Do You Understand Chinese?

Do You Understand Chinese?

Learn how to say I Don't Understand with this fantastic videocast created by Xiao Gou and Xiao Long! And don't forget a big thank you to our Director Lao Hu!

Just click on the sentence Do You Understand Chinese to start the videocast.

The Chinese Bulldog Show is a video and podcast show dedicated to kids teaching kids how to speak Mandarin Chinese. So sit back, relax, and learn!

Where is Laoshi?

Where is Laoshi?

Check out the latest episode of the new Chinese Bulldog Show. A radio talk show dedicated to kids teaching kids to speak Mandarin Chinese. Join Xiao Gou and her friend Wai Jun to learn how to ask the whereabouts of someone! Very useful information when we go on our tour to China!

Just click on the sentence Where is Laoshi at the top of this post.

So sit back, relax, enjoy the show and learn more!

See You Soon!

See you at family night! Please drop by and visit my classroom. I will have a handout for adding Chinese characters to your Mac or PC as well as a handout with lists of my favorite online learning links, bookstores, and more.

Come see your new desks in the classroom. Last week I noticed many of our 4th grade boys have out grown my little tables. Maintenance generously brought me bigger desks. These "big kid" desks are reserved for 4th and up only. Benefits for the big kids!

3rd graders really dove into deeper content on Friday. We started learning 听过不懂。 I don't understand! Very handy when we go on our tour to Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian.

By the way, our educational travel agent from Explorica (Ann) will have our travel plans and pricing complete early next week. As soon as I hear something I will let you know. Here is keeping my fingers crossed.

Kindergarteners are really having a good time learning to write 一， 二 ，三 。Next week we are taking on 四. I think 四 looks like a window with curtains. What do you think it looks like?

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

What Else Does Laoshi Do?

你好汉语的学生！ Hello Chinese Learners!

Want to follow me on Twitter? I follow all sorts of interesting people you would probably enjoy, also! Social media is a wonderful way to learn lots of new things and share what you have learned, too! My Twitter name is @MushudragonUSA.

Here is a happy picture of me and my LJA teacher friends in Boston. This year I am going to try to post more pics of my dogs because Tuzi asked me to! And I also included this picture of a darling little doll from Tibet.

Happy Winds-Day! Hope to see you on Twitter!

Hawaii Schools of the Future Conference September 8, 2011

Five keiki Chinese will be traveling with me to the Convention Center on September 8, 2011 to host a presentation on student tech mentors and kids teaching kids to speak Mandarin Chinese. Keiki Chinese have already started organizing and practicing for this super-duper workshop. Keiki will be teaching Scratch 1.4, iMovie, Garageband, and even live streaming with Ustream.tv.com. Students have been working on a podcast show you can check out at podbean.com.

Want to learn some of these neat computer programs and how you can use them to learn Chinese reading and writing? Come to one of our practice sessions on Tuesdays and Thursday from dismissal to 3:45! Hope to see you there.

First Week Images

A few images of our first week of School Year 2011-2012. Mao Rong Rong was the champion of the Chinese Yo Yo! Ja Ke (class of 2012!) and Laoshi are getting his independent study in Chinese all worked out! And Mrs. Sprague's PE class is ready to hit the field!

Chinese students fell right into step this week with a few warm up writing assignments, and then right back to our Chinese Bulldog Podcast show and even dabbling in a little Ustream.tv.com practice. Livestreaming sure can bring a few happy giggles to the classroom. What a fantastic way to practice new phrases and dialogues.

Kindergarten had a good time learning 不 No and 书 Book, watching puppet shows, and listening to my favorite Chinese song on YouTube (Ni Wa Wa - the Mulan Version)

How about a new phrase? Here is one for you 没关系 mei3 guan1 xi4 (sounds like May3 G-Wan1 She4). Try practicing this one out the next time you are stuck in traffic!

Did I mention? I have the best job in the world! I am a teacher.

First Day of School

Time to remember what we have learned! Wow! It was a really great day seeing all the keiki again! Students rolled into school ready to learn, learn, and learn some more!

2nd graders started with practicing tones, numbers and remembering polite responses.

4th graders impressed me with their Chinese character writing and telling me stories about all the Chinese things they did this summer! Mara went to Chinese immersion school in San Francisco, Nanea built a Chinese bamboo flute in woodshop class, Jillian made panda cupcakes, and Laoshi ate a lot of dim sum!

Here are a few words to jog your memory. Practicing writing them before our next class:

山

兰

不

狗

Practice what you know!

A Very Nice Summer

Looks like another lovely Hawaii summer is coming to an end. Our classrooms are shiny and ready for the students, our grade books are ready for A's, and the lunchroom is waiting for little eaters! Today the children and parents came to visit all the teachers. How lovely it was to see all the returning students and met new ones.

So long to a beautiful summer and hello to a fantastic year of leaning and growing!

Learn More Do More

The verdict is in...I am the luckiest teacher in the world! Look where I visited! Boston! I attended a Scratch workshop for teachers. http://scratch.mit.edu/ Check out our Summer School 2011 class Scratch MIT projects at http://scratch.mit.edu/users/vschina2003. After my workshop I visited the Harvard University East Asian Civilizations and Languages Department and took a tour of the library. Beautiful! Then I had a snack in the Harvard yard and made friends with a hungry little squirrel! So cute!