Dear Parents,
Welcome to my classroom blog. My name is Maple and I will be the Chinese Mandarin teacher at St. Cyprian for the current academic year.
First of all, I want to say thank you for supporting your children to learn Chinese. It's a difficult language yet it will be a useful skill in the next ten/twenty years.
I was born and raised in the south of China, a city adjacent to Hong Kong and Macau. I came to the states two years ago to purse my graduate degree. I am 24 and I just completed my master's program in education (K-12) in August. I have been teaching Chinese as a student teacher throughout my program.
My methodology in the classroom is to facilitate students' second language acquisition (speaking in particular) in a fun learning style. For PreK to 4th grade students, they focus on simple daily conversations and vocabulary, using lots of flashcards, pictures, art crafts, and games. For 5th to 8th grade students, they learn topic-centered vocabulary as well as sentences they can use to discuss the particular topic. I also introduce Chinese history and culture in class.
As we are approaching the end of the first trimester, students will have assessment on Monday or Wednesday next week. I have given out study guides that help them review what we have covered so far.
Have a look at some of the students' work. I will see you soon.
