Simsbury High's Chinese Class Techniques to Be Used as Model for Others

An announcement from Simsbury Public Schools:

The director of the Asia Society Chinese Initiatives, Jeff Wang, recently visited Chinese classrooms at Simsbury High School and visited the Chinese 3I class.

He thanked the students for participating in the Asia Society filming of an instructional video lesson for Chinese language teachers.

This video lesson, taught by SHS Chinese teacher Shiffon Theodorou, aims to showcase effective and engaging techniques for teaching and learning Chinese.

“Within a couple of months, it’s been played hundreds of times. It has been also used as a model class for pre- and in-service teachers training,” said Yun Qin, the Asia Society project leader.

In addition, Theodorou shared her best practices with teachers at the 2014 National Chinese Language Conference in Los Angeles, where she received very positive feedback.

After visiting the Chinese class, Wang met with Simsbury Public Schools Superintendent Matt Curtis and Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Erin Murray.

Wang’s interview with Murray regarding the development of the Chinese program in Simsbury will be posted on the Asia Society website at http://asiasociety.org/china-learning-initiatives/teq-series.

Based on her continued engagement with effective teaching as an Asia Society Teaching Fellow, Theodorou was selected to attend the Asia Society Confucius Classroom Teachers Institute conference in Houston, TX from January 15-17.

Her participation in this conference will lead to a research study on a self-selected topic relating to Chinese language instruction, which will be presented at another conference to be announced later this year.

Photo (contributed): Director of Asia Society Chinese Initiatives Jeff Wang addresses Simsbury High School Chinese 3 students.