Galleries

New video tells Stepping Stones’ story!

Please check out this touching video, which tells Stepping Stones’ story from the very beginning! A huge thank you to ID Creations, who have been making beautiful and highly professional videos for us since 2009, and all pro bono! Woohoo!! And a big thank you to all the volunteers and staff whose hard work has made this video, as well as Stepping Stones itself, a reality!

Glam Soirée raises funds for Stepping Stones!

On the evening of Thursday 10th January, Stepping Stones’ staff and volunteers swapped their Stepping Stones t-shirts for fancy evening wear, and headed to Glam at M on the Bund to host a New Year Soirée for Stepping Stones’ top donors.

Guests mingled over a delicious champagne cocktail before sitting down for a fabulous four-course meal accompanied by M on the Bund’s very own Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc wines. Jazz singer Lulu accompanied by Ryan on the piano contributed to the cool ambiance.

Dragon TV presenter Mr. Yu Li kept guests entertained and kept the evening’s proceedings flowing smoothly.

British Consul General John Edwards presented the British Empire Medal certificate to Stepping Stones founder Corinne Hua, who was proudly wearing for the first time the medal that was presented to her in November by Prince Andrew.

 

Leading Chinese economist Professor Fan Gang gave a touching speech about his experiences teaching at a primary school in Hebei Province during the 1970s, and Rupert Hoogewerf (better known by his Chinese name Hu Run) talked about the joy of making a difference to children’s education.

Corinne Hua explained to guests what inspired her to study Chinese and the journey that led her to establishing Stepping Stones in Shanghai, and was excited to share with guests Stepping Stones’ ambition to establish a foundation in 2019.

Old friends of Stepping Stones enjoyed welcoming new supporters, and thanks to the intimate ambiance created by this small-scale dinner, numbering only 30 people, guests were surprised to find how much they had in common with people who they were meeting for the first time.  New friends vowed to stay in touch with each other and come together again in the near future to continue to help Stepping Stones with its 2019 goal to establish a foundation.

The generosity of our guests, along with other friends who were unable to attend the soirée, has totally exceeded our expectations. In just one evening, we received pledges for more than 1 million RMB, bringing Stepping Stones half way towards the 2 million RMB goal!

 

Our fundraising campaign will continue into the Spring, and we plan to hold a second event in early April. If you would like to get involved in the campaign or in the fundraising dinner in April, please get in touch.

Sincerest thanks to Fan Gang, Rupert Hoogewerf, John Edwards and Yu Li for supporting this event and  Michelle Garnaut for providing the fabulous venue, food and drinks. Thank you also to the volunteers and staff who worked tirelessly to organise a superb evening. All finally, thank you to our very generous donors. With your help, we believe Stepping Stones can do even greater things in 2019 and beyond.

A lovely interview with our lovely volunteer Connie!

 

Stepping Stones volunteer Connie Yuan made history last month, becoming our longest-serving ever individual rural volunteer, having spent six full weeks living and teaching in the town of Taohuajiang, Hunan province. We asked Connie, who is from California, about her experience.

Q: Where did you first find out about our rural volunteering project?
A: I found out about Stepping Stones through a combination of a friend and a lot of internet searching. My friend had done volunteering in Asia before, and gave me a list of organizations she had found, which included Stepping Stones. I chose to do my volunteering with Stepping Stones because the way the organization presented itself was much less flashy and business-oriented than other groups I had looked into. Stepping Stones truly cares about the welfare of the population they serve.
Q: What was it that interested you about volunteering in a rural part of China?
A: As a child, I would come to China every summer to visit family. But most of my family live in cities (Shanghai and Fuzhou), and when we would travel around China, it’d still be to cities, like Beijing. I had looked into Stepping Stones’ Shanghai volunteering program and considered it, but ultimately I decided it was time to see a part of China I wouldn’t have normally visited while on a regular family vacation.Q: What did you imagine it would be like, and how has this compared to your actual experience?

A: To be honest, I was not really sure what to expect. I think when people hear rural, the first thing that can pop into mind are dirt roads and little village huts. Where I went for my volunteering, Taohuajiang, was more like a small city than what we would traditionally think of as rural (which Morgan did tell me during our briefing!). So, in that sense, Taohuajiang was a pleasant surprise.

However, despite its bustling appearance, Taohuajiang is rural in the sense that everyone knows everyone. People are more relaxed, and less used to foreign influences than in the big cities. I would say I got the best of both worlds in Taohuajiang, just city-like enough in appearance, but still rural in atmosphere. 
Q: What have been your biggest challenges?
A: I’d say, at school, the biggest challenge was classroom management. I found in most classes, even if 99% of the class was listening attentively, there would always be one or two kids goofing off. So, as a teacher, learning to manage those kids was the biggest challenge. 
Outside of school, I’d say the biggest challenge was navigating a rural Chinese town as a Chinese-American. Since appearance-wise I fit in, it was not immediately obvious to people that Chinese is not my native language, and that I know very little of it, or that I couldn’t read most of the signs around town. However, while this was a challenge, it was also a good learning opportunity, as I had a lot of time to improve my speaking and reading in Chinese.
Q: What have been your happiest moments? 
A: I’d say my happiest moments have been seeing progress in my students, and seeing them eager for English class. Things like getting creative during sentence-making activities, then seeing eager faces and hands fill the classroom during class made up my happiest moments in the classroom. Outside of school, I loved wandering around the town and the surrounding area, just soaking in a different way of life than I’m used to. 
Q: Would you recommend rural volunteering to a friend? If so, what advice would you give them before they go?
A: I’d definitely recommend rural volunteering to a friend, especially those who have lived in urban areas all their lives. It’s a challenge having to navigate a new environment and maybe not being fluent in the native language, definitely, but it’s a deeply rewarding experience! I have met some amazing kids, and the kindest people during my volunteering experience. It forced me out of my comfort zone, and I definitely grew more confident in myself because of it.
As for advice, I’d say keep an open mind! Yes, it can be intimidating at first, but the staff at Stepping Stones provide great training before you leave, and are a great support system. At my site, I truly felt welcomed by the teachers and principal at the school. They were there to help me from the time I arrived to when I left. Definitely don’t be afraid to ask questions, try new things and be open to new experiences. And, of course, be prepared to be mobbed by children during your first couple of days! They are naturally curious and will have a lot of questions … some might even want your autograph!
If you are interested in such experience, please take a look at the program on our website.

Volunteer Appreciation Party was great!

A big THANK YOU to all volunteers who attended the Stepping Stones Volunteer Appreciation Party on Wednesday, 5th Dec. We were there, of course, to celebrate this semester’s achievement: over 200 volunteers delivering more than 1,700 lessons to 3,600 students at 29 schools and community centers around Shanghai. None of this would have been possible without your hard work, dedication and commitment. So, THANK YOU again!

Congratulations to those who won the lucky draw prizes and a huge thank you to the lucky draw sponsors: Husk, Urban Thai, M on the Bund, Dragonfly, Epermarket, Fields as well as Simon Harrold for contributing two tickets to the Disney Resort, Shanghai. Volunteers had a great time with great food and drink generously sponsored by Gemma. We hope you had as much fun at the party as we did; thank you for attending!

“Stepping Up” – this is how we do it!

Teddy and Ben are our full-time computer teachers for the program Stepping Up. Stepping Up is our computer teaching program that teaches computer and life skills to middle school students in Jiaxing.

Why teach Computer skills?

We can hardly live without the internet these days. Computer skills are important for everyone. We do not believe that by simply bringing computers and internet into migrant schools we will magically help each child to be successful. But we do believe that with the right balance of fun and challenge, mentoring, encouragement and discipline – as well as a carefully planned curriculum and properly trained teachers, we can begin to help the children develop many of the digital literacy skills they are currently missing to be better prepared for the future.

On a Wednesday afternoon, I went to our site in Jiaxing to see what classes are like and to learn more about this program. Upon arrival, the students were hyped to see their beloved teachers Teddy and Ben arriving at the school. The two teachers were surrounded by students who were jumping around and asking all different questions. After a short break, Teddy started the class by revising one classic Chinese poem. Huh? You might ask. Teddy combines different elements such as critical thinking and Chinese literature into teaching digital literacy, to help students use technology as a tool of achieving their goals in the modern world.

Have you figured out what the learning objective was about? The goal of the day was to successfully type this particular Chinese poem into the computer. After learning the literature, students were guided to the computer room where they started a typing game. The atmosphere was dynamic with students fully focused and raising hands here and there for teachers’ instructions. Later, after receiving specific guidelines from Teddy, the students calmed down and concentrated on how to type the poetry.

Besides Ben and Teddy, there were also two volunteers helping. They are both students from Tongji University who study close by and are members of the volunteer association of their faculty. I was curious about the young volunteers and immediately asked, “Why did you guys come to help?” One of them looked at me, thought for a few seconds, became quite serious and said ” Serving others rather than serving yourself is a transcendent experience…”

It surprised me for a while, until I was brought back to the lively classroom.

Do you believe in helping others? We do. If you like this article, please have a look on our website to see what we do.

Active Monitoring

Not all learners develop at the same rate. Monitoring offers the opportunity to assess the progress of individuals, and can also provide an indication of what to re-teach or practice further.

Monitoring shouldn’t only happen when students are doing group activities or pair-work. Active monitoring should take place throughout the duration of the class to facilitate learning, especially for the students sitting at the back, who often need more individual attention and support.

After the teacher leading the activity (T1) teaches new language or sets up an activity, the assistant teachers (T2s) can move around the room, helping the students sitting far from the front to do extra practice, such as:

  • getting students to say the target English words;
  • checking individual students’ pronunciation;
  • helping students practice the dialogues;
  • getting students to give the answers to what T1 is asking.

This way, more students get the opportunity to practice speaking English. Don’t forget: during monitoring, each T2 should be in a different part of the classroom, to ensure maximum student coverage.

Stepping Stones is moving!

After nine happy years at Asionics Technology Centre in Changning District, Stepping Stones is moving to Sandbox near Ningguo Lu metro station in Yangpu District!

Stepping Stones would like to thank Sandbox for offering free space until summer next year, and would also like to thank Frank Yih of Asionics for providing a beautiful and comfortable home to Stepping Stones and several other non-profits for ten years! We will miss our friends at the Lotus NGO Centre, but look forward to making new friends at Sandbox in Yangpu. The address and the map can be found here.

If you would be interested in providing Stepping Stones with a new home in 2019, please get in touch!