TCLP exchange teacher Chen Manman received a CLP grant to establish Culture Corners at her U.S. host school in Massachusetts, Walsh Middle School, and her home school, Nanjing Foreign Language School Xianlin Campus. Each school established a wish list of authentic learning materials based on their needs and sent the requested resources to each other to begin the set up of the Culture Corner. Ms. Chen hopes that the two schools can maintain communication through the culture corners by conducting joint activities each year. The collaborative partnership will continue over time to provide additional materials to enhance the spread of understanding of each culture and language.
As part of this project, Walsh Middle School held an opening ceremony to introduce this new resource to the student body. Students enrolled in Ms. Chen's Mandarin class prepared posters and booths with different cultural themes using the materials that they received for the Chinese Culture Corner from Ms. Chen's school in China. Other classes from the school attended the opening ceremony and learned about Chinese toys, paper cutting, calligraphy, traditional clothing, books, and how to use chopsticks. Students also prepared short videos of what they learned in their Chinese classes to share with visiting classes. More than 300 students attended the opening ceremony and learned more about Chinese language and culture. In addition, more than 8,000 Chinese students and teachers will benefit from the books and materials that Walsh Middle School sent to Nanjing Foreign Language School Xianlin Campus.