Written by Cao Xi

It’s three months since I arrived in Fredericton on September 3rd. In the short three months, I have experienced and grown a lot.

Park Street Elementary School is my first workplace which has about 450 students. This school has started Chinese classes for two years. The principal loves Chinese culture very much and support Chinese language and culture teaching strongly. He gave me two weeks to be familiar with the school environment. So I visited all classes from kindergarten to Grade 5 in the two weeks, and learned a lot from the local teachers’ classes.

I started teaching Chinese in this school on September 23rd. I made three teaching plan for the different grades. The students in the kindergarten are more active, and have no idea about classroom discipline, so I taught them some new words with the use of stories. I told them stories at the same time show the pictures in the story books through the PowerPoint. This way could attract the children’s attention very well, and let them learn Chinese in a relaxed atmosphere. The students in Grade 1 and Grade 2 have known a little about Chinese Pinyin, so after reviewing the Chinese Pinyin, I taught them the simple greetings and the names of common things. I have also taught them how to sing <Two Tigers> in Chinese. For the students in Grade 3、4、5, I not only taught them the simple conversation, but also some Chinese culture, at the same time I also taught them how to do some art projects. 

In the Park Street Elementary School, in addition to teaching Chinese language and culture, I also have my dance club to teach them Chinese national dance on every Tuesday. Now we are preparing for the performance of Chinese New Year. After hearing we would perform in the Play House during the Chinese New Year, all the girls were excited. And I also teach some boys Chinese Kung fu on every Thursday. In fact, I didn’t learn the dance and Kung fu that I taught in my club before, just for the sake of having a perfect performance, I tried my best to learn them by myself, and then taught them. I really thank for the experience which can turn me into a versatile girl.

Nashwaaksis Middle School is my second workplace which own about 700 students. There are 27 classes in all from Grade 6 to Grade 8. Different from Park Street Elementary School, it didn’t start Chinese class before, so it’s a real challenge for me.

It took over one month to make arrangement for the courses through communicating with the principal and the teachers constantly. And at last, 14 classes would learn Chinese, 5 classes in Grade 6, 5 classes in Grade 7 and 4 classes in Grade 8. Cause just 14 classes wanted to start Chinese class and it’s also the first time for them to learn Chinese, so what I should do is not only laying a good foundation of teaching Chinese language and culture in these 14 classes, but also spreading Chinese culture in a wider range of areas.

After communicating with the three social study teachers who want me to teach Chinese language and culture in their classes, I know that they hope I could teach more culture compared with the Chinese language. That means I should mainly teach culture and teach language secondly, so I had to make another teaching plan different from those of the elementary school. I saw the social study text book of Grade 6 in advance, and then understood it tells about culture、geography、climate、environment、economy、history and so on. So I introduced Chinese map、population、climate、famous cities、animals、food、paper-cut and Kung fu in my first class. The students were completely carried away by the splendid Chinese culture and discussed with me actively in the class. After seeing my paper-cuts, many students wanted to learn how to make them in my second class. I think it was a good beginning for me, that let me have more confidence to teach Chinese in this school.

At the same time, I also started my dance club in the middle school. Similarly, teach them Chinese national dance and prepare the performance for the Chinese New Year Gala.

Now, I go to the elementary school every Monday、Tuesday and Thursday, the other two days in the middle school. Though there are many classes everyday, I believe that the more I experience, the faster I grow. What I learn and experience everyday will fuel motivation and I will accomplish everything quicker and better.

志愿者在弗莱

曹曦

    从今年9月3号赴加到现在，已将近三个月了。三个月虽短，却感觉自己已经经历了很多，成长了很多。

    我的第一所任教学校是一个拥有450人左右的小学，Park Street小学。这里开设汉语课已经两年了，是这个省最早开设汉语课的小学。校长很喜欢中国文化，特别支持汉语教学。刚来小学的时候，他给了我两周的时间听课、熟悉环境。于是我利用这两周的时间听了学校从幼儿园到五年级20个班的课，也在当地老师的课堂中学到了很多教学经验。

    9月23日，我正式开始了汉语教学。我针对不同的年级设定了三种教学方案。幼儿园的孩子9月份才刚刚入学，比较淘气，对课堂纪律没什么概念。所以对幼儿园的教学，我是以讲故事为主，通过故事教生词。我把故事书里的图片拍下来，制作成ppt，在课堂上，一边讲故事一边给学生展示图片，最后再根据故事教授几个相关的生词。这种教学方式能很快吸引孩子的注意力，并能让他们在一种轻松的氛围中学习到汉语。而对于一、二年级的学生来说，他们已对汉语拼音有了一点基础。所以在复习完拼音以后，我教授了他们一些简单的问候语和常见事物的名称。也会在课堂上教他们唱中文歌曲，现在一、二年级的所有班级都已经学会了唱《两只老虎》，这无论是对他们还是对我来说，都是一种小小的成就。对于三、四、五年级的学生，我不仅教他们简单的会话，也会给他们讲一些中国的传统文化，同时也会偶尔在课堂上带着他们做手工。

    在小学，除了开展语言文化教学之外，我还开设了自己的舞蹈club，教授他们中国的民族舞蹈。主要是利用每周二上午20分钟的休息时间。现在我们正在为春晚的节目做准备，孩子们听说在春节的时候可以在弗莱市最大的舞台演出，积极性都很高。而且为了节目的需要，我又为自己的club招募了一些男生，来学习武术，主要安排在每周四上午20分钟的休息时间。虽然在club中教了很多内容，但事实上，我是在跟我的club一起成长。教给他们的武术和舞蹈，我之前并没有学过，因为有了需要，我才开始努力自学，然后再教给孩子。所以我很感谢这段经历，可以逐渐把自己磨练成一个多才多艺的人。

    我的第二所任教学校是离小学不远的Nashwaaksis中学，这是一所拥有近700人的中学，从6年级到8年级共有27个班级。与小学不同，这所学校之前并没有开设过汉语课，所以对于我来说，这才是一个真正的挑战。

    从最初商定要在中学开课到最后确定课程安排，前前后后花费了近一个多月的时间，通过不断地与校长和各科老师沟通协调，最终确定了14个班级可以开设汉语课，分别是6年级的5个法语班，7年级的5个法语班和8年级的4个英语班，而主要是在social study的课程上教授汉语。由于只有一半的班级开设汉语课，并且是第一次开设汉语课，所以我这一学年面临的挑战即是在这十四个班中打好汉语教学基础的前提下，在更大范围内大力宣传汉语。

    通过跟老师的沟通，我了解到，跟语言教学相比，他们更喜欢中国文化教学，因为三个开设汉语课的老师都是教social study课程的，这是一个以文化教学为主的科目。因此在中学的教学我要以文化为主，语言为辅，要重新制定一份不同于小学的教学方案。我提前看了6年级social study老师的教材，了解了他们上课讲的内容是有关于文化、地理、气候、环境、经济和历史等各个方面的。所以我在中学的第一堂课，为他们介绍了中国的地图、人口、气候，著名的城市及名胜古迹、特有的动物、美食、剪纸和武术等等。孩子们完全被色彩斑斓的中国文化吸引了，在课堂上，都积极举手与我讨论。看到了我展示的剪纸后，都很喜欢，集体要求第二节课要做剪纸。老师也很支持，说会帮我备齐所有工具。因为在中学的良好开端，也让我在这里开展汉语教学活动有了很大的信心。

    同时，在中学我也开设了自己的舞蹈club，主要利用每周三中午的活动时间，共40分钟。同样也是教他们中国的民族舞蹈，为当地的春晚做准备。

    现在我同时在两所学校上课，每周一、周二和周四在小学，周三和周五在中学。虽然每天课程和活动都很满，但我相信，经历的多了，成长的就快了。我能感受到，每天都有新的收获，每天都有不同的体验，这些都将成为我不断努力的动力。