Photo: Courtesy of organizers

PE teachers were honored with 100 awards for innovation at the Active Schools Innovation Awards in Shanghai on Tuesday. 

There were another 42 awards for innovation at extracurricular PE classes, 28 awards for innovation in sports culture and 30 awards for international exchange. 

Zhao Yisong, of the Karamay No.10 Primary School in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was one of the winners of an innovation in sports culture award. A PE teacher with a passion for basketball, Zhao formulated a training system that allows children to exercise spontaneously and encourages friendly competition while taking into account their schoolwork. 

Gao Ning, winner of an innovation in PE lessons award, is a PE teacher at Yangbainiu Primary School in the city of Yuxi, Southwest China's Yunnan Province. 

Children often suffered injuries playing unorganized games after school in the remote mountainous area. 

Gao launched an after-school basketball and soccer team program. He also devised a teacher-student-student teaching model: First he would teach the older students and then let them help their younger classmates.

Gao's solution not only improved the efficiency of teaching classes, but also enabled children to safely exercise.

"By implementing innovative teaching approaches and caring for students and the community, physical education teachers can make a lifelong impact on children," said China national female soccer player Li Ying, who attended the ceremony. 

The Active Schools program, a cooperative project between Nike and the Ministry of Education, is in its third year.

The awards received more than 2,600 applications this year and more than 5,500 in three years. 

Some 100 children were invited to participate in the Active Schools program were also in Shanghai this week to get to know different sports. Professional coaches also gave lectures to the award-winning teachers.

"The test cases from teachers are getting deeper," said Wang Dengfeng, director of the Ministry of Education's department of physical education and art education. "We're happy to see the schools are getting active thanks to the teachers' efforts."