2. Great Neck South Middle
School (GNSMS)

3. Great Neck Public Schools
High Schools:
Great Neck North High School
Great Neck South High School
Village School (Alternative school)
Middle Schools:
Great Neck North Middle School
Great Neck South Middle School
Elementary Schools:
E. M. Baker Elementary School
John F. Kennedy Elementary School
Lakeville Elementary School
Saddle Rock Elementary School
Nursery School:
Parkville School

4. Chinese Program at
GNSMS

5. When I got hired, I was told….
 7th & 8th Grade-----Traditional Chinese
 Textbook: Chinese Made Easy
 《輕鬆學漢語》
 6th Grade----Simplified Chinese
 Textbook: Learn Chinese With Me
 《跟我学中文》

6. But the truth is….
 7th & 8th Grade:
They are doing BOTH!!!

7. My Students
 Three grades---6,7&8
 Five classes each day---6th x2, 7th x2, 8th x1
 91 Students in total
 About 87% are native Mandarin or Chinese dialects speakers
 The other 13% are mainly with Jewish, Hindi, Korean, or
Japanese backgrounds.

8. My Classroom
 Chinese Classroom
 Language Center

11. My Daily Routine
 Homeroom
 Advisory (1-2 times per month)
 Chinese teaching (5 periods)
 Bus Duty / Lunch Duty
 Paperwork
 Afterschool Activities

12. School Events
 Culture Heritage Week
 1st week in February
 Food Festival/ Poster Contest /Performance Night
 Chinese Culture is a huge and important part of this
traditional event at school. (Strong Chinese PTA)

13. Teaching
 Technology
 Rhythms & Chants
 Singing
 Writing Characters-worksheets/white
boards/videos/animation
 Props
 Classroom Management－Classdojo

14. Technology
 Mac
 Smart board /Smart Notebook
 PowerPoint
 iPad
 Edmodo
 Classdojo.com
 Dropbox…

15. Rhythms & Chants
 Robin & Pauline’s 《动感中文》（Rhythms and Tones:
Inventive Chants and Songs for Learning Chinese ）
《名字歌》 for 6th Grade
《元宵节》 for 7th & 8th Grades
《月饼歌》 for 7th & 8th Grades

16. 时装周
 時裝周，看什麼？時裝周，我們看衣服！
 紅色的襯衫，橙色的短褲，黃色的皮鞋，衣服，好美！
 綠色的T恤，藍色的短裙，紫色的襪子，衣服，好潮！
 黑色的外套，白色的毛衣，灰色的長裙，衣服，好靚！
Project: Kids need to design clothes for Fashion Week and
create their own chants with the same pattern according to their
designing. Then they need to present their design and sing the
chant.
 7th ---for new unit of Colors and Clothing
 8th ---for review

21. Writing
 Writing of Chinese characters is significant in learning
Chinese.
 Communication with the Chinese teacher in high school
----the importance of tones
----the importance of radicals and stroke orders
 Use of white boards to practice in class
 Use of videos & animations
 Worksheets from archchinese.com

24. Props
“阿宝说” Vs.” Simon Says”
Role Play
Games

25. Classroom Management
 Classdojo

26. School Environment
 Beautiful Natural Environment
 Supportive Administrators
Superintendent of the school district
Assist Superintendent of secondary schools
Principle
Assist Principles
Department Chair
 Nice and helpful colleagues & staff
“Are you now feeling as you’ve been here forever?”

27. Obstacles
 Tech problems
 Large population with heritage speakers with small groups
of non-heritage speakers (Open House parent’s questioning)
 Switch between two different writing systems
 Getting into the community (events, unions, activities,
meetings…) But I have very nice colleagues!!!
 Driving

28. To Future & New
Teachers...
 English is IMPORTANT!!!
 Be confident!
 Communicate with your administrators / colleagues / students /
parents.
 If you need help, ask for it!
 Be organized!
 Always have plan B!
 LOVE for the job.
 Be healthy!!!