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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:
• greater clarity of purpose
• stronger internal relationships
• wider professional participation
• more effective methods of planning for school improvement
• 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™, 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™ 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
<http://www.hslmw.com/node2/node116/node514/node518/index.html> 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
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