Directors of Chinese schools in the Phoenix area gathered and communicated before the start of the school year

Directors of Chinese schools in the Phoenix area met and communicated before the start of the school year (Written by: Tian Lin, Principal of Hope Chinese School) In response to two local "overseas Chinese education...

(Written by: Tian Lin, Principal of Hope Chinese School)

In response to the initiative of the leaders of two local "overseas Chinese education model schools" - Modern Chinese School and Hope Chinese School, convened by Shuai Zhiruo, honorary president of the National Association of Chinese Schools and director of the Association's Phoenix Regional Liaison Center, on August 8, 2015, leaders of five Chinese schools in the Phoenix area gathered together to exchange school experience and explore the development prospects of local Chinese education. Present at the meeting were Modern Chinese School Chairman Ms. Tian Shaowei and Vice Principal Ms. Wang Yulan, Hope Chinese School Chairman Dr. Li Jian and Principal Ms. Tian Lin, Phoenix Chinese School Chairman Mr. Xie Jianming, Fengcheng Chinese Christian Church Chinese School Principal Ms. Shen Meijing, Mencius Chinese School Principal Ms. Liu Fengxia, who newly joined the National Association of Chinese Schools last year, and National Association of Chinese Schools Honorary President Ms. Shuai Zhiruo. Chairman Xie Jianming of Phoenix Chinese School introduced the school’s development in recent years. Phoenix Chinese School has actively promoted Chinese courses to non-Chinese-speaking communities in recent years. Currently, non-Chinese students in the school account for 35% of the total number of students. It is the development goal of every Chinese school in the region to enable more students from non-Chinese-speaking families to learn Chinese in Chinese schools and to promote Chinese education to mainstream society. Through Chairman Xie’s introduction and the successful model of Phoenix Chinese School, everyone has seen the prospects of bilingual Chinese education. Ms. Liu Fengxia, the principal of Mencius Chinese School, introduced the school’s summer camps, after-school classes and kindergarten classes. The school currently has nearly a hundred students enrolled, all of whom are students from non-Chinese-speaking families. Principal Liu also shared their experience in running summer camps this year; since all Chinese schools are on vacation during the summer vacation, the Chinese summer camp of Mencius Chinese School meets the needs of some parents and students who need to learn Chinese during the summer. Phoenix Chinese Christian Church Chinese School was established in 1983 and is one of the oldest Chinese schools in the region. Principal Shen Meijing introduced the school’s history and future development to everyone. Principal Shen repeatedly mentioned the school’s strict requirements for the quality of Chinese teaching, requiring all teachers to prepare lessons carefully and correct homework personally. Teachers need to understand each student’s progress and shortcomings in order to help students in a targeted manner. Chairman Li Jian and Principal Tian Lin of Hope Chinese School shared their experience in running schools with the colleagues present. "Small class teaching, exquisite teaching" is the educational philosophy of Hope Chinese School. The combination of rich and colorful talent courses and Chinese teaching encourages students and provides them with a stage to display their talents, which greatly encourages students' enthusiasm for learning Chinese. In the new school year, I hope that the talented teachers of the Chinese school will expand more ideas to arouse students' interest and take students to a new peak in Chinese learning. Modern Chinese School is the largest Chinese school in Alberta. Modern Chinese School’s Chairman Tian Shaowei and Vice-Principal of Teaching Wang Yulan introduced that the school currently has a large number of registered students, and stressed that the school will continue to put teaching quality first; they believe that it is necessary to convene this meeting so that the heads of Chinese schools in the region can sit together for meaningful exchanges at the beginning of the school year, and hope to have such exchanges with local colleagues on a regular basis in the future. The heads of several Chinese schools also conducted forward-looking discussions on issues such as Chinese education and school development in the future, and achieved a lot of consensus. Basically, the heads of Chinese education here have personal teaching and management experience in Chinese schools. Each person combined their own experience and experience to conduct a realistic analysis of the difficulties faced by Chinese schools and the future development direction and put forward some practical preliminary plans. Modern Chinese School will start at ASU on August 9th; Fengcheng Chinese Christian School will start at Fengcheng Chinese Christian Church on the afternoon of August 16th; Hope Chinese School will start at Mesa Community College (MCC) on the afternoon of August 22nd; Phoenix Chinese School will start at Mesa Community College on the afternoon of August 23rd. On August 16, Modern Chinese School will host an "expert group" sent by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council for this year's Chinese teacher training activities in the Phoenix area. Chairman Tian Shaowei said that the school is actively preparing for the work of the "expert group" and carefully arranging training activities; Chairman Tian invites teachers from all Chinese schools and parents who love Chinese education as well as other Chinese teachers in the region to participate in this training; the training venue is ASU's LL Classroom No. 2 of the building, the time is from 10 am to 4:30 pm on Sunday, August 16th. There is no fee for this training. Lunch can be purchased at the MU building of the university. Those who participate in the training can obtain certificates in Chinese and English. Those who are interested in participating in the training, please contact Chairman Tian Shaowei by email: shaoweitian@yahoo.com in order to prepare the training certificate.