中文学校每周简讯 - 2月27日

中文学校的各位家长、老师，你们好，

看到下课后自动售货机前排成的长队就知道学校每年的新年红包是多么的受欢迎。我再一次和财务说要想办法把这个自动售货机买下来作为学校固定资产之一。这可是个摇钱树--以后每年的红包就可以从这棵树上摇下来。上个星期没有领到红包的这个周末别忘了。元宵节还没过，红包继续发。

华社一年一度精心准备的春晚在SUNY成功上演。经典的京剧和孩子们的舞蹈、武术表演让舞台充满了节日的喜乐。这是我们首府区华人每年度最大的盛会，听说明年会考虑搬回Egg，在场地、座位上能容纳超过一倍以上的人，当然也更需要大家的支持。随着华人社群这几年的显著增长，只要大家踊跃参与，一定能从“藏龙卧虎”到“龙腾虎跃”，让我们的节目更加贴近华人社区的生活和喜怒哀乐。

二月短，三月长。接下来我们有几个重要事项需要每一位家长放在心上，因为你的孩子总归要参加考试的。中文SAT模拟考试安排在3月8日，考试时间为一个小时。共有23位学生参加，主要是9、10年级的学生。汉办主持的YCT四级考试安排在4月12日，考试时间为七十分钟。共有28位学生参加，主要是5年级学生。考试的费用由学校负责，目的是鼓励大家参加考试，客观评估自己的中文水平。学校借此也可以对教学质量有个客观评价指标。

三月份还有一个重要事项是每学年的年刊需要在3月29日前汇编成册。这是一项繁重的工作， 今年仍由肖玲老师领衔策划。希望各位家长积极配合老师，共同努力，给我们自己和学生们留下一个美好的记忆。

关于年度的绘画比赛，请同学们在4月19日之前把你们的作品交给孙旭峰副校长，也请你在个人信息标签上填好你的姓名和其它信息（个人信息标签附上）。 今年要求参赛的作品以春天为主题。是否切合主题将是裁判评分的标准之一。我们是鼓励大家重在参与，对于以往出现的一稿多投的情况，请各位家长把把关。

二月十五日我们在华社举行了本学期的教师会议，主要议题是大家交流教学经验，讨论如何提高教学质量和学生的学习兴趣。高年级的任小波老师把自己十几年的家底浓缩在三十分钟内，针对很多常见的问题分享了自己的有效经验，激发了大家的思维。分组讨论让大家都有机会就共同的问题交换看法、意见。校方也就学校的管理收集了一些反馈意见。这些都会逐渐反映到平时的教学中去。最关键的是我们每位老师冒着寒风冽雪、把自己宝贵的休息和家庭时间花在我们的中文学习上，我代表全体家长感谢他们的奉献精神。我个人的最大收获是体会到大家在讨论中反映的一个共同点：家长的参与、以及如何参与对孩子们中文学习的好坏有举足轻重的影响。当然这个道理大家一讲都明白，就像微信上每天的心灵鸡汤有很多道，究竟哪一道对你的胃口，因人而异。我的新年期望就是我们每一位家长都能积极参与到孩子们的学习生活中去，让我们共同在摸索中成长。

周日见！

陈峰
中文学校校长2014-2015

Dear Chinese School Families,

The Lucky Money was so popular that we ran out of red packets in the end. I had to guess most of them was gone no later than the end of day when I saw the mile-long waiting line before the vending machine. A few classes did not get their Lucky Money last week will receive their share this week. Please again sign them off from the PTA members.

The 2015 Chinese New Year Performance hosted by CCC was another event where we celebrate the holiday in a traditional way. There were a few programs conducted and performed by our own talents. Let’s thank the performers and their parents for their time and effort to bring happiness into us.

There was a bit of confusion outside the stage that some of the families mistakenly took the table booth from Globe School for our Chinese School. The Globe School is a Saratoga Spring based school, which leverages the federal StarTalk grant and aims to provide full-time Chinese Immersion Programs for children from K to 5. There are a few parents and teachers of our school who have been involved since the establishment of the Globe School. If you are interested in finding out more information, please go to their website.

As we are still in holiday mode, there are a few important dates quickly approaching.


1.      SAT II Mock Test and YCT 4 Exam
The SAT II Mock test is schedule on March 8th. We have 23 students mostly from Grade 9 and 10 registered this year. The YCT 4 exam is schedule on April 12th. We have 28 students mostly from Grade 5 to take this exam. Detailed arrangement (time and classroom for test) will be sent out to respective teachers soon. The registration fees ($10 for SAT II, $20 for YCT 4) are compensated by the school to encourage participation of these tests but students should pay their deposit to their respective teachers to ensure participation of tests.

2.      Year Book
It’s also time to start designing the Chinese School year book that is due on March 29th. Year book is an important project and carries a lot of memories during a school year. Please work with your home parents and teachers to start the process hopefully right after you receiving this note. A template will be sent out shortly in a separate email to teachers.

3.      Annual Art Exhibit and Competition
The annual Art Exhibit and Competition is coming soon and we are accepting students’ work until April 19th. Please submit your work to Mr. Xufeng Sun, our Vice Principal during regular school hours. Make sure you put your name and class on the label that is attached in this email.  This year we request that student's work has a theme related to SPRING season, which will be important aspect considered by a team of judges.

Most of the teachers joined the teacher’s conference on February 15th at CCC. We spent half day together to talk about how we can encourage students to learn Chinese. The teacher’s conference is also a platform where the school administrative team collects feedback from the teachers and exchanges ideas. A lot of teachers shared with the group their best practices and experiences. The group discussion covered a lot of topics of interests and inspiration was everywhere. In the end a common observation is that the key differentiation in Chinese language study lies in how the parents are interacting with the kids and engaged in their child’s study. This is probably true for everything; however, I feel as a first generation immigrant, this is particularly important to us. A lot of us learnt Chinese as our native language, but our kids mostly have English their native language. How to motivate our kids to learn Chinese, how to set the right expectation for their progress, etc, are
 questions we probably do not have right answers to now. But I hope we can seek the best answer together as long as you keep sending kids to Chinese School. That will make my wish of Chinese New Year of 2015.

Sincerely,

Feng Chen
Principal
CCC Chinese School 2014-2015