The 3rd batch of students in primary and middle schools returned to school and resumed face-to-face lessons on Monday. To welcome students back to campus, Nidia Pena Maldonado, a newly appointed Mexican foreign teacher at Xiaode School in Bao’an District, joined hands with his counterpart Shaitar Yauheni from Haoye Primary School who is now stuck in the Republic of Belarus due to the COVID-19 outbreak, to give the first lesson to students at Xiaode School after a long hiatus.

Their collaboration turned out to be a success as the lessons were well-received by students who showed strong interests in learning English.

In the class Nidia brought students onto a journey of learning about foreign countries and cultures through his dramatic body language and manner of speaking, which filled the classroom with laughters.

Their collaboration is the second between foreign teachers in Bao’an and those in overseas countries. On May 11, Michael Alan Dines from Bao’an Middle School (Group) Foreign Languages School worked with Ankita Harish Patel from Huangtian Primary School who was in the U.K. at that time to give a lesson to the students of Class 2, Grade 7. German teacher Maximilian Binzler from the Secondary Department of Bao’an First Foreign Languages School connected with a foreign teacher in Germany via a video link to see how well students had learned German during the winter vacation.

Official statistics show that Bao’an District has employed 160 foreign teachers this year. As of May 18, 84 foreign teachers have returned to school; 42 are still abroad and two are in Hong Kong. Previously, foreign teachers returning to school had taken nucleic acid tests in Shenzhen and the results were all negative. During the epidemic, Bao’an District has adopted and will continue adopting undifferentiated unified management measures to foreign and Chinese teachers, treat them with human-touch care and pay attention to their mental health. The district will also keep those who are stuck in foreign countries informed of the latest updates on the outbreak prevention and control measures implemented in Shenzhen and encourage them to give online lessons.

(Yang Mei)