Chinese Program Director Cindy Chiang shares highlights of CAIS faculty leading peers from around the country at the National Chinese Language Conference (NCLC) and the annual Early Childhood Chinese Immersion Forum that CAIS founded and has led for seven years.
National Chinese Language Conference (NCLC)
Held this month in Mountain View, we were delighted that our entire Educational Leadership Team could join Chinese teachers Willa Song, Teresa Shyu, Hsiaoying Chen, Boyan Zhang, and Lucy Sui in attending the NCLC. Coming away from the conference, we broadened our perspectives about how to adopt technology to harness students’ learning. It helped us to redefine the transformative potential of AI to help students. We also heard affirmations of our belief that Immersion Education helps students acquire competencies that are beyond just language learning—our immersion bonus—including how our students perceive the world, how they make decisions, etc.
As part of NCLC, CAIS hosted a day-long school visit welcoming 30 educators (including Heads of School, Preschool to HS teachers, publishers, etc.) to learn about Chinese Immersion Education and particularly our renowned Chinese Language Program. Participants were given a comprehensive understanding of how Chinese immersion education works in different content areas, such as Math, Language Arts, Music, SEL, etc.
Early Chinese Childhood Immersion Forum (ECCIF)
Having first spearheaded the development of this conference 7 years ago, CAIS was especially proud to once again host ECCIF at our 888 Campus again. We welcomed a record-breaking 140 participants from around the nation (including other well-known schools that have immersion programs, such as YingHua, Yuying) and overseas.
This year’s theme centered on Play and Math featuring Keynote Speaker Yvonne Liu, who gave a talk on A Pedagogy of Play, and Mathful Play Math Workshops. The informative and engaging Breakout Sessions featured peer-to-peer education on best practices in our field. Attendees’ feedback was positive and people are looking forward to this event again next year.