One, two, three—ALL IN!
Page 1
“First, let me clarify one thing for everyone: this assessment does not conflict with the year-end evaluation.”
As Qin Yong’s words fell, a wave of delight swept through the conference room. That meant Yudong would have two selection opportunities this year.
“This assessment is an internal promotion activity for teaching positions within Yudong. The main campus is not involved, so the standards for this assessment differ from those in the past.”
Seeing the silence in the room, Qin Yong opened his notebook.
“Well then.”
“Allow me to announce the assessment timeline, the scope of participants, and the specific content.”
“The assessment period starts this Wednesday, July 5th, and ends September 6th—a cycle of two months.”
“All full-time teachers may participate in this selection, including those still in their probationary period.”
A brief stir passed through the room.
The scope of participants Qin Yong announced immediately sparked some discontent. Probationary teachers could take part? That seemed outrageous.
Li An also felt a jolt in his heart, but he sensed that his fantasy had now become at least 1% possible.
After a moment.
“The assessment consists of three parts: performance, teaching ability, and attendance.”
“Performance is worth 50%, teaching ability 40%, attendance 10%.”
“First: performance.”
“This includes new enrollments and course renewals.”
“During the assessment period, self-recruited new students earn 6 points, returning students successfully renewing earn 2 points, and students assigned by the teaching group who successfully trial lessons also earn 2 points.”
The conference room stirred again.
What did ‘self-recruited new students’ mean? Who has students they don’t bring in themselves, only to split them with the institution?
This seemed unreasonable, yet this category had the highest proportion of points.
Returning student renewals and teaching group-assigned new enrollments were too unpredictable.
Some teachers had many students, but some just enrolled, and some didn’t have enough lesson hours to finish within two months.
A new teacher who brings in one new student earns as many points as a veteran teacher who completes three renewals.
Wasn’t this obviously targeting...
Li Dong (saxophone teacher, employed for two years) decided to bow out and wait for the year-end.
Xu Mengjie (clarinet teacher, employed for two and a half years) decided to bow out as well—how could she possibly give away her students, let alone dig for others?
After the first category was announced, many teachers already considered quitting.
Page 2
Some felt this deputy principal was clueless, stirring up trouble.
Qin Yong seemed to deliberately give everyone a moment to digest; he’d anticipated this reaction.
When the room was quiet again, he continued.
“Second: teaching ability.”
“This includes live teaching evaluations and individual professional skill assessments.”
“For the live teaching evaluation, during the assessment period, the assessment group will randomly observe each participating teacher’s lessons. Five sessions in total, scored on site, with a maximum of 5 points.”
Xu Hongxin decided to withdraw—he couldn’t play this game.
Liu Yazhou decided to withdraw—she’d rather sleep.
“The professional skill assessment will take place from July 26th to 29th. The method is random selection of repertoire on site, pieces from our school’s grade 9-10 textbook, one musical piece and one etude, with sheet music allowed. The assessment group will score on site, with a maximum of 25 points.”
A teacher sighed somewhere.
Soon after, a teaching administrator coughed with a chuckle.
Suddenly the atmosphere in the conference room was less tense.
The administrators and office staff watched as if it were a show—they were even looking forward to seeing the teachers perform their skills.
In all their years at Yudong, they’d never seen a teacher give a complete performance for them.
Ma Tao decided to withdraw—he couldn’t bear to practice for such meager pay.
Gao Zesheng decided to withdraw—his instruments were rusting.
Li Xinyu decided to withdraw—he’d hand over his bow to someone else.
Zhuang Peng decided to withdraw—why not require memorization as well?
Zhang Yuelong grumbled as he withdrew, cursing.
Lin Pengfei hesitated, then decided to join—participation mattered.
Chen Xuan chose to join—she wanted to manage her life.
Jia Lu chose to join—if it didn’t work out, she’d try again at year-end.
Xu Nana chose to join—Yudong was finally willing to give young teachers a chance.
A real game.
A truly clever game.
Li An found himself increasingly fond of this deputy principal—his fantasy now seemed 10% possible.
Li An joined—all in.
Old Dong admitted his own lack of competence and, at this moment, stopped worrying about anything. The instructions he'd received last night were simply to fully cooperate with Qin Yong’s work.
Page 3
Huang Juan and the three teaching group leaders sensed something; Yudong might be on the verge of transformation.
Everyone’s eyes fell on Qin Yong’s face, as if waiting to see what tricks he might pull with the attendance category.
“The details for attendance scoring will be posted in the group chat after the meeting by Director Dong. Please review them yourselves.”
“That concludes the content and rules for this mid-year selection of Yudong's outstanding teachers.”
“Those interested in participating, please submit your information by 5 p.m. tomorrow.”
“I will oversee the entire assessment process, and the assessment group will consist of myself, Director Dong, and the three teaching group leaders.”
“Alright.”
“If any teachers have questions, feel free to speak up now.”
A chorus of whispers arose, but no major questions were voiced.
Seeing this, Qin Yong flipped his notebook two pages ahead.
“Continuing from Director Dong’s earlier mention of the issue regarding additional summer lessons for assessment, I’d like to add something.”
“Before communicating with parents, please prepare each child’s additional lesson plan, including the estimated extra lesson hours and the goal for each session.”
“This must be implemented for every student receiving extra lessons.”
“Considering that some teachers have many students and a heavy workload,” Qin Yong said, glancing at Old Dong, “Director Dong, let’s extend the deadline for this task to Friday afternoon, before the end of the workday?”
Old Dong dared not refuse, quickly assuring there was no problem.
The hour-long meeting soon ended. Qin Yong asked Old Dong if he had any final remarks, and Old Dong issued an order to all staff.
“From today, everyone must fully cooperate with Deputy Principal Qin’s work. Let’s strive for a turnaround in Yudong’s performance in the second half of the year.”
“Wow—”
Amid applause, the first week’s collective meeting of July concluded.
After the meeting, Old Dong personally escorted Qin Yong to the former principal’s office.
He had cleaned the office himself that morning.
“Director Dong, thank you for your hard work today. I’ll need your continued cooperation for the tasks ahead.”
“Not at all, it’s my duty. If there’s anything lacking, please forgive me.”
“We’re all family now, so I’ll speak plainly. This morning, I’d like to meet with the head of administration. The three of us should have another meeting—let’s do it here in half an hour, please arrange it.”
Old Dong received his orders and left. Qin Yong sat down and exhaled deeply.
He had indeed come up with the idea for the two outstanding teachers, but being thrust into this by the old principal was not something he had expected.