Following the in-person Orientation in Washington, DC, the 2024-2025 cohort of TCLP exchange teachers have enjoyed getting to know their U.S. host communities, building relationships with colleagues and community members, as well as teaching Mandarin language and culture to their students at their U.S. host schools.
This year’s TCLP cohort consists of four Mandarin teachers hosted in four different states across the U.S., from Oregon to New Jersey. The exchange teachers work with students ranging from 1st grade up to 12th grade, and each exchange teacher teaches between 20 and 210 students at their respective schools. The exchange teachers have also been conducting outreach events at their school and in their host communities, and as of the end of October have already reached over 550 students and community members.
In the classroom, the exchange teachers have been engaging their students in a variety of exciting classroom activities about Mandarin and the culture of Taiwan. Exchange teacher Weng Yu-Xuan, hosted at California Area Senior High School in Pennsylvania, introduced her students on the first day of school to Taiwanese culture by greeting them with a Welcome Basket for them to taste dried green mango and salted egg yolk-flavored pastries. Ms. Weng also invited her students at home in Taiwan to take photos to share with her U.S. host school students, who were enthusiastic about filming a clip to send back to Ms. Weng's students in Taiwan. Exchange teacher Hao Tzu-Ya, hosted at Tommy’s Road Elementary School in North Carolina, started teaching her Advanced Mandarin students how to write Chinese characters by having students match images of the vocabulary with the corresponding symbol for that word taken from oracle bone scripts, one of the oldest forms of written Mandarin Chinese. Ms. Hao then led her students in practicing the pronunciation and tone for each word. Exchange teacher Peng Yun, hosted at German International School in Oregon, helped her students learn basic conversation and self-introductions in Mandarin by practicing dialogues in class. Ms. Peng also integrated technology into her classroom, using Blooket and Quizlet to create games that helped her students learn how to talk about family members. At Wildwood High School in New Jersey, Lee Yu-Ku reached out to her students in Taiwan and asked them to create short video clips to share with her U.S. students that demonstrate how people celebrate the Moon Festival in Taiwan. After watching the video clips, her U.S. students practiced writing greetings in Mandarin for the Moon Festival. As part of a class project that her students will work toward, her U.S. students will also share specific American holiday traditions with the Taiwanese students in the future.
Top Photo Above: Exchange teacher Ms. Peng Yun and her co-teacher welcome new students to school with a song in Mandarin.
In addition to their regular classroom hours, the exchange teachers have been facilitating various outreach activities and events at their host school and within their host communities. At the beginning of the semester, exchange teacher Lee Yu-Ku, hosted at Wildwood High School in New Jersey, introduced students and community members to her host school’s Mandarin program and encouraged students to participate in the program. Attendees were excited to learn more and sign their children up to take Mandarin as well as participate in future outreach. In addition, this year’s exchange teachers also used special days such as Teacher’s Day in Taiwan and the Mid-Autumn Festival as an opportunity to teach their students about Taiwanese culture as well as conduct different outreach events. Exchange teacher Hao Tzu-Ya, hosted at Tommy’s Road Elementary School in North Carolina, celebrated Teacher’s Day in Taiwan by facilitating a tea ceremony and tea-offering activities at her school. In addition to conducting tea ceremonies with her Mandarin students, Ms. Hao also went to one of the first-grade classes and all the kindergarten rooms at her school to introduce the tea ceremony and Teacher’s Day in Taiwan. Ms. Hao made tea for them, and the students offered it to their teachers and teaching assistants. For the Mid-Autumn Festival in September, exchange teacher Peng Yun, hosted at German International School in Oregon, introduced the festival and its story to the German track and middle school students at her host school. Ms. Peng had participants play charades to practice festival-related vocabulary in Mandarin, and she used Slido and Kahoot to conduct interactive question and answer sessions. Exchange teacher Weng Yu-Xuan, hosted at California Area Senior High School in Pennsylvania, also celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival with her students. Her elementary students started by going outdoors to collect fallen leaves and created their own moons using these natural materials to represent the festival. Ms. Weng and her high school students made mooncakes and salted egg yolk pastries together, in addition to listening to the festival’s story of Chang’e flying to the moon.
Finally, some of this year’s exchange teachers have also participated in interviews or other opportunities within their host communities. Notably, exchange teacher Lee Yu-Ku, hosted at Wildwood High School in New Jersey, was interviewed along with her mentor teacher, school administrators and staff by local radio station 98.7 TheCoast for their annual “Back to School” radio show.