders and teachers went to Baishui village for three times to rehearse the itinerary and to ensure the safety of the activities.

实施登峰

At 7:30 a.m. on May 8, all the teachers and students of Middle School gathered in front of the school gate. the Heads of Middle School, Mr. Lei Yu and Mr. Stephen deady, hosted the brief pre-departure ceremony. Mr. Marco Longmore and Mr. Nelson Chen delivered a speech respectively to mobilize students. When Jenny Guo, the Chairperson of the Student Union, took over the school flag from Mr. Marco Longmore and waved it vigorously, the morale of all teachers and students was surging and they were ready to start.

During the bus trip to Baishui Village, teachers and students were so excited that they could not help singing songs all the way in the bus. At the foot of the mountain, teachers and students carried out warm-up exercises under the guidance of coaches after replenishing mountaineering materials.

At 10 am, the mountaineering challenge began. In addition to completing the challenge of Baishui Village's 9,999-step climbing pathway, the pupils at the same time also need to complete six activities carefully designed by their teachers. Some of these activities focus on teamwork, some on subject knowledge, some focus on competition, and some on children-parents interaction. All the activities are closely linked with GRIT.

Taking the first activity "Water Carrying" as an example, it contains the cultivation of GRIT from four aspects.

Rules:

In groups, each pupil was given a folding bucket, which was used to get water in the clear stream at the bottom of the mountain. Each group made its own water transportation plan through group discussion and their target was to transport the water to the designated place. In the end, the winning team will be determined by the water transport per capita in the team.

This task aims to practise the students' thinking skills as well as their communication and collaboration skills. Because there are differences in physical fitness and the number of members in different teams, how to maximize the per capita water transportation needs deep thinking and rapid decision-making. In each mountaineering group, there was no pre-set group leader, so that the children could take responsibilities according to their personal strengths in the process of completing the tasks, which offers each student a chance to sharpen its leadership. In addition, as the most important resource in the world, the utilization and protection of water is a global issue. In the process of transporting water, children are also imperceptibly involved in the thinking of this global issue.

To Climb the steep stone pathway is not easy. And to ask students to carry a bucket of water whiling climbing makes the climbing more difficult. After the task card was sent to each student, they quickly worked out their own water transportation plan after discussion. In the process of mutual help, leadership can be exercised. One group encountered a problem: There is a small hole in the bottom of one folding bucket. What should they do? Their first thought was to replace the folding bucket, but the teacher’s reply was that there was no extra bucket. In the face of emergencies, they were not complaining, but actively thinking about countermeasures.

Finally, Bruce, a member of this group, volunteered to carry this leaky bucket. Bruce's solution is to cover the hole with one finger and hold the folding bucket filled with water in both hands. When he arrived at the destination, the water in Bruce's bucket was still full and almost no water was left out. The average volume of water in their group was not affected by this leaky bucket, so the challenge was very successful.

The second activity, “Little economists “, is closely related to the previous one. This task aims to help students become independent thinkers. Since the previous task "carrying water" stopped at a small store in the mountainside.Teachers designed the following questions: How much is a bottle of mineral water in the small store? Do you think the price is reasonable? Why?

These questions:

*encourage students to interview the small store owner and other tourists;

*provide them opportunity to think independently;

*and offer them a real situation to consider questions in global contexts.

The water that can be seen everywhere usually does not attract too much attention of the students, but after experiencing the hardships of carrying water to the mountainside, it arouses the children to think about the economic value of water in the mountains. The subsequent activities, such as "ancient poetry competition", "treasure hunt", "team pose" and "meditation", are designed to help students apply subject knowledge to real life and to find a balance between individual and collective.

Swipe Left for English

After nearly three hours of climbing, the children came to the scheduled rest point: the 3699 steps. Lei Yu, the Head of Middle School Chinese, gathered everyone together. He took out a thick stack of envelopes from his backpack and distributed them to everyone.

This is an unexpected letter from students’ parents. It was collected secretly by the school from every parent before departure. An unexpected letter from parents encourages students when they are at their most tired. From it, they also gained a better understanding and feeling of family support.

Around 1:00 p.m., after climbing more than three hours, students finally came to the 4099 steps where a viewing platform is located. They were welcomed by the teachers who arrived earlier. According to the plan, they will have a collective reflection and a lunch break here. But what they didn't know was that the school has prepared a bigger surprise for them here. Teachers asked the students to sit in a circle and to put on the blindfold for the collective reflection, and the parents who had already "ambushed" there came quietly behind the children. Under the instruction of the teacher, all the children leaned back and fell into the arms of their parents. Parents' surprise show-up and their hugs enhance the parent-child relationship.

课程评估

为巩固坚毅力课程学习成果，初中部老师们组成课程评估小组，对课程评估作了细致的设计。登山过程中，老师们通过耐力、毅力、安全意识、团队协作和配合度等五个维度对学生的表现进行评估。同学们自己也依据这些维度开展自评。此外，坚毅力课程中涉及学科内容方面的评估，通过课堂测评或展示的方式，完成了评估。

5月21日，初中部同学们邀请全体老师和家长们参加了他们的坚毅力课程的总结性评估和展示。这个课程展示是以坚毅力主题摄影展的形式进行的。展览本身其实就是一种学习体验与成果评估的双重组合。摄影展不但讲述了一个个引发创作者和参观者深入思考的故事，也让孩子们有机会回顾自己的学习历程。通过展览，学生们站到了舞台中央。他们展现了学习过程与成果，就像是体育赛事，把家庭和社区成员汇聚在一起一样，展览也把家庭、孩子、社区聚集起来，让他们一起庆祝一个班级、一个团体、一个学校的学习成果。通过这次坚毅力主题摄影展的活动，老师、家长又一次共同见证了孩子们的成长。

In order to consolidate the learning outcome of GRIT programme, Middle School teachers formed an assessment team to make a detailed plan for assessment. In the process of climbing, teachers evaluated the students' performance through five dimensions: endurance, perseverance, sense of safety, collaboration, and adaptability. Students also carry out self-assessment according to these criteria. In addition, the GRIT programme involves the assessment of subject-related content, which is assessed in class.

On May 21, Middle School students invited all teachers and parents to participate in the summative assessment of their GRIT programme.

This was presented in the form of a photo exhibition with the theme of GRIT. An exhibition is typically both a learning experience in itself and a means of evaluating academic progress and achievement. 

The Photo Exhibition tells a story of learning that enables both creators and viewers to go deeper, rather than cover an entire project or unit. Exhibitions put students at the center stage as they describe the process and products of their learning. Like a sports event or performance, they bring families and community members together to celebrate the collective work of a class, a team, a school. But with exhibitions, the community is taking pride in students’ learning.