2002-03 announcements July 30, 2004 Dear Parents, Hope you are enjoying the cool summer! (It's MUCH more comfortable than in Beijing.) 1) Our "YingHua in Beijing" 2004 Summer Camp is coming to an end. Pick up a copy of this week's MeiZhou Chinese newspaper and see who're in the "YingHua Tan" camp pictures. Or you can pick up a color copy of this week's YingHua Tan at the Asian Food Market in Plainsboro, where we have a long-term ad spot (second from the right). If you can't read Chinese, don't worry. The camp of 28 students has a daily journal in English plus an online album with tons of photos. If you want to know more about the camp, you can also open up the Announcements and see how I communicated with parents. All are at www.yinghua.org - Curriculum - Specials. I am sure next year's camp will be even better! All kids older than 12 are welcome. Younger students (as young as 8) may also attend with older siblings or as day campers. 2) If you have not registered your child for the new school year, please note that the Early Bird rate will be effective until July 31 only. So far 123 students have registered! 3) I'd like to see many YingHua parents attending the "Conference on Chinese-American Parenting Practices" from 12 to 5 p.m. on Saturday August 28 at the Edison Clarion Hotel (see www.pceclub.org). I am part of the effort behind the scene to pull this unprecedented important conference together. We believe by learning from the experts and each other, we would become better parents. Thanks to the generous sponsors, the conference will be FREE if you register online by August 22; otherwise, it's only $10 to register on the spot. Early registration will help us determine the need in the conference facilities. 4) Please do remind your child of his/her Chinese summer homework. Students in CHL A01 and above should have received homework assignments. C00 students should play the "My First Chinese Words" CD-ROM. A11 students should also study four chapters of "Monkey King" (Chap. 9-12) on your own. CHL only: If your child will be transferring from a program that has not used Dr. Ma's textbooks and you have not received my study guidlines, please contact me as soon as possible Let me know if you have any questions. Regards, Bonnie June 17, 2004 Dear Parents, Thank you for attending last Sunday's Commencement exercise! I hope you had a good time. I wanted to thank all the teachers for their dedication and hard work throughout the year. YingHua would not be what it is today without your selfless contributions. We made special recognitions to five teachers who have made special contributions to the school this year. Ms. Ling Li, Mr. Jun Wang, and Ms. Joy Zhao received Certificate of Appreciation for their contribution to the new CD-ROM development work for the CSL Tier 1 (CSL1) students. They will continue working through the summer to deliver this much-needed learning tool to our CSL students. This year's Chairman's Award went to Ms. Lifang Jiang and Ms. June Xu for their extraordinary contributions to the school. A YingHua parent herself, Ms. Jiang is our Webmaster. She created the current new web site last September and has been actively maintaining it. She has also developed the library online reservation system, the parent survey system, and the student record system. Not only her effort has assisted the school's operation, it has also demonstrated to the world outside about our commitment to Chinese education and to the brighter future of our children. Ms. Xu initiated and managed our successful Asian Food Market gift certificate program. She single-handedly sold over $15,000 gift certificates to her friends and colleagues. In less than half a year, the program has raised $1,100 for YingHua helping improve the school's financial stability. Certificate of Appreciation also went to four other volunteers: Any Xu and Xiao Ying Zhao for their effort in managing the library, Vicky Liu for her dedication to videotaping all lectures for teacher's training this summer, and Iris & Howard Markowitz for their commitment in videotaping every C00 class. I also wanted to thank every member of the Parent Advisor Council (PAC) for providing another communication channel between the parents and the school. As the Chairman of the PAC, Mr. Roger Yin has devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy to ensure the school got the support it needed from the parents. In organizing the Commencement exercise, Mr. Yin spent many many late night hours to make this year's Commencement a great improvement over last year's. I also wanted to thank the members of the Board for having provided another year's of outstanding service to the school. Without its guidance, YingHua would not be as stable and professional as it is today. Mr. Ken Chiang and his newly-wed bride, Christine, came right from their honeymoon. (They got married on May 30. Congratulations!!) At the Commencement, we also expressed our sincere "Thank you" to Ms. Nanjun He. We all remember, a year ago and during the summer, how hard she worded despite her late-term pregnancy. We also remember how soon she returned to school shortly after Jade was born so that she would not miss the beginning of a new school year. Thank you again, Nanjun! We had three VIP guests this year at the Commencement. The County Executive of Mercer County (the head of the Mercer County) Mr. Brian Hughes and his wife attended our event. In his address, Mr. Hughes talked about his own Irish roots and how he recently was able to trace his family tree back. He also mentioned his wife's Italian origins. Finally, he talked about how Mercer County is all about appreciating and celebrating diversity. Mr. Benson, the president of the Lawrence Board of Education, gave a wonderful speech "A Lesson of History" at the Commencement Dinner. It was a pity that this year's Commencement Dinner was only attended by 30 people. However EVERY student in the room told me that the speech was REALLY good! Mr. Benson started by talking about his African roots, which he has only been able to trace pieces of them in recent years and been trying to pass on to African-American youth in the community. He brought a big, heavy volume of a new encyclopedia "Africa" to show the audience. The sad lesson is that once you lost your heritage, your culture including your language and your discipline, you'd become rootless. He contrasted his experience with what he observed as a child how Jewish managed to maintain their heritage, culture, language, and discipline. He told the kids how fortunate they were to be able to attend a school that would help them to be connected to their roots! I have already heard one parent told me that their 9-year-old son had been speaking Chinese with them since the night of the Commencement Dinner. I will continue search for such kind of opportunities for our students to be exposed to positive encouragements and support from people of all kinds of backgrounds in the community. I just wish more people had heard his message that night. Dr. Bruce McGraw, the Assistant Superintendent of the Lawrence School District, also attended the Commencement and present the completion certificates to some of the students. This year we brought all students to the stage and presented them their hard-earned Completion Certificates with various honors. We also acknowledged those who had Perfect Attendance and finished or partially finished last Summer's homework. This year's student performance showcased what they had accomplished this year. It was satisfying to see how kids had grown and improved this year. Next year we will try to provide better literature for those who do not understand Chinese so that they will enjoy the performance better. There have also been suggestions on cutting down the time of the Commencement ceremony from 2 hours to 1.5 hours. We will probably try something different next year by limiting the time for performance to 3 minutes and present Certificates of Completion at the same time of the performance so that the kids won't need to go up to the stage twice. We will also stick to the schedule of having the Commencement on the first weekend of June. I've realized that many older students chose not to come because of their final exams this week. On the other hand, I applaud those students and parents who came to the school and stayed for the Commencement despite of the final exams on the next day. Thank you very much for your support!!! You have made YingHua such a wonderful school. Should you have any suggestions and comments, please share them with me. YingHua will only become better for I do not accept anything less. :-) Have a great summer and see you in September! Regards, Bonnie June 10, 2004 Dear Parents, You are cordially invited to attend the YingHua Language School 2003/2004 Graduation Commencement. The Commencement Ceremony will be held at the Lawrence Middle School auditorium from 4:45 to 6:30 p.m. on Sunday June 13. In the first part of the ceremony, every student will go on to the stage to receive certificate of completion with honor. In the second part of the ceremony, students will present various performances showcasing the achievements they have made this year. Following the ceremony, there will be a Commencement Dinner giving the teachers, students, and their families an opportunity to get to know each other. The dinner will start at 7 p.m. at World Buffet (with new/special dishes). Tickets will be available at school in the parent's room or by the auditorium: $20 per adult/$10 per child (ages 3-17), cash or check payable to YingHua Language School. Dress code: jacket optional - no jeans please Look forward to seeing all of you and other family members or friends at the Commencement! Regards, Bonnie June 6, 2004 Dear Parents, The yinghua.org mail server was out of commission for a few days (sometimes on-and-off) over that last a couple weeks. I only got some email sent to me during that period. If you are waiting for my response for anything, please resend your request. The mail server should be functioning properly now. In this issue 1) Commencement. From 4:45 to 6:45 p.m. on June 13. Commencement Dinner (optional) afterwards. 2) Honor Roll. 3) Gift Certificates. Need your participation. 4) Review for Exams. (CHL A01 and above) Details 1) The preparation for the 2003-04 commencement is well under way. Comparing to last year, the biggest change will be that all students will be given the completion certificates on stage with various honors: Highest Achievement, Good Citizenship, Most Improved, Best Effort, and Perfect Attendance. Some people have been asking me for the definition of "Good Citizenship" honor. The Board believes that the spirit of this honor should be to acknowledge those students who might not have the outstanding academic record but have demonstrated various good behaviors, especially in being cooperative and respectful to the others. Starting next year, our student record system will be used extensively in nominating students for these honors. This year, however, we will largely rely on teachers' subjective recommendation. I would like to ask you, the parents, to focus on acknowledging your child's effort and achievement this year - instead of focusing on what specific honor he/she gets, especially if you didn't think the honor your child will receive was "justify." If there were any issues regarding the honor your child will get, PLEASE let me know. For "Perfect Attendance," we need your help. If you are certain your child attended every single school day and has not been tardy at all but is not in the following list, please contact your child's teacher or me immediately. I do not have any names from C00, A00, A04 and A07. If your child's record was not PERFECT but is on the following list, please also let me know. Cai, Hannah Chan, Brian Chu, Ruohua Gong, Kewen Gu, Karen Hua, Zesheng Jiang, Yudan Pan, Andrew Ren, Qingyang Song, Wei Tong, Tzuriel Yan, Xiangxiang Yang, Huiwen 2) Honor Roll. I wanted to thank Henry Liu and Minjie Wu (P Supporter), Yong Ren and Kathy Song (P Supporter), Xiangdong Luo (B Supporter), Roger Yin and Rong Zhang-Yin (P Sponsor), Merrill Lynch, The Pollard Team (C Sponsor), Schoor DePalma (C Sponsor) for their generous contributions. All donors who have pledged their contribution during 2003-04 will be acknowledged on the Commencement program flyer. If you have pledged through United Way but have not been acknowledged at the Honor Roll, please contact me to make sure your name will be proudly listed in the Commencement program flyer. 3) Gift Certificate Program has contributed another $500 to YingHua. So far over $15,000 were sold by one single parent/teacher, Ms. June Xu. Would you please make your purchase during registration? 5% of the face value you purchase will go to YingHua. 4) The review material for most of the classes will be distributed this Sunday. For CHL classes A01, A04, A05, A07, A08, and A10, students will have the optional reading material recording assignment for extra credits. Encourage your child to do as many as they can, but please do not force your child on this one. See you! Regards, Bonnie May 28, 2004 Dear Parents, The school will be closed this Sunday in observance of Memorial Day. In this issue: 1) Register ONLINE soon. 2) What is Accreditation? 1) While you enjoy the long weekend, please take a moment to register online for the 2004-05 school year. Last Sunday some parents asked to pay the tuition first before registering online. While I appreciate your enthusiasm to register early, I have observed that such requests have created unnecessary burden and extra effort on the administrative staff. Our school's operation is probably the MOST efficient one among weekend schools. We heavily rely on our databases to handle routine tasks such as registration and tuition processing. The fewer hand-written notes we have to take, the better. Making exceptions to the rules or asking administrative staff to take care of checks while there are no records in the system to process does create a SIGNIFICANT problem for us - not to mention it is unfair to those who do follow the rules. (I have heard that one parent actually drove home last Sunday to register online before returning to school with his payment.) I don't want to sound like being too rigid, but please put yourself in the shoes of the administrative staff. As a Chinese, it's hard to reject a "simple" request for making an exception. However, we all know, if this were about registering for a YWCA summer camp or a Mercer County Community College course, no check would be accepted prior to registration. It'd be against the accounting rule. Period. We really appreciate your cooperation and understanding on this! Please register early. This year, the A00, A01, A04, A07, and C02 are very likely to have waiting lists. Our plan is to maintain the one-level-one-class structure. We still have vacancies in A09, A10, A11, A13, A15, and C06. Please introduce YingHua to your friends and neighbors. If needed, I can visit their homes to evaluate and talk to their children. Do you know our students are from 26 cities/towns across 5 counties in 2 states? We are creating a special web page for Car-Pool Network - accessible through Parent's Circle at our web site. 2) Another good news is that we have been notified that an offer of candidacy letter would be sent out soon. This will mark the official beginning of the accreditation process. (I have written an article in YingHua Tan on this subject this week.) Please read the following answers to have a greater understanding of what YingHua is driving to achieve. What is accreditation? Accreditation is the affirmation that a school provides a quality of education that the community has a right to expect and the education world endorses. Accreditation is a means of showing confidence in a school's performance. When the Commission on Secondary Schools accredits a school, it certifies that the school has met the prescribed qualitative standards of the Middle States Association within the terms of the school's own stated philosophy and objectives. The chief purpose of the whole accreditation process is the improvement of education for youth by evaluating the degree to which a school has attained worthwhile outcomes set by its own staff and community. This is accomplished by periodically conducting a comprehensive self-evaluation of the total school. Through the accreditation process, the school seeks the validation of its self-evaluation by obtaining professional judgment from impartial outsiders on the effectiveness of the total school operation. The intent throughout the process is more than to focus on shortcomings; the chief goal is to seek remedies for inadequacies and to identify and nurture good practices. Accreditation of a school is on an institutional basis. It should be noted that the whole school, not just one program such as the college preparatory courses, is covered by the accreditation. The following are some of the many benefits of accreditation: o greater clarity of purpose o stronger internal relationships o wider professional participation o more effective methods of planning for school improvement o improved consistency between educational purpose and practice For more on why accreditation is important, please visit http://www.css-msa.org/about/whyaccredit.html. Have a great weekend! Regards, Bonnie May 23, 2004 Dear Parents, 1) Accreditation. 2) Registration. 3) Students exam results online. Details 1) Accreditation. Last Sunday Dr. Susan Nicklas of Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools visited our school. She spent an hour and a half with me asking questions about the school pertinent to the accreditation standards. I also took some time to show her some of the password-controlled functions that she could not browse on her own. (She had already browsed our web site in great details and gained a lot of useful information about our school. Thank you, Ms. Jiang, for keeping the web site current and developing the library reservation system, the student record system, the parent survey system, etc.!) We then observed 4 of the 10 classrooms between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. and visited the YingHua Chinese Education Library (managed by two of our teenage volunteers - thank you). The purpose of the Candidacy Visit is to validate the responses about the 12 accreditation standards provided in the Candidacy Application submitted on March 10. In her 13-page Candidacy Visit report, which came out on Wednesday, Dr. Nicklas gave consistently HIGH remarks about YingHua's in the standards such as Philosophy and Objectives, Educational Program, Learning Media Services, Resources, School Leadership and Governance. In conclusion, Dr. Nicklas wrote, "The school has made extraordinary strides in its short time in operation. ... YingHua Language School is clearly ready to begin an accreditation process. The school has agreed to work with Middle States on the development of appropriate procedures, standards and self-study materials; much of this work will take place over the coming summer months." The suggested evaluation schedule is such that the school year 2004-2005 will be the self-study/planning year and that a team visit will be scheduled for late Spring/2005 or fall 2005. For those of you who are not familiar with the accreditation process, please rest assured that this would NOT be a process to eliminate the students who are having difficulties in learning Chinese. We are setting an unprecedented high standard for a weekend school so that we can help children of all abilities and backgrounds better than ever. With everybody's continuous support and commitment, we can provide the best available Chinese-learning opportunity for our children. 2) Registration for Fall 2004-2005. As mentioned in last week's announcement, please go online to register and make your payment directly to Ms. Nanjun He or postmarked by June 15 to receive the special offer to current YingHua families. The rate listed in your email may not reflect this special offer (until I change it over the weekend). Ms. He should be able to answer any questions with regards to the rate. Please note, you would have to register ONLINE and pay on time to get the special rate. NO exceptions. All CHL textbooks are ready for pick-up. While you are paying for your tuition, please remember to purchase the Asian Food Market gift certificates to support the school! Please also consider making a generous donation helping the school to be financially stronger. We have received a corporate matching fund of $240 from MARSH & MCLENN. Sometimes the donation itself comes later in installments. May I ask who is working for MARSH & MCLENN? Thank you so very much for your generous support!! 3) Students' Records. The belated students' exam results have been posted on the web. Please contact me if you have any concerns about your child's Chinese study. I have been making some house calls, but sometimes, it's hard to get you. Please do call me back if you would like to speak to me. I can be reached at 609.530.0399 (nights and weekends) or by email. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie May 16, 2004 Dear Parents, I have quite a few items to announce. Please read them carefully. 1) Accreditation visit. 2) Commencement. 3) 2004-05 Registration. 4) Donation. 5) Gift Certificates. 6) Arrival and leaving time. 1) Accreditation. There will be an on-site visit by Dr. Susan Nicklas, the Executive Director of the Commission on Secondary Schools of the Middle States Association. The Commission is establishing a protocol to accredit schools like YingHua for providing Supplemental Education. While you and your children would not need to do anything special for Dr. Nicklas' visit, I would like everybody to talk to your child(ren) about it. PLEASE BE ON TIME. We will be going into classrooms to observe from 2:30 to 3:30. The Fleetbank representative who could not make it last time will also accompanying us. 2) Commencement. Please talk to your Parent Advisory Council representative (the former P-T coordinator) if you have any concerns or ideas or suggestions for the Commencement. Mr. Roger Yin has established a sub-committee with Ms. Qing Li(A01), Ms. Jessica Wang(A11), and Ms. Mei Hu(A04) to work on this. 3) Registration. We will start 2004-05 online registration on May 16. For families of CURRENT students, if you registered ONLINE and pay your tuition & fees in FULL to Nanjun in school or mail your payment postmarked by June 15, we will honor last year's early bird rate. All conditions have to be met. No exception. Only applicable to ONLINE registered students. You need to register ONLINE before you pay: $300 for the first child + $10 registration fee. All students will pay the same $50 book fees this year to reduce the administrative workload. Please act promptly starting May 16. (If your child won't need a new book in September, please also pay the $50 book fee during registration.) 4) Donation & Honor Roll. The Honor Roll of Donors has been updated. I wanted to thank Tong Li & Jun Zhu (P Friend), Xiao Ying Zhao (S Friend), Shieley & Yu Oen (P Supporter), and Zhijun (June) Xu & Ning Yan (T Supporter) for their generous contributions. To be listed in the Commencement Program flyer, please make your pledge online by May 20. During registration, please make a pledge for contributing to The YingHua Fund. 5) Gift Certificate Program. We are very tight financially because of the impending negotiation with the district (no, we are not settled yet). We still have $3,500 in dispute (down from the orginal $5,000). This means that even if the district would somehow write it off this year, chances are we would be liable for it next year as a result of the new facility rental fee (started as of July 2003). Our Gift Certificate Program could be a great way to keep the tuition down if most of our families, who regularly shop at Asian Food Market, can participate. It does NOT cost you extra money. In many cases, you can quickly get cash back while helping YingHua to improve its financial stability. Our passionate champion Ms. Zhijun (June) Xu has personally purchased and sold over $15,000 to her friends and colleagues - bringing the total amount of gift certificates sold at YingHua to over $20,000. To find out how you can help, please talk to Ms. Nanjun He. 6) Arrival & departing time. As part of the negotiation with the district, I am reiterating that all students can only enter the building AFTER 2:20 p.m. even if the doors are OPEN (right, then we will be charged) and need to be out of the building by 4:30 p.m. (or 4:35 the latest). This will help us shave 15-minute rent from the renal charge, which currently applying to all rooms, or over $1,000 a year. Your cooperation would be greatly appreciated. See you on Sunday. Regards, Bonnie May 9, 2004 Dear Parents, 1) Commencement. You are cordially invited to attend the YingHua Language School Second Commencement from 4:45 to 6:45 p.m. on the last day of the 2003-04 academic year (June 13) at the Lawrence Middle School auditorium. More details will come. Please contact your Parent Advisory Council representative (former P-T Coordinator) to offer your help and share you ideas. 2) Donation. We still need your help in building up our school's financial "cushion" to allow the school to weather the current and future fluctuations in enrollment and cost (primarily rent). Please pledge online. All donors' names will be included in the Commencement program sheet. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie May 2, 2004 Dear Parents, The school will open this Sunday as usual. A representative from Fleet Bank may stop-by to pay us a visit. Just an FYI - nothing to prepare for. We are looking into potential sponsorship by Fleet Bank. 1) Visa to China and Chinese passport renewal. If you need these services, please bring all materials to HuaXia Chinese School at Plainsboro on Sunday May 5. Families from YingHua are welcome to use the services provided by a travel agent, which will have a desk there. See details at http://www.yinghua.org/index_files/visa.doc (in Chinese) or ask me. 2) Gift Certificates. I'd like to continue encouraging you and your family to purchase the gift certificates from Ms. Nanjun He. YingHua receives 5% of the face value of your purchase. It's not an insignificant amount. Most of the families spend about $4,000-5,000 in grocery at the Asian Food Market. A 5% of that is $200 to $250. We have over 100 families. Could you imagine the potential benefit to the school? I am on my third $500 pack of the certificates. Many of you have also been very active and diligent about using them. Thank you for your continued support! 3) Conference. Five teachers from YingHua will attend tomorrow's CLTA-GNY annual conference in New Brunswick. (CLTA-GNY - Chinese Language Teacher Association of Greater New York) This is the first time that YingHua sends its teachers to attend this conference. I attended an earlier conference (Northeastern Foreign Language Teaching Conference) in Manhattan on April 17. I have been part of the effort in bringing one particular panel at the NFLTC to the CLTA-GNY conference and will serve as its moderator. I am sure our teachers will enjoy their first Chinese-teaching-related professional exchange with teachers from universities, public/private schools, and other weekend schools. 4) YingHua Tan. If you can read Chinese, please check out the weekly issue of YingHua Tan at the web site www.yinghua.org under About Us or the MeiZhou newspaper. Sorry that I don't have the ability to convert this weekly newspaper column into English. By the way, occasionally I may miss sending out the weekly announcement due to my crazy schedule. Please check the web site (www.yinghua.org) for school calendar. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie April 16, 2004 Dear Parents, 1) About starting new textbooks. 2) Parent Advisory Council 3) Gift certificates. 4) Watch out for your valuables. 1) Most of the students started using new textbooks on March 28. They may have discovered that the new materials are more challenging than usual, i.e., there has been a small "jump" in difficulties as opposed to smoothly increased challenging levels. They may be right. This would be easier to understand using the launching-space-shuttle metaphor. If we do it right, we can tap into students' deeper language-learning potential and propel them into higher level of learning. Such a "journey" of learning may be a little "jerky" and your child may need your emotional support and guidance to adjust to the new "steepness of the learning slope." Please be there for your child! If we did not do it right, students might feel "defeated" and would lose the momentum to make further progress. Please pay more attention to your child's study at the beginning of any new textbooks. Let me know if your child would benefit from some specific guidance and support from me or from the teacher. 2) On March 21, the Board of Trustees approved the formation of a Parent Advisory Council consisting of the current homeroom parents or coordinators. The Board has appointed Mr. Roger Yin to be the Chairman of PAC for the current school year. Congratulations to the following parents who have become the initial members of PAC. Thank you for your effort in connecting the parents to the teachers and the school. Roger Yin - Chairman (A05) Debbie Thompson (C00) Minjie Wu (C05) Vicki Xin (A00) Qing Li (A01) May Hu (A04) Yimei Xu (A07) Joanne He (A08) Zulan Pi (A10) Jessica Wang (A11) 3) Gift certificates will always be for sale in the Parent's Room. 4) Did anybody see a black handbag with a pink letter "K" on the outside on April 4 in or near Rm. 113 (A07)? It belongs to one of the middle-school student. If this handbag were nowhere to be found any more, it would be the second such incident that happened. The other one happened to one of our teachers. The lesson is DON'T leave your valuables behind! They may disappear very quickly. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie April 2, 2004 Dear Parents, There will be no school on April 11 (Easter). Most of the students have started a new textbook last Sunday. In some cases, there is a jump in the difficulties of the materials. Most likely your child will feel comfortable with the new materials and pace in a couple of weeks by slightly adjusting their studying routine. (In my children's case, they now need to read the Reading Materials a few times more than before to get an A score - because of the increased difficulties.) Please work with your child for a couple of weeks to adjust to the new challenge. Let me know if there are any persistent issues. Do not delay! Helping your child develop a learning habit is very important because it will make your life easier. If you think I might be able to help, please let me know. See you on Sunday. Regards, Bonnie March 19, 2004 Dear Parents, 1) Gift Certificate Program. We have received another $300 (total $900) contributing to YingHua Fund through the Asian Food Market Gift Certificate Program. Thank you for your support! We are selling these gift certificates on every school day. Come see Ms. He and you can buy any amount (though the $500 pack is really convenient to use.) 2) Accreditation. We have officially submitted our Candidacy Application (a 41-page document) for the accreditation process. We would be accredited under the protocol of Supplementary Education Centers. We are committed to providing top-quality education so we are willing to hold ourselves accountable by going through the accreditation process. The initial fee/cost is $500. We are calling for all parents to look for individuals or organizations that would be willing to sponsor this significant and unprecedented effort. For details, please contact me. 3) Most classes will have exams this Sunday. Please help your child as much as you can but do not panic if it's too late. Let me know if you need some advice on how to focus the effort. Good luck! See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie March 10, 2004 Dear Parents, Just a quick note - The school will open this coming Sunday to make up one of the two snow closings we had in December. The other make-up day is on June 13, which means the school will close one day later than the original calendar. Please check the school calendar at www.yinghua.org. For students in CHL A01, A04, A07, A08, A10, and A11, please bring ALL character cards to school for REVIEW. Character cards (blue or beige colored) should be grouped together by week (marked in the lower-right corner of each card). They should later be MIXED prior to and during the oral exam on March 21. I'd like to emphasize that we expect CHL students to recognize each card in less than 3 seconds. Please let me know if you have any questions. Regards, Bonnie March 5, 2004 Dear Parents, 1) Summer Camp Update. 21 students from 7 states have registered for the "YingHua in Beijing" 2004 summer camp. Still have room for one 4-week camper (7/5 - 7/31) and two 1-week campers (7/5 - 7/11). 2) Home visits and house calls. To ensure a quality educational experience at YingHua, I do visit students and their parents at their homes occasionally. In most cases, these are new students transferred from other schools and I want to make sure they understand what YingHua stands for so that they can have a fresh start at YingHua. Home visitation was common when I was growing up in China. It has been so effective that I would like to encourage all parents to contact me should you wonder whether your child would benefit from a home visit from me. Usually a home visit is scheduled on Wednesday evenings for 30-45 minutes. Depending on the students, I may talk to them on several subjects including their general interests in attending schools, their ambitions for the future, their motivation (or lack thereof) in learning Chinese, etc. I care about students' academic performance at YingHua as well as their classroom performance. In general, I focus on encouragements offering my support and empathy. I do set some limits if necessary. When I visit your home, I would prefer to be able to talk to your child alone. In some cases, making house calls would be enough. My goal is to talk to at least 50% of our students on the phone every year. This means that I need to call those who appear to need my attention first. If you would like me to give your child some personal attention, please do not hesitate to let me know. I believe every child needs to know their effort matters to the others or that someone, other than their parents and teachers, cares about their Chinese study. In fact, the more people can express their care in a child's study, the more supported the child will feel. When I make house calls, if it is your child who picks up the phone, I usually will continue the conversation and may not ask to speak to you. I think doing so would make the student feel that he/she is responsible for his/her Chinese study. Please let me know if you would not feel comfortable about this. (I am very open-minded and would welcome any criticisms.) Overall, home visits and house calls have been effective by sending a strong message to the students. I wanted you to take advantage of them. Education is a long-term project. One single home visit or house call may not solve all the problems, but they do make a difference in a child's life. This is part of my job and I love doing it! See you on Sunday! Here is another recent article for you and your child to read. Regards, Bonnie TSINOY NGA - 02/24/2004 (http://www.tsinoy.com/Roots/TsinoyNga.cfm?ID=670) On Speaking Chinese by Kelvin Lee I am always surprised whenever I hear someone speak perfect Chinese here in Beijing, only to turn around and realize that the speaker was a Westerner --white skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, the works. Except that he was speaking fluent Chinese, accent and idiom perfect. I, on the other hand, look like a native Chinese -- almond eyes, yellow skin and black hair. But I can't speak fluent Chinese. Heck I can barely speak Chinese as is. I have my dialect (Fookien) down pat, but Chinese Mandarin is another thing entirely. More than once I have been approached by Beijingers asking questions about something, and more than once I have had to answer in Chinese with the perennial: "I don't understand what you are saying. Sorry, please ask somebody else." Usually when I say that and my foreign sounding accent comes out, the Beijinger will shake his head and walk away, pitying the ignorant Chinese-looking savage who couldn't even speak his own language properly. Once when I replied with the standard "I don't understand" answer, one Beijinger shot at me point blank with: "You are Chinese, why can you not speak our language?" Ouch. Stab me with a chopstick why don't you. But I can understand their point of view. I am Chinese. Filipino-Chinese, but still Chinese. It's just that I can't speak Mandarin very well. Part of my problem I think is in the four tones required in Chinese Mandarin. The differences seem normal to a native, but to foreigners like me who are learning the language, it is almost impossible to tell one from the other. Take for example the Chinese words for "dead and four." A different tone either way would make "four" into "dead" or vice versa. A mistake like that would change the Chinese sentence "I can see four people" into "I can see dead people." I'm not saying that I am totally tone deaf. When it comes to tones in the English language, I can pick it up straight away. Just ask my mother, who calls me "Kelvin" in the flat first tone when she wants to talk to me about something. She will call out "Kelvin?" in the rising 2nd tone when she means "where are you?" or "is that you?" The 3rd sing song tone of "Kelvin" is used as a warning, sort of like "Kelvin, what time did you really get home last night?" But when my mom uses the harsh 4th tone and calls out: "KELVIN LEE!" I have to run away and seek shelter in Church, because I know my days are numbered. Despite the difficulty of learning Chinese Mandarin, it is obvious that it is the next language to learn. If twenty years ago we wanted our children to learn English, today we should want our children to learn Chinese. Believe me, it will be the language of the future. For proof you merely have to look at all the foreigners learning and speaking Chinese all over Beijing. This situation is most probably the same all over China. Sometimes it feels like everyone wants to learn the language. I've met British, Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Europeans and even Thai and Indonesians speaking Chinese here in Beijing. And most of them can speak better Chinese than I do. Stick that chopstick into me a little more; I think I'm done. February 27, 2004 Dear Parents, 1) Summer Camp. Deadline extends to March 8. 2) Gift Certificates. We need your participation to relieve the pressure for tuition increase. 3) "Expert: New 'must learn' language likely to be Mandarin." Details: 1) We have 16 campers registered for the YingHua in Beijing 2004 Summer Camp! We are extending the registration deadline to March 8 as requested by the Pittsburgh, PA, area, which should bring the total number of campers to over 20. Because we will have additional counselors, we have set the maximum number of campers to 40. I only hope more YingHua students will sign up. If you are still undecided, please talk to me. The most prominent concern seems to be "safety." PLEASE TALK TO ME if you are concerned. It is going to be a great camp!! One of the counselors is a 100% Caucasian lady speaking perfect Mandarin. We have laid out great plans and ideas already! I would suggest that you not to simply put it off to "next year" if your child will be able go and is willing to go this year. Many high-school students will be too busy to go. So talk to me if you have any questions. 2) Another $4000 of Asian Food Market gift certificates has been purchased by parents like you - raising another $200 for the school. For every certificate you purchase, you are helping to improve the school's financial bottomline and reducing the pressure to raise tuition next year. Besides, you are doing this at NO cost (in $) to you. Currently there are about 25% of the families participating. Can we double that? I am using my second $500 pack and it is very convenient. Please give it a try! 3) Here is another boost to our cause: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/02/27/future.language.ap/index.html Expert: New 'must learn' language likely to be Mandarin Share of people who are native English speakers declining Friday, February 27, 2004 Posted: 1627 GMT (12:27 AM HKT) WASHINGTON (AP) -- The world faces a future of people speaking more than one language, with English no longer seen as likely to become dominant, a British language expert says in a new analysis. "English is likely to remain one of the world's most important languages for the foreseeable future, but its future is more problematic -- and complex -- than most people appreciate," said language researcher David Graddol. He sees English as likely to become the "first among equals" rather than having the global field to itself. "Monolingual speakers of any variety of English -- American or British -- will experience increasing difficulty in employment and political life, and are likely to become bewildered by many aspects of society and culture around them," Graddol said. The share of the world's population that speaks English as a native language is falling, Graddol reports in a paper in Friday's issue of the journal Science. The idea of English becoming the world language to the exclusion of others "is past its sell-by date," Graddol says. Instead, its major contribution will be in creating new generations of bilingual and multilingual speakers, he reports. A multi-lingual population is already the case in much of the world and is becoming more common in the United States. Indeed, the Census Bureau reported last year that nearly one American in five speaks a language other than English at home, with Spanish leading, and Chinese growing fast. And that linguistic diversity, in turn, has helped spark calls to make English the nation's official language. Yale linguist Stephen Anderson noted that multilingualism is "more or less the natural state. In most of the world multilingualism is the normal condition of people." ! "The notion that English shouldn't, needn't and probably won't displace local languages seems natural to me," he said in a telephone interview. While it is important to learn English, he added, politicians and educators need to realize that doesn't mean abandoning the native language. Graddol, of the British consulting and publishing business The English Company, anticipates a world where the share of people who are native English speakers slips from 9 percent in the mid-twentieth century to 5 percent in 2050. As of 1995, he reports, English was the second most-common native tongue in the world, trailing only Chinese. By 2050, he says, Chinese will continue its predominance, with Hindi-Urdu of India and Arabic climbing past English among 15-to-24 year olds, and Spanish nearly equal to it. Graddol said he focused on the 15- to 24-year-old group in 2050 to give an indication of the future past that point. Swarthmore College linguist K. David Harrison noted, however, that "the global share of English is much larger if you count second-language speakers, and will continue to rise, even as the proportion of native speakers declines." Harrison disputed listing Arabic in the top three languages, "because varieties of Arabic spoken in say, Egypt and Morocco are mutually incomprehensible." Even as it grows as a second language, English may still not ever be the most widely spoken language in the world, according to Graddol, since so many people are native Chinese speakers and many more are learning it as a second language. English has become the dominant language of science, with an estimated 80 percent to 90 percent of papers in scientific journals written in English, notes Scott Montgomery in a separate paper in the same issue of Science. That's up from about 60 percent in the 1980s, he observes. "There is a distinct consciousness in many countries, both developed and developing, about this dominance of English. There is some evidence of resistance to it, a desire to change it," Montgomery said in a telephone interview. For example, he said, in the early years of the Internet it was dominated by sites in English, but in recent years there has been a proliferation of non-English sites, especially Spanish, German, French, Japanese and others. Nonetheless, English is strong as a second language, and teaching it has become a growth industry, said Montgomery, a Seattle-based geologist and energy consultant. Graddol noted, though that employers in parts of Asia are already looking beyond English. "In the next decade the new 'must learn' language is likely to be Mandarin." ..... See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie February 20, 2004 Dear Parents, 1) Bell. Have you seen our bell??? The beautiful sound of our beloved Tibetan bell will be greatly missed. Should you have any information about it, please do let me know (in confidence). It was last seen in the Parent's Room on Feb. 1. 2) Parking. The small parking lot by Princeton Pike is reserved for teachers, staff, and volunteers for the library and video-recording between 2:15 and 4:30 p.m. Please DO NOT park there even if you plan to stay with your car "just for a few minutes." Thank you for your cooperation! 3) Gift Certificates. The $500 packs are the most convenient ones to use. Other denominations are also available. For each $100 gift certificate you buy from us, YingHua receives $5 from the MeiDong supermarket. Thanks for your support! 4) Camp. Registration for the summer camp "YingHua in Beijing" is growing fast (!). If you have introduced the program to your friends (Thank you!), please remind them to register online as soon as possible. The maximum number of campers is 20. We now have 7 registered campers and another 8 seriously interested in. 5) Classroom change. Both A11 and C00 will stay in the classrooms they were in on Feb. 8. We will no longer use the library. 6) The Conference on Chinese-American Parenting Practices will be held on Saturday August 28. YingHua is sponsoring the event by supporting its web site - www.yinghua.org/cap . I am also heavily involved in organizing the event. The conference is targeting the parents who were brought up in China and are raising children in a totally different cultural environment. There are a lot to learn!! More to come later. 7) For your information, there will be about 10 people from other schools visiting YingHua this Sunday. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie February 13, 2004 Dear Parents, The school is closed this coming Sunday. Please register for the summer camp online this weekend if you would like to have your child travel with other students as a group. We do not have a huge group, but the "YingHua in Beijing" program would be a great experience for them. Again, if your child would only be able to attend for a week or two, please let me know. We are very flexible. Here is an article that you might be interested or want to share with your children: "Children Raised Bilingually May Be Smarter" Have a good weekend! Regards, Bonnie ... At Dartmouth College, researchers report that bilingual children may be "smarter" than their monolingual peers. These findings add weight to the bilingual side of the long-running argument about whether children who grow up bilingual are at an advantage compared to those who learn only one language. "Our findings show that bilingual children can perform certain cognitive tasks more accurately than monolinguals," says Laura-Ann Petitto, PhD. "Being bilingual can give you a cognitive edge." http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/2/2003/11/13/story005.html November 13, 2003 NEW ORLEANS -- Scientists continue to unravel the mystery of the brain's role in the development of language skills -- and with some provocative results. One new study in this area, for example, reveals that children raised bilingually may actually be "smarter" than their monolingual peers. Other studies show how two computer learning programs potentially help children overcome reading and speech problems -- results that offer hope to families who have children with learning disabilities. Dyslexia alone affects one in five school-aged children. In addition, researchers have recently discovered an unlikely site for some speech and language processing -- the cerebellum, once thought to be involved only in the control of movement. Yet another new study has found that the hormone estrogen has a positive influence on language skills. Both these findings may one day lead to more effective therapies for children and adults with speech and language disorders. At Dartmouth College, researchers report that bilingual children may be "smarter" than their monolingual peers. These findings add weight to the bilingual side of the long-running argument about whether children who grow up bilingual are at an advantage compared to those who learn only one language. "Our findings show that bilingual children can perform certain cognitive tasks more accurately than monolinguals," says Laura-Ann Petitto, PhD. "Being bilingual can give you a cognitive edge." Petitto and her colleagues -- post-doctoral fellow Stephanie Baker, graduate student Ioulia Kovelman, and Ellen Bialystok, PhD, of York University, Canada -- compared a group of monolingual children, who spoke either French or English, to a group of bilingual children, who were learning one spoken language along with one signed language. The children in both groups were matched not only for age (4 to 6 years), but also for linguistic and memory development. The researchers tested the children's cognitive ability with the "Simon Task," a commonly used research tool that helps scientists determine how humans think and allocate attention. This task, which doesn't involve language, involves having the children report whether rapidly changing computer-generated red and blue squares appear on the center, right, or left side of the screen. The bilingual children far outperformed their monolingual peers. "We used to think that young bilingual children were disadvantaged because their language development was thought to be delayed and because learning two languages left them confused," says Petitto. "But in this study we found this is definitely not true, and our bilingual children learning speech and sign provided us with a first-time answer as to why this might be so." Because the bilingual children in the Dartmouth study expressed only one of their languages through their mouth, their sharper cognitive abilities could not be due to the increased motor practice and planning that comes from trying to speak two languages with only one mouth, explains Petitto. Instead, she says, the bilingual children's enhanced cognitive skills are due to the increased computational demands of processing two different language systems. "For example, the brain that has been trained for bilingual language must look up and attend to the meaning for, say, `cup' in one language, while suppressing the meaning for `cup' in the child's other native language," says Petitto. "This requires heightened computational analysis in the brain." Petitto's laboratory is currently expanding upon these results by studying bilingual adults. Using modern brain imaging techniques, the researchers want to see where and how the brain processes two languages, and to learn whether adult bilinguals also show this cognitive advantage. Second-grade students who have difficulty reading can significantly improve their reading skills within three months by practicing left-right movement discrimination for 5 to 10 minutes once or twice a week, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is the first time any study has found a training method that improves the reading skills of all types of inefficient readers. The training method used in the study is an interactive computer game called MovingToRead (MTR), which was developed by Teri Lawton, PhD, chief executive officer of Perception Dynamics Institute (PDI) of Topanga Canyon, California. Lawton is the founder of PDI, a company that is developing this software for use in the schools that eventually will be profitable. MTR therapy was designed to enhance the "where" motion pathway in the brain -- the circuit of neurons that helps readers determine the location of letters of a word and words on a page. Some scientists believe that immature motion pathways are related to reading problems in children. The study recruited 115 second-grade students from three elementary schools in the Santa Monica-Malibu and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. "MTR has been proven to be most effective in second-graders, who are at an age [7 years] when their brains are most receptive for learning," says Lawton. Using the Dyslexia Determination Test (DDT), the students were identified as either "efficient" or "inefficient" readers. Both of these groups were divided into three subgroups. One subgroup of efficient and inefficient readers received MTR therapy for 5 to 10 minutes, once or twice a week, for three months. A second subgroup played another computer game--one designed to train the "what" visual pathway in the brain, which helps readers determine what type of word is being presented to them. The third subgroup received their school's standard reading program. All groups also read for 15 minutes a day. "We found that most children who practiced left-right movement discrimination transitioned from an inefficient to an efficient reader," says Lawton. "They more than doubled their reading speed, while the reading speeds of the other two groups of inefficient readers barely increased." Among the efficient readers, however, no significant difference emerged. Each subgroup of efficient readers increased its reading speed, although the children who practiced direction discrimination almost doubled their speed, whereas those in the other two groups improved by about 50 percent. "These results indicate that reading skills are controlled by the where motion pathway in the brain," says Lawton. Children with language difficulties that are due to a certain kind of subtle hearing problem can significantly improve their language skills with an auditory training program, according to a new study from Louisiana State University (LSU) in New Orleans. These findings may help scientists develop a new and better way of diagnosing the hearing function of young children. The earlier that children have their hearing problems diagnosed, the greater the chance they can receive remedial treatment before their language impairment develops into a severe and lifelong handicap. In previous studies, scientists discovered that despite passing standard hearing tests, many children have subtle abnormalities in their auditory system that cause severe language difficulties. Children with these hearing problems are unable to recognize speech sounds that follow each other in a very rapid sequence, although they are able to hear all other types of sounds. Thus, although they have "normal" hearing, they can't understand everything that is said to them; nor can they speak normally because they pronounce words in the same way that they hear them. Some of these children have reading problems as well, and many are incorrectly diagnosed with attention deficit disorders. Believing that it might be possible to train these children to recognize rapid speech sounds, Scientific Learning Corporation of Oakland, California, developed Fast ForWord(TM), a computer-based program that artificially slows down the sequences of sounds in speech as it teaches children to read. Gradually, over a period of eight weeks, the speed of the sounds is progressively increased until it resembles normal speech. Studies by the founders of the program have shown that it can improve children's language skills. To confirm these findings and to determine if and how the training affects the auditory system, the LSU researchers evaluated 109 children for their verbal communication skills before and after participating in the intervention. In 17 of the children, a special test called the middle latency response was conducted to evaluate several central components of the auditory system. In 49 others, the researchers specifically looked at the efferent system--the neural pathways that connect the auditory cortex to the inner ear. For children with normal hearing and language development, a right ear advantage is seen in the efferent system. Earlier studies had shown, however, that the efferent system tends not to be as functionally asymmetrical in children with language impairments. "We found that Fast ForWord(TM) training does improve language skills in children with language impairments," says Thierry Morlet, PhD. The researchers also uncovered a clue as to why these improvements were happening: The training caused changes in the way the children's auditory systems functioned. The middle latency response changed after the training, showing improvement in the function of several central components of the auditory system. In addition, the function of the efferent system became more asymmetrical favoring a right ear advantage as in normally developing children. "These results corroborate the fact that training of the brain is possible and that changes in the auditory system can be observed and measured as a result of training," says Morlet. He and his colleagues plan next to determine why the auditory system fails to develop normally in some children and to find ways to improve the diagnosis and management of language impairments. This study was partly funded by ICS Medical, a company selling hearing products, as part of their research program to develop new hearing diagnostic products. New research from Georgetown University (GU) in Washington, D.C., and the National Institute of Aging has found that estrogen can influence the speed and accuracy of language processing in healthy, young women, perhaps by affecting the brain mechanisms that are used to form language. The results suggest that sex hormones may have a therapeutic role to play in helping people recover their speech after a stroke or brain injury. These findings also offer insight into the basic mechanisms that underlie language processing, and provide the first evidence that sex hormones influence the processing of language in premenopausal women. Previous studies have shown that hormone therapy enhances language processing in postmenopausal women and age-matched men. For their current study, the researchers tested 46 women; 21 were using oral contraceptives (users) and 25 were not (non-users). All were right-handed, native-English speakers. The women were tested on a number of cognitive tasks, including a language production task in which they were asked to fill in the missing past tense form of 64 different verbs. (For example: Sleep. Everyday I sleep in bed. Yesterday I ________ in bed.) Each woman was tested twice--once during the high estrogen (luteal) phase of her menstrual cycle and again during its low estrogen (follicular) phase. The researchers compared the accuracy and speed with which the users and non-users performed the language production task. They also looked at what influence the luteal and follicular phases of the women's menstrual cycles had on their performance. "We found that users of the pill performed better and faster than non-users," says Ivy Estabrooke, a doctoral student at GU and lead author of the study. "We also found that all the women were faster at producing past tense forms during the follicular rather than the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle." Next, Estabrooke and her colleagues plan to use brain wave measurements to determine what is happening in the brain to cause estrogen's enhancement of language processing. New research from the Institute of Child Health, University College of London, and the University of Bristol in the UK, offers strong support to the growing evidence that the cerebellum, an area of the brain once thought to be involved only in the control of movement, also plays a role in processing speech and language. This research may one day lead to better therapeutic approaches for helping children and adults with dyslexia and other speech and language disorders. The team of researchers studied two groups of children. In one group were 10 children with selective problems in short term phonological memory (STPM)--a facet of short-term memory that is believed to be particularly important for learning language skills, especially the learning of new words. These children had no other learning or language difficulties, although they did perform poorly on reading comprehension tasks. The other group consisted of 13 children who had been diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI), which means they had severe difficulties with the comprehension and/or expression of language, but their non-verbal intelligence remained intact. Both groups underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) along with two control groups of healthy children matched for age, gender, and non-verbal intelligence. The researchers used a relatively new technique known as voxel-based morphometry (VBM), which enabled them to perform statistical tests on the MRI scans to detect subtle differences between brains that visual inspection alone would not have picked up. "We found that the children with selective STPM deficits and those with SLI had less gray matter in both sides of the cerebellum compared to the children in the control groups," says Faraneh Vargha-Khadem, PhD. "In the SLI group, this was particularly pronounced around an area of the cerebellum known as the vermis." These findings raise interesting questions about the role of the cerebellum in language and cognition, says Vargha-Khadem. She and her colleagues plan to next examine the relationship between phonological memory, language, and other domains of cognitive function in children diagnosed with SLI. "We want to see if we can specify the relationship between specific regions of the cerebellum and different aspects of phonological and language processing," she says. "This knowledge would have significant implications for informing accurate diagnosis of language difficulties and could, in due course, lead to the development of appropriate rehabilitation techniques." Vargha-Khadem also reports on the seven-year follow-up study of the remarkable case of Alex, who, despite having the entire left hemisphere of his brain removed at age 8, has developed from about the age of 9 1/2 extraordinary speech and language skills in his right hemisphere. In about 98 percent of right-handed people, most speech and language skills are represented in the left hemisphere. "Today, at 18, Alex's speech and language abilities, which are entirely represented within his lone right hemisphere, are remarkably well-developed," says Vargha-Khadem. "His speech is fluent and well-structured, and he can understand complex sentences." Alex's case shows, says Vargha-Khadem, that the critical period for the development of speech and language extends to age 10, and possibly beyond. It also reveals the remarkable capacity of the immature brain to reorganize speech and language functions. Alex was born with Sturge-Weber disease (encephalotrigeminal angiomatosis), a congenital brain abnormality that often causes epileptic seizures and a developmental delay of motor and cognitive skills. As a result of this disease, Alex did not develop speech as a young child and was severely hyperactive and mentally restricted. He also had debilitating seizures. To help Alex become seizure-free, doctors removed the entire left hemisphere of his brain when he was 8:6 years old. After his surgery, Alex's awareness of his environment increased, and at the age of 9 years, 4 months, he started uttering his first words. His ability to speak and communicate gradually improved, and by the age of 11 he was a competent speaker. "The level of speech and language ability that Alex produces is both qualitatively and quantitatively within the normal range and consistent with his intellectual capacity," says Vargha-Khadem. Interestingly, she adds, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies show that the network of language regions in Alex's right hemisphere is similar to that used by most people in the left hemisphere. Vargha-Khadem plans to continue to follow Alex's progress as he proceeds into adulthood. "One of the things we hope to establish is whether functional imaging methods can help us predict reorganization of speech and language function in other children who are candidates for brain surgery," she says. February 6, 2004 Dear Parents, 1) Summer camp "YingHua in Beijing." Opening up for campers staying for shorter period (up to 4 weeks). The airline tickets are hard to get, please register ASAP. If not sure, please talk to me. See for more information on the college. Many photos from previous summer camps! 2) Summer camp escort. If you are going to travel to Beijing on July 3 or travel back to the U.S. on July 31, please talk to me. We need your help. 3) Gift Certificate Program. Please see Ms. He for your purchase. See you. Regards, Bonnie January 30, 2004 Dear Parents, 1) Summer Camp Helpers Needed. Camp registration by Feb. 14 for group traveling. And more. 2) Gift Certificates. Great success! Raised $600 for YingHua. Thank you! Keep it up. 3) Ski trip sign-up. 4) Chinese New Year Celebration in Plainsboro on Saturday 3-6 p.m. 5) Shirts and bags with YingHua name. 6) Stopping the email worms. 7) Future inclement weather closing notification. Details: 1) We are looking for parents to help with any of the following: - escort a few students on July 3 from Newark to Beijing through Chicago via United Airline arriving in Beijing on July 4 and stay overnight on July 4 at the camp (nominal compensation with free lodging and food for the night of July 4); - escort a few students on July 31 to Newark through Chicago via United Airline arriving in Newark on July 31 and stay overnight on July 30 at the camp (nominal compensation with free lodging and food for the night of July 30). Parents may stay at the camp. If you want to accompany your younger children to the camp, you may want to return to the camp in the evenings when your children may need your company the most. The rate is about $20 (160 yuan) for lodging and $7 (50 yuan) for food per day. 2) We've had great success with the Gift Certificate program. Last week, YingHua received the second $300 check totaling $600, which is 5% of what parents, teachers, and friends of YingHua have purchased. Thank you for your participation and help!! We want to keep this vibrant program going. Ms. June Xu has been collecting your checks, depositing them, and replenishing our supplies of the certificates. Please make your check payable to "June Xu." 3) See Roger on Sunday to sign up for the ski trip to be organized by Princeton Chinese Language School on Feb. 15. YingHua will be closed on that day in observance of President's Day. 4) There will be a three-hour long performance and activities celebrating Chinese New Year starting at 3 p.m. at the Plainsboro Public Library on Scudders Mill Road. I will be the master of ceremonies. Hope to see you there. 5) You can buy t-shirts and tote bags with YingHua's name now - thanks to Iris & Howard Markowitz! Stop by the Parent's Room. If your like to have your child's drawing or other artifact printed at the back, the cost will be an additional $5. Quantities are limited. 6) Stopping the email worms. All legitimate messages from YingHua should have subject lines starting with the word "YingHua ..." or use a very specific subject; otherwise delete all email from YingHua. This should be a general practice when you receive email even from people you know. When you send me an email, please kindly put some specific contents in the Subject line or include the word YingHua. Do not use any general subjects that could be mistaken as being generated automatically by email worms such as "hi" "test" "none" "special report" etc. 6) Future inclement weather closing. The school district will always make an announcement at http://www.lawrence.k12.nj.us/ under "Are Schools in Session Today?" during inclement weather EVEN on Sundays. I would suggest that you check this site to get the first-hand information if the YingHua site is slow in making an announcement. In other words, if the schools in the district are closed due to inclement weather on a Sunday, YingHua will definitely be closed. We will always try to post any closing announcements at www.yinghua.org as soon as we can. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie January 23, 2004 Dear Parents, Happy Spring Festival! 1) Summer Camp Registration deadline: Feb. 14/Feb. 29. 2) Ski with PCLS in 3 weeks. 3) Parking lot for teachers by Princeton Pike. 4) Lost & found. Talk to Nanjun. 5) Parade in Edison. Details; 1) Online registration for the summer camp "YingHua in Beijing" is available. Please register by Feb. 14 if you would like your child to travel with the YingHua group from the U.S. to Bejing. Otherwise, you may take additioanl two weeks to decide until Feb. 29 and you will need to drop off your child at the camp site on or after July 3. We will meet with the mostly ivy-league college students attending "Princeton in Beijing" during a field trip to the Great Wall. Read YingHua Tan for more details or come talk to me if you have any questions. 2) On Sunday Feb. 15 or Monday Feb. 16, there will be a skiing trip to Big Boulder organized by Princeton Chinese Language School, which YingHua families are invited to join. Bus riders need to register by Jan. 31 with Mr. Roger Yin in the Parent's Room. More info should be available by Sunday. 3)The small parking lot by Princeton Pike is for teachers and volunteers with heavy loads. Please do not occupy a parking slot while you stay in the car. When you park there, the teachers simply can't do so. Thank you for your consideration! 4) Nanjun has collected quite a few kids' jackets. Please come see her if your kids have lost theirs. 5) There will be a parade in Edison on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m.?). If you wanted to take your kid(s) there, especially if they are young, I'd have no problem. Just kindly send your teacher or me a message. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie January 9, 2004 Dear Parents, 0) No school on Jan. 18 - MLK Birthday long weekend. 1) Parent meeting at 2:40 p.m. on the Gift Certificate purchase. 2) Parent discussion at 3:00 p.m. on "YingHua in Beijing" 2004 Summer Camp. 3) Book fees (see separate email). A05 $50. A08 $50. C00 $15. 4) Homework (see separate email). A07 both blue and yellow workbooks to Nanjun. 5) We solute you! 6) YingHua Tan on Parenting - Result vs. Process (see online) 7) Do you know a person who can play Chinese music instrument? Details 1) Gift Certificates. We've sold about $3000 so far(!). My purchase has erased any skepticism I might have had before. I've found my $500 pack VERY easy to handle (complete with covers and stubs) - no more searching for loose certificates or wondering how many I have used. Buying smaller amount would also work because the paper is of high-quality; you wouldn't throw it away by accident. Do the math and you'll see how important it is to participate helping YingHua. Sell them to your friends and co-workers. Bring your check books!!! Ms. He has prepaid these certificates with thousands dollar of her own money (Thank you, June!). (To reserve your $500 packs, reply to this message, but you do not have to for small amount.) 2) "YingHua in Beijing" 2004 Summer Camp. More information is available online. We need to propose a 28-day schedule in great details this Sunday. The summer camp will teach Chinese (mostly reading and some writing) in the mornings. In the afternoon, there are at least TEN activities to choose from and to rotate (painting, calligraphy, martial arts, abacus, dancing, chorus, word processing, crafting, cooking, swimming, board games, etc.) I'd like to make a schedule with two activities in the afternoon and one in the evening. A lot of parks and museum's to visit in Beijing. Children of 12+ have priorities. I will be at the camp for the first 2 weeks at least. $40 a day. Do join us!!! 5) When A00 teacher was unexpectedly absent last Sunday, parents Linda Jin, Wei Wu, and Wen Zhang stepped in teaching the class! Their action exemplified YingHua's commitment to providing high-quality Chinese education for our students. A big THANK YOU to these and all the others who helped out. 7) "The Families with Children from China group is having a New Year party on the 31st. We are looking for someone who could give a demonstration on a traditional Chinese instrument. Do you know any teachers or parents at the school that I could call? Thanks, Kathy" See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie January 2, 2004 Dear Parents, Happy New Year! 1) The school will open this Sunday. From now on, the building will only be available to us from 2:20 p.m. to 4:35 p.m. 2) Summer Immersion Camp. We may need to have one adult from YingHua at the camp. Therefore we are looking for parents who will be able to spend 1-4 weeks at the camp in Beijing during summer 2004. The children of participating parents may receive reduction in fees. The fee is about $40 a day. Check out www.yinghua.org and give me your suggestions on the program. 3) Gift certificates. Mei Dong Supermarket in Plainsboro donates 5% to YingHua on the face value of its gift certificates that we purchase. The store carries American and Chinese groceries including fresh vegetables, seafood, and meat. We would like to thank Ms. June Xu for her initiative and effort on this fundraising activity. Please stop by the Parent's Room. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie December 16, 2003 Dear Parents, There will be NO school through the end of the year. The District would not be able to provide custodian service on Dec. 21. We will make up the two snow days on March 14 and June 13. In general our closing decision is primarily based on the availability of the custodian service. The secondary consideration is the accessibility of the parking lot and walkways. We may not close the school due to general "bad weather" otherwise. I'd like to thank all of those parents and teachers who helped notifying the others about last Sunday's closure. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for us to do a better job next time. Happy holidays! Be creative in encouraging your child to learn some Chinese over the long break. See you on Jan. 4! Regards, Bonnie December 14, 2003 Dear Parents, This Sunday (December 14) will be the only school day in December. The next school day will be Sunday January 4, 2004. 1) Student Evaluation & Awards Policy (Draft). Please share the draft with your child (age appropriate). The document is online under About Us - Policy. We will follow it as much as we can this year. Evaluation or Awards are not the goal of the YingHua education. Setting up the Policy is setting our expectations. Please let your child understand this. Thanks for the feedback! 2) Classroom Usage Limitation. To reduce the rental charge, the District needs our cooperation. From now on, the building will only be available to us from 2:20 p.m to 4:35 p.m. Please note that the time window for you to take your child in or out of his/her classroom is only 10 minutes. On the other hand, this would shave another $1,100 off the annual cost. It'd be worth our effort. Please let me know should there be any problems or concerns. Only three bathrooms will be open: two along the hallway and the one opposite to the Parent Room, which should be for the teachers, staff and parents. Thank you very much for your cooperation. 3) Spreading the Words about YingHua. Tell your friends about YingHua at parties and holiday gatherings! Many of our classes still have openings for new students. Ask me for details if anyone you know has a question about mid-year transfer. In many cases, we would be able to provide appropriate materials for students to catch up. (C00, A00 and A04 are full.) See you on Sunday. Regards, Bonnie December 5, 2003 Dear Parents, 1) Due to the inclement weather, the school will be closed on Sunday December 7, 2003. The make-up date will be announced later. PLEASE help spreading the words. (P-T coordinators, if you could help in this regards, it would be greatly appreciated because some parents might have taken today off and would not get this notice!) 2) Honor Roll of Donors Updated for November. I wanted to thank Rona Yang & Yangpeng Guo (P Sponsor), Nanjun He & Ming Gu (P Supporter), and Hsiao Y.Yuan & Sinn Yuan Loh (P Supporter) for their generous contributions. This year, we need about $5000 from contributions to curtail the impact of the 50% rent increase, which translates to a typical monthly invoice of about $2,000, i.e., $20,000 for the school year! Our current budget is $15,000 (see my report at the web site under About Us - Organization - Meeting Records). It appears that we would not get any further progress in the negotiation with the district in helping us reduce the rent. The Lawrence School District has been losing money in renting its properties. So, understandably, there is no incentive for it to subsidize our rental using the township taxpayers' money. I am appealing to you for your support! YingHua is a vibrant yet new school with no reserve fund accumulated from its past to dig in. To uphold our pursuit for high-quality Chinese education, please help YingHua! YingHua's bid for the accreditation by Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools is temporarily put on hold due to the lack of fund at this point. The cost for the application is over $1,000. It would be a vigorous process for a weekend school to undertake, but once succeeded, our school's credits would be acceptable by over 30,000 "mainstream" schools. With your help, it is very likely that we would resume this pursuit as soon as possible. 3) YingHua Tan (in Chinese). In this issue, I shared some of my thoughts and believes behind our high standards for our CHL students (A01 and above). It's not thorough but I would suggest you read it. It is easier to move a cart if we are pulling and pushing along the same direction! 4) AP Chinese Announced! Chinese officials and College Board announced Advanced Placement Course in Chinese Language and Culture - new curriculum is response to China's growing economic importance and the increasing diversity in U.S. classrooms (12/5/2003) (http://www.collegeboard.com/press/article/0,3183,30831,00.html) See you on December 14! Enjoy the snow and drive safely. Regards, Bonnie November 23, 2003 Dear Parents, The main event happening on this coming Sunday is some forms of exam/test/evaluation/review in most of the classes (except for A05 and C05, which have their own schedule). You should have received separate email from me or the teachers in that regard. A point I'd like to make about this is that it is more important to help your child focus on reviewing and practicing rather than stressing the exam itself. This is particularly true for younger students. We are fortunate to have our A00, A01, and C00 teachers paying the special attention and making the extra effort to ensure that this process is a fun and rewarding experience for our younger students. (Thank you, Ms. Zhao, Ms. Xu, and Ms. Song!) Your cooperation with your teacher and your P-T Cooperator would be greatly appreciated!!! Once the exam is over, I'd like to invite you to think about one of the important issues for our school. As some of you remember, last June we held our first Commencement and honored some 48 students. This year we are going to establish a more uniform evaluation standard serving as the basis for honoring students. I also believe making this standard clear to students would clarify our expectations of them. As a draft, I am attaching the document here for your comments. Please note the following a couple of points: 1) Here I've borrowed some ideas from certain high schools and universities with regards to balancing academic and non-academic performance in student evaluation for graduation and admission. You'll also find that I think it's important to emphasize on the amount of "effort" made by a student, which is reflected by the "extra credits." Another point is that a student's exam score and non-exam score are weighted equally. 2) This document only applies to about 2/3 of our students 100%. Teachers in C00, C05, and A00 will work with me to make the appropriate adjustments for their student evaluation. 3) The document needs further fine-tuning as we move forward. Do not hesitate to share your ideas and concerns with me AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE. If you need further clarification, please let me know. 4) If appropriate, please share this document with your child and solicit their feedback. Thank you for your continued support!! See you on Sunday. I will be available for Q&A this Sunday in the Parent Room. There will be a discussion on this draft document on December 7 in the Parent Room. (No school on November 30.) Happy Thanksgiving! Regards, Bonnie November 14, 2003 Dear Parents, Remember to notify your teacher if your child is not coming to school. You can send us an email or leave a message at 609.530.0399. I've got a message from one of the former CHL parents, whose children have transferred to a new school closer to their home in Cherry Hill. She said that, because her children used to follow YingHua's instructions and meet YingHua's homework requirements (spreading out the homework on multiple days, recording textbook reading, reading aloud all the Reading Materials, recognizing character cards rapidly, finishing summer homework, etc.), her children still remember most of what they learned at YingHua. She encourages us to keep doing what we have been doing! I will attend a Chinese school principal summit in New York on Sunday. So see you on Nov. 23. Thank you for your support! Regards, Bonnie November 7, 2003 Dear Parents, Just a couple of notes here. 1) Annual Online Parent Survey (by Nov. 15). I need to hear from you!! I'd like to know how EVERY student is doing at home with regards to their Chinese study and what they think about their YingHua experience so far. Ms. Jiang, our webmaster and A11 Teacher, has done a super job setting up the survey. Please visit www.yinghua.org under Parent's Circle - Survey at your earliest convenience. If I don't hear from you by Saturday Nov. 15, I will call you to go over the survey questions with you. I'd like to take this opportunity to get to know your child(ren) (and you) so that his/her needs could be better met. If you would like me to call you, please let me know. Please always feel free to stop me to discuss your kid's needs in learning Chinese (or just introduce yourself to me) when you see me at YingHua. 2) Online Library Reservation. We'd like to encourage you to reserve items from the YingHua Chinese Education Library ONLINE. During our promotion period, your returning date will be extended by one week if the items are reserved online! All items need to be reserved by noon on Sundays. To pick up your reserved items, please come to the Parent's Room between 2:40 to 3:00 p.m. More items will be added to the online catalogue. We are hoping to use the system effectively enough that our young volunteers would not need to carry everything to school every time. Thank you for your support to our young volunteers Andy Xu and Yingying Zhao! Go to www.yinghua.org and look under Library. Again, a big "Thank You" to Ms. Jiang, the webmaster! 3) Honor Roll of Donors. We have got a few pledges for the 2003-04 school year (Thank you!). Leading this year's effort are Xiaolan Shen & Mei Xu (P Sponsor) and Jessica & Philip Wang(P Supporter) followed by the three Board members. Please make your pledge at our site if you are going to contribute through United Way. By the UW definition, YingHua is a "nonprofit health and human service organization with 501(C)(3) tax-exempt status." We are not currently on its web-based list because of the extra cost involved. However we do have a code with the Tri-state UW, i.e., 061673. If you can't use the code, you can always choose to donate to an organization "of my choice" by giving this information: YingHua Language School / Community Service, P.O. Box 3004, Princeton, NJ 08543 (609.530.0399). 4) Tape Recording. I am going to announce a new method to give students "extra-credits" (optional) for recording their reading (aloud) of the material they have studied. For CHL A04 and above, the material would be the Reading Materials in the textbooks. (Teachers in A00, A01, C00, and C05 may make their own decisions.) This should not be confused with the recording they make as part of their homework. More details will come. If you still do not have a standard-sized tape recorder, please get one quickly. 5) Exam Date. Six or seven classes will have their review lessons on Nov. 16 and the exams on Nov. 23. All P-T coordinators should contact their teachers to evaluate the need to bring parent volunteers during the second period (oral exams using standard forms). More information will be sent to you. Please read them CAREFULLY. 6) YingHua Tan. I've shared some of my believes in making YingHua a great school providing quality Chinese education to youth. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me. 6) Lost and Found. Ms. Nanjun He keeps a lost-and-found box in the Parent's Room. If you need to, please contact her at admin@yinghua.org or 215-321-7325. Let me know if you have any concerns or suggestions. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie October 24, 2003 Dear Parents, The Eastern Standard Time will start this Sunday. 1) Attendance. Overall, the tardy students were very few last week. Thank you for your cooperation! 2) YingHua Tan (for CHL parents). I have written a few key points on how to focus your effort in helping your child's Chinese study. Please visit our web site under About Us - YingHua Tan (Chinese characters). 3) UW Campaign. We have changed the format of the Honor Roll of Donors. Hope to see your name there! This year's challenge is to come up with over $1,000 to cover the cost of applying for the accreditation by Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools - a vigorous process for a weekend school to undertake, but once succeeded, our school's credits would be acceptable by over 30,000 "mainstream" schools. We also need to curtail the impact of the 50% rent increase. YingHua needs your help! 3) Financial aid. NJCCSF (New Jersey Chinese Cultural Studies Foundation) provides financial aid to families and students. Three of our students have received financial aid for fall 2003. If your family is financially challenged, please come see me or visit our web site under Registration - Financial Assistance. 4) Scholorship. NJCCSF also offers scholorship to outstanding students. We are considering nominate a few YingHua's outstanding students for the scholorship this year. For details, please visit www.njccsf.org under Forms. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie October 17, 2003 Dear Parents, 1. Schoolpop. We have set up an account at Schoolpop.com where each online purchase earns a rebate benefiting YingHua at no cost to you. You can find most of your favorite stores there. Simply go to www.schoolpop.com to register choosing YingHua Language School as your school. 2. United Way campaign and general fundraising. When making your pledge during a United Way Campaign, please indicate that you would donate to "an agency of my choice." Then provide the following information: YingHua Language School / Community Service P.O. Box 3004 Princeton, New Jersey 08543-3004 609.530.0399 (Note: The United Way Tri-State Campaign participants may use the Agency Code 061673.) 3. Classroom observation. If you would like to observe in your child's classroom, please get a permission from me ahead of time and pick up a badge from Ms. Nanjun He in the Parent's Room. 4. Library. Check out our library for Chinese VCD, tapes, and books. Even if the CSL students do not understand Chinese, listening to audiocassettes for 30 minutes daily would improve their pronunciations significantly. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie October 12, 2003 Dear Parents, 1. New requirement regarding attendance. I have noticed an increased number of tardiness yesterday. Please note that students are expected to arrive by 2:30 p.m. and get ready for the class. Starting this Sunday (Oct. 19), once the bell rings at 2:35 p.m., we require students to go to the Parent's Room and get an admit to class before they can enter late. Every three tardy records will be counted as one "Absence" at the end of the school year. To qualify as a honor student, one needs to meet the minimum attendance requirement. For students whose overall academic performance is 100 or above, the minimum days in school is 22 (out of 30); 95 <= score < 100: 23; 90 <= score < 95: 24; 85 <= score < 90: 25; 80 <= score < 85: 26; score < 80: 27. The above minimum attendance requirement was proposed to parents of 2002-03 school year last summer. Special waivers would only be granted to students who would not be able to meet the minimum requirement for legal reasons (such as in a joint custody situation). Students who arrive after the start of the second period (3:35) will have two tardy records for that day. Please notify your teacher (or me) if your child will miss a school day. The teacher's email address is a00@yinghua.org a01@yinghua.org ... I hope by stressing the importance of attendance, we are helping every student benefit more from the precious time in YingHua. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your cooperation! 2. United Way campaign and general fundraising. When you make a UW pledge, please also notify us by making a pledge at www.yinghua.org under Donations and indicating that the donation will be through UW. This will help us monitor the budget and allow us to have the information for the Honor Roll. The current Honor Roll will be updated monthly indicating the current and past years of contribution. All donors will be honored in the Commencement program next June. 3. Board meeting. The first board meeting of the 2003-04 school year was held on Sunday September 28. The meeting agenda and attachments can be viewed online under About Us - Organization - Meeting Records. Let me know if you need any additional information or have any questions. 4. YingHua Tan. We would like to write articles profiling individual student, family, parent, teacher, etc. All articles will be published in a local Chinese newspaper and at www.yinghua.org. You may suggest that we write about your child, your student, your teacher, etc. Please send your suggestion to me. As always, thank you very much for your continuing support! Regards, Bonnie September 26, 2003 Dear Parents, 1) No School on Oct. 5. To be consistent with the Lawrence School District, there will be no school on Oct. 5 for Yom Kippur this year. The school will OPEN on Oct. 12 during the Columbus Day weekend. The school's calendar has been updated if there was any confusion on this. 2) Cassette recorders. If your child is required to make an audio recording at home, please use standard-sized cassettes. We have found this homework assignment to be very effective in helping our students. "No recorder at home" will not be accepted as an excuse for not finishing this homework assignment. Unexcused incomplete homework will impact your child's final grade. (Details will be announced in October as how classroom performance, homework, and exams will contribute to your child's final grade.) A Sony Cassette Recorder (SON TCM150) is available at Circuit City for $20. For faster service, you can order one online at www.circuitcity.com and pick it up at a store near you. We also have three like-new Sony Cassette Recorders for sale at $20 each, which were lightly used by teachers last semester. If you want to get one, please email me. First come first serve. One way the recordings will be used is for your child's summer homework. So please save all recordings preferably on two tapes. 3) Library. The YingHua Chinese Education Library will resume circulation starting this week. The online reservation system is not working yet. So there is no need to make any reservations online. Just come to the Parent's Room between 2:40 and 3:10 p.m. Please follow the Library's Rules, which is available for your review online (currently under Tools). 4) Volunteer teaching A14 students. Our two A14 students can only study from 3:10 to 4:00 p.m. in the Parent's Room due to their other commitment after the school. They are also working for the YingHua Chinese Education Library from 2:40 to 3:10 p.m. We are looking for a parent who would be able to help them for one hour each week answering their questions, checking their homework, etc. I worked with them last week and it was pretty easy since they are both motivated to learn and can help each other for the most part. Their goal is to finish the 20-chapter Xi1 You2 Ji4 (Monkey King) in Book 14 and 15 this year. No preparation on the volunteer part is required. All exams are standard. If you are considering teaching at YingHua in the near future but are uncertain about it, this would be a good opportunity for you to get your feet wet. If interested, please let me know even if you will not be available every week. 5) YingHua Tan. We publish a weekly column in a local Chinese newspaper (Mei3 Zhou1). You can read the online version at our web site under About Us - YingHua Tan (in Chinese). In general, I am trying to rotate through topics on teaching, parenting, school news/young reporter's report/special report/people profile, etc. Hope you will browse through the past issues and give us your comments and suggestions. You are encouraged to write about your own child or made a recommendation to me for our young reporters to write about your child. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie September 19, 2003 Dear Parents, Throughout the school year, I'll try to send out weekly communications with issues needing your attention or for your information. I know everyone is busy, but please glance through the items every week. We do not have any other ways to distribute the same information to you. Past announcements should be available at the web site (soon). The class starts at 2:35 p.m. Please arrive at 2:30 p.m. 1) New Web Site (!). Thanks to Ms. Lifang Jiang's tremendous talent and effort, our web site has a new look! Ms. Jiang is our web master, a parent, and a teacher (for A11 this year). She has volunteered hours and hours of her precious time to give our web site a great new look. Let's give her a round of applause (!!!) and thank her for her contribution! Should you find any broken links or cannot find the information you used to be able to find at our old site, please kindly send her an email at webmaster@yinghua.org. We are still in the process of moving things around and adding new materials to this platform. Maybe we have eliminated a piece of useful information or a feature. Please let us know. 2) Logo. What do you think of YingHua's logo at the upper-left corner of the web site? It has taken the shape of the letter Y and also symbolizes a new "sprout" - at least in the Chinese culture - referring to young growing lives. Hope you like it. 3) United Way (UW). It is that time of the year when corporations are gearing up for the UW Campaign. YingHua needs your help! Last year, we received a remarkable amount of generous pledges and contributions from parents and sponsors of $6,870. This barely helped our school to break even. (The board will discuss and vote on the financial report at its next Executive session.) This year, we have opened two more classes. The district has raised the overall rent causing our renting budget to swollen by 50%(!). We are working with the district and trying to get its support. Hopefully, we can reduce the rent by a significant amount. Nonetheless, we should be mindful that our cost is only going to go up. Many companies automatically match your UW contributions but not your direct contributions to YingHua. For instance, Bristol Myers Squibb. The reason is YingHua has not yet been accredited as an educational organization. It is the direction we are moving however. So please consider making your contributions through UW, especially if your company would match your contributions. For your information, the basic administrative fees charged by UW is 9% (plus 7.5% extra if the contribution is through payroll deduction). Nevertheless, any amount of contributions at your convenience would be greatly appreciated!!! YingHua's Tri-state UW Agency number is 061673. If you are contributing through the Greater Mercer UW, please give this information: YingHua Language School, P.O. Box 3004, Princeton, NJ 08543-3004 (609)530-0399 Dr. Bonnie Liao. 4) Recording. Please prepare two cassettes if your class requires any recording at home. 5) CHL Homework. Except A00, all CHL parents should be aware that your child should bring to school two sets of characters, each should be cut and then tightened with a rubber band and/or put in a sandwich bag: one set with new characters (flashcards), the other set with sentences (white puzzle pieces). Please ONLY cut and bring the previous week's cards. Please arrive in the classroom at 2:30 p.m. and ask your child to start putting the puzzle together before the class start. During the first 5 minutes, the teacher will also go over the new character cards with them. 6) CHL Reading Materials. Listen to your child's reading and give grades in the workbook if your child is in A04 and above. 7) CHL Dictation (A01 and above). Give your child a dictation at home ONLY on those characters that your child has written (not all the characters on the new character cards). The teacher will give a in-class dictation. 8) CHL Summer Homework. Please drop off your child's summer homework at the Parent's room OR turn it in to the teacher. The teachers will pass your summer homework to me. I'd like to have a general feeling on how the homework was handled. That's all for now. See you on Monday! Regards, Bonnie September 15, 2003 Dear Parents, We had a successful opening day yesterday! Thank you all for your patience and cooperation! You were GREAT! Successful education depends on 1) the school for general directions and framework, 2) the teacher for in-class learning, and 3) the parents for at-home learning. Please go over the first homework with your child today. According to the memory rule, one needs to review new materials within the first 24 hours to gain a long-term memory. Most of our homework is designed for Monday through Thursday everyday with a review over the weekend. Please follow it as much as you can. (If your child really has a crazy schedule, you may try the Monday-Wednesday-Saturday or Sunday-Tuesday-Friday three-times-a-week schedule.) The important thing is to help your child start an effective learning habit and routine. If you child does not have homework Monday through Thursday, please make sure that he/she would listen to the audio CD everyday. The first school day usually is tough for a teacher. Not all of them could finish all the materials or spend desirable time covering them. If you realize that not all materials were covered adequately in the school. Please help your child as much as you can. For CHL Track, if your child has been transferred from another school, chances are that the homework may seem a little overwhelming. Please be patient and understanding. The time spent on the homework should be about 30 minutes if a student can get to work right away. If your child is new, there may be many more new characters than what were taught in the class. Please circle those additional characters and help your child with them. If your child does not speak/understand Mandarin, you would need to spend twice (or triple) as much time to help your child at home. The CHL-Track textbooks are designed for Mandarin-speaking students. For CHL A01 and above, there are Reading Materials in every lesson. Please follow the homework instructions step-by-step. There is more homework than just the CD-ROM. During your weekend review time, please ask your child to read the Reading Materials to you and you are expected to GRADE their reading in their workbooks. (For A01 and A04, the signing page is at the end of the workbook.) For A04 and above, your child can listen to and read along the Reading Materials that are recorded on the CD-ROM. It is in the "Free Exercise" session under "Reading." Your children's accomplishment should be their biggest award. Try not to overly "bribing" them by promising huge "bonuses." Short-term awards should be especially discouraged, I believe. We should focus on motivating our children to enjoy learning. The bigger the prize, the more it tends to take away the joy of learning and accomplishments. Let me know if I could help in this regard. If your child has expressed serious resentment towards coming to YingHua for any reasons, please bring it to my attention immediately. It has worked in many occasions when I have a chance to talk to a student to express my care and understanding. If you have any suggestions or advice for the teacher, please kindly share them with me first. Thank you so much for your support! Regards, Bonnie September 14, 2003 Dear Parents, This Sunday will be YingHua's opening day for the 2003-04 school year! So far we have about 140 registered students. Our 10 teachers are ready to welcome them. 1) Assembly. The General Assembly will start at 2:10 p.m. Once you are inside the Lawrence Middle School (LMS) building, please turn left to the auditorium. You are welcome to sit in the back while your child sits with his/her classmates. 2) East Entrance. Please ONLY use the East Entrance even if the other entrances to the building are open. The East Entrance is the one to your right when you are facing the front of the building. The district is very strict and sensitive about this. 3) Parking. Please park in the parking lot of the Lawrence High School (to the right of the building) or LMS (behind the building). The small parking lot in front of the building by Princeton Pike is reserved for teachers, staff, and certain volunteers. 4) Summer Homework. Please drop off the summer homework, if any, in a designated box by the auditorium. Have your child write his/her name on it. 5) Supplies. Please bring a bag (backpack, tote bag, etc.) with two pencils and erasers. For CHL students, if you have the textbooks, please only bring the book that corresponds to your class number. For instance, A05 students should bring Book 5, workbooks, and character cards. If your teacher has special instructions for supplies, please follow them. 6) Dress codes. Please dress your child appropriately for school. Students who directly come from sports events may leave their sports uniform on provided the uniform does not interfere with the student's school work. In particular, sneakers with wheels are not allowed. 7) Games and Toys. No trading cards or electronic game players are allowed in the school. 8) Chinese names. Please give your child's teacher a piece of paper with your child's Chinese name, if any. 9) Homework. After the first day of school, please start the first homework no later than Monday. According to the memory rule, one needs to review new materials within the first 24 hours to gain a long-term memory. Most of our homework is designed for Monday through Thursday everyday with a review over the weekend. Please follow it as much as you can. So much for now. Your cooperation, understanding, and patience would be greatly appreciated. See you on Sunday! Regards, Bonnie September 7, 2003 Dear Parents, We will continue using the Lawrence Middle School (LMS) facility at 2455 Princeton Pike in Lawrenceville, NJ. Please visit www.yinghua.org for directions/map. The first day of the 2003-04 school year is Sunday September 14. There will be a general assembly in the auditorium at 2:10 p.m. Please bring your child to his/her class inside the auditorium RIGHT AFTER 2 p.m. (I am not sure if the building will open before 2 p.m.) Parents are welcome to sit in the back of the auditorium. I will speak to the students about my expectations for them. Right after the assembly, the teachers will lead their students to classrooms. The regular class hours are from 2:35 p.m. to 4:25 p.m with a 10-minute break in the middle. This year, because the district has raised the rental fees, we want to minimize the time we stay in the building. The building should be vacant by 4:30 p.m. Please note, everybody should enter the building through the East Entrance of the building. It is the entrance to your right when you are facing the building. After entering the building, please turn left and walk to the auditorium at the end of the hallway. Please do not go into any other areas in the building that are not authorized by the school for us to use. The school district is very strict and sensitive about this. Please park at the parking lots for the Lawrence High School (2525 Princeton Pike) or behind the LMS. Please DO NOT park in the small parking lot on Princeton Pike in front of the LMS, which is reserved for teachers, staff, library and videotaping volunteers. All new textbooks will be delivered to classrooms for distribution. When you pick up your child, please make sure that you bring with you all his/her belongings. Check the textbook set carefully AFTER you get home. If there are any problems with the set, please kindly send an email to admin@yinghua.org. We will try to resolve all problems by the second school day. If your child has already got his/her textbooks, please only bring the textbook, exercise book and characters card that will be used on the first school day. Please make sure that your child has at least two pencils. The Parent's Waiting Room is still in Rm. 107 next to the East Entrance. Because of the size of the room, we would strongly encourage you to leave the building after you drop off your child - especially on the opening day. As you may know, our Assistant Principal, Ms. Nanjun He, had a baby girl on Aug. 16. (Congratulations to Ming and Nanjun!) We will make every effort to make this school opening day a smooth one. However minor delays and confusions may be expected. Your patience and cooperation would be greatly appreciated. Please mail your tuition payment to YingHua Language School, P.O. Box 3004, Princeton, NJ 08543-3004. If you have to bring it with you to school, please put it in an envelope with your child's name and give it to your child's teacher or Ms. He. There might be other minor issues that we have overlooked. However, with your help and understanding, I am confident that we will have a great opening day! Regards, Bonnie