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!

2011 Summer of Knitting

你好朋友！ 很想你们！

Know what I did this summer? I got to teach a knitting class at LJA. WOW big fun! Some kids were newbies to the world of knitting and some kids were returning learners. These kids learned so, so much I was blown away! Some kids learned cabling, some kids learned purling, some kids even made leis and scrunchies. Don't know what cabling and purling is? No problem. Next summer sign up for my Keiki Knitting class and I will teach you the beautiful and relaxing art of knitting! Check out these fun pics.

Learn more do more!

好久不见

好久不见！Long time no see!

This summer I decided to take a little break from our classroom blog to focus on learning a little more technology. And WOW have I learned a lot. And WOW what fun it has been. Isn't it fun to learn things?

Keiki Chinese have been having loads of laughs learning to write Chinese on the computer with MIT's Scratch 1.4 program. Check out their website http://scratch.mit.edu/ to view our projects. Go to vschina2003 Keiki Chinese. Our keiki learners even started building Scratch 1.4 animation at home and on the weekends! Smart, smart students!

We also had loads of laughs writing Chinese on Photoshop CS5 manipulated images. Keiki learners got a chance to write in Chinese on banners and help each other learn this sometimes tricky program.

What have you been doing this summer? I certainly miss each and every one of you! Write in and tell me all about your summer.

See you soon!