I am a native speaker of Mandarin with excellent reading and writing ability in simplified characters and proficiency in traditional characters, as well. My Master's Degree is in Literature and was earned at Hebei University in 1999. With more than 20 years of foreign language teaching experience at all levels, I have consistently demonstrated excellent oral and written skills in both Mandarin and English. After emigrating from Beijing, China, I completed a one-year Teaching Chinese Certification program at California State University, East Bay, in 2007 and I am also certified to teach AP Chinese.
In my various teaching positions, I have worked with students of all levels and with different interests. Because I love teaching young people and understand their own individual learning styles, I have been successful in adapting my teaching strategies to meet the needs of all students. My classes are not only comprehensive and practical, but also fun. I was teaching Mandarin to English-speaking students in a Chinese immersion program, a full-immersion classroom experience in the 2007-2008 school year. Currently I’m teaching Chinese and Humanities at Indian River Charter High School. I teach Chinese I, III to non-heritage high school students, and also introduce and expose students to Chinese culture. In addition, I taught 71 students Humanities, which includes Chinese culture (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism; poems and novels etc ); Chinese geography, Chinese history (covering all the dynasties), China and the world, and China today.
I use Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century and Performance Guideline for K-12 Learners as guidelines. Other resources, like OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview), Linguafolio are also used as reference. I believe vocabulary and structures should be taught in a meaningful, authentic, and communicative context in a sprial way and three modes of communication (interpersonal, interpretive, presentational) should be incorportated into everyday teaching.
This E-Portfolio was first compiled during the 3-week 2009 Virginia Startalk Chinese Teacher Academy. Please follow the menu on the left panel to view each item in my teaching portfolio. To view the website for the 2009 Virginia Startalk Chinese Teacher Academy, please follow this link:
