NewStar Chinese School, a nonprofit organization based in Davis, has been competitively invited to present at the Chinese Language Education Forum 2013 conference on Oct. 18-19 in San Francisco. CLEF is a primary conference for Chinese language educators to share best practices, research findings and inspiring ideas in the United States and the world.

Last year, about 400 scholars, administrators and policymakers attended the conference. CLEF 2013 has selected 38 quality proposals out of 139 effective proposals from 12 countries. NewStar’s proposal Effective Management of Teacher Talents will be one of 20 poster presentations. This will be the first time NewStar Chinese School has presented at a nationwide conference in the field of Chinese language education.

The proposal summarized how NewStar seeks to improve the teaching quality and promote talent development by launching two new programs — sabbatical leave and teaching assistant orientation. The first program allowed teachers to observe classes and learn from other classes. The program successfully benefited most of the teachers and produced a collection of class observation reports as a valuable reference book for teachers and parents. The second one provided guidelines and an evaluation system to high school students who intend to develop teaching and language skills by serving as teaching assistants at NewStar.

I prepared and submitted the proposal in my role as vice principal for academic affairs during past school year. The accepted proposal has brought a high level of recognition to NewStar, showcasing the achievements of former Principal Ning Wan and numerous teachers, school administrators and other volunteers over the past decade.

Newly elected Principal John Zhong Wu and the new board are determined to optimize school operations and improve teaching quality. Encouraged by Wu, seven teachers will attend the conference to learn the state-of-art strategies and techniques. Over years, NewStar has received much support from the Davis school district and Mayor Joe Krovoza. Let NewStar continue to shine in the Davis community!

Yingzhi Lu

Davis

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