NWCS Chorus – Year End Performance – June 18, 2022, 10:45am – 11:30am
Please come to the school cafeteria on Saturday, June 18, 2022 at 10:45am for the NWCS Chorus Year End Performance!
NWCS Spring ’22 – Newsletter, Week 12 (06/04/22)
Dear NWCS Families, As we start the month of June, we are heading to the final stretch with only 3 sessions left – including the graduation and year end celebration. This week, we will host a General Assembly in Briarcliff Middle school cafeteria – 9:20 ~ 9:50 AM. We cordially invite you to join for
Category Archives: 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
May 11, 2016
校長的話 / Principal's Notes, 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
NWCS Weekly Newsletter – 5/14
Dear NWCS families:
We are postponing the General Meeting to next week, May 21. In addition to the usual staff and board elections, which are clearly important, we would like to engage a conversation with you on at least these two items related to next fall’s curriculum.
General Meeting on May 21
Dean and I will brief you about the new six competency level curriculum. We are renaming B track to Chinese as Second Language with levels from Beginner, to Intermediate, to Advanced. Students move up to the next level after becoming proficient in conversational Chinese at the current level. We are renaming A track to Heritage with traditional grade system and keep the current Mei Zhou Hua Yu series. In addition, a few parents brought up the mandatory requirement for sixth graders and above to take cultural electives. I propose to put the issue of keeping the mandatory requirement on the ballot for NWCS families to vote on. Please come to the General Meeting to voice and support your opinion.
Summer roll and yearend picnic tickets on sale
Breakfast club is selling summer rolls with rosemary chicken this Saturday. If you missed the trial run last week, there is no excuse not to try these delicious rolls. Price is $2 each with proceeds go to school. We are also having yearend picnic tickets on sale. This year’s picnic is on June 11 at FDR Park, after the finals and move up ceremony.
Practice talks from NWCS team
As you know, we are sending our best students to the coming Association of Chinese Schools contests during the Memorial Day weekend. They are training hard (so are their parents) to deliver the best speech and multimedia presentation. On this and next Saturdays, I am inviting our champions to come by middle school theater between 11 and 11:30 am to practice their speech in front of audience. I don’t think our students suffer from stage fright but they surely can use a friendly audience to give them feedback. Please stop by if you’d like to listen and support them.
Upcoming calendar of events
June 4, Open House (registration opens)
June 11, last day of school, 9-10 finals, 10:15-10:30 move up ceremony, picnic afterwards at FDR State Park (will post map on website), FDR parking fee $8
Your principal,
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
May 11, 2016
校長的話 / Principal's Notes, 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
NWCS Weekly Newsletter – 5/7
Dear NWCS families,
Trophies to reward effort
I am getting many inquires about trophies, including a phone call from a first grader. This is clearly the most anticipated event from our kids. So here is the change I am making this year to encourage students’ effort. As it was in the past few years, we will have first, second, and third prizes plus honorable mentions. What is different this year is I will be asking parents’ input to bump up your kids from honorable mention to third prize (bigger trophy), if he/she/they made a serious effort at home rehearsing before the contest. It is completely your call and I have total confidence in our parents. Promoting from honorable mention to third prize trophy will cost us a few more dollars. However, I want to use this as a tool to reward children who made genuine effort this year and hopefully boost their confidence to aim higher next year. We will distribute contest results to our teachers shortly. Please let your teacher know after seeing the result that you would like to request a promotion. I aim to collect your feedback and have the trophies ready by the first week of June. Thanks for your help.
Summer roll presale success from NW Culinary School
And we have the bigger sale with many more trays on May 14. Photos from last Saturday’s presale can be found here. http://www.nwcsny.org/?p=1297
Buy gifts for mom and support NWCS by shopping at AmazonSmile program
Please remember to use Amazon.com through www.nwcsny.org website so we can get 0.5% of the sale proceeds from eligible purchases. The 0.5% would have been pure profit to Amazon if you do not go through our school’s link.
Your principal,
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
April 29, 2016
校長的話 / Principal's Notes, 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
NWCS Weekly Newsletter – 4/30
Dear NWCS families,
I am back from bereavement leave and would like to express my sincere gratefulness to all the condoleances. I am especially thankful to vice principal Ping-Chuan, teachers and staff, with support from Chairman Calvin and board to keep the school running smoothly.
Spring speech contest this Saturday
We have scheduled judges to visit our lower grades classrooms to listen to our students’ speeches. For the first time, our 10th graders are invited to join the judge panel to encourage little brothers and sisters. It will surely be a great experience from both sides. I want to ask parents to encourage but not pressure kids to practice their speeches at home. I also want to make sure we reward kids’ effort, not just results, by changing how we give out trophies. More about that later.
Teaching positions open in the fall
Several of our wonderful teachers informed me they would like to take a break from teaching next year. The opening positions include language classes as well as electives. Please let me know if you are willing to step up to help educate our children. It is the volunteers with professional dedication and skill who created the school and made it special. We really need your help. Please let me know if you are interested in becoming a teacher.
Buy gifts for mom and support NWCS by shopping at AmazonSmile program
Please remember to use Amazon.com through www.nwcsny.org website so we can get 0.5% of the sale proceeds from eligible purchases. The 0.5% would have been pure profit to Amazon if you do not go through our school’s link.
Your principal,
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
April 1, 2016
校長的話 / Principal's Notes, 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
NWCS Weekly Newsletter – 4/2
Dear NWCS families,
This Saturday, April 2nd, Briarcliff is planning a 2K race/walk starting from Todd Elementary School and ending at the Briarcliff High School/Middle School campus. We are asking you to arrive school a little earlier to avoid the traffic. Please park in the rear parking lot and enter the school building from the back entrance. The “Bears Run the Manor” event will begin around 9:30AM. The section of Pleasantville Road between the 2 schools will be closed down to one lane.
Spring academic contest on April 9 to nominate students for regional and East Coast Chinese School competition
For the fourth grade and above, both A and B tracks, we are conducting the Spring academic contest on April 9 so we can enter our students to the regional and East Coast Chinese school competition. Please work with your children to prepare for the contest following instructions from your teacher. We will nominate the finalists based on judges’ recommendation. For each contest item, we are allowed to enter one team for age 9 to 12 and one team for age 13 and above. B track students will shine in own speech contest. The only exception is Karaoke OK, which allows a team of up to eight age 5 and above. Any singers? For the lower grades, we intend to hold the contest on April 30.
Breakfast Club news
Our famous and most popular Breakfast Club is planning yet another two events for the rest of the semester, and would like to invite parents/teachers to volunteer and contribute. Please stop by the cafeteria this Saturday to sign up for volunteering.
June 4th: bakery sale, and contributions (cookies, cupcakes, etc.) are welcome. It is also the day of our NWCS open house for perspective students and families. Let’s showcase our talents, enthusiasms and friendly atmosphere together.
June 11th: year end picnic/BBQ, and we will need volunteers for food preparation and serving.
Feature story from former principal Ms. Eileen Lee
I for one, miss Eileen’s writing so I invited her to write a story for us. As usual, she didn’t disappoint! Thanks Eileen!
So one of my twins was sent home because he was not feeling well. It is a rare occasion that I have this alone time with one of my kids. While I was making him congee, he asked me “Mommy, you said when I hurt, you are hurt too …. Do you really feel hurt when I am hurt or you are just pretending ….” I told him that it was definitely not pretending. I told him that in Chinese we describe the parents and their children are like bone and flesh (骨Gǔ肉ròu). It is bone and flesh because the parents care about their children so much that when their children hurt, they feel the hurt too. I found myself with tears in my eyes as I was telling him, but he did not see me because he was more interested in the food.
When he was eating, I continued to tell him that for siblings (more so in brothers), Chinese describe the relationship as hands and feet (手Shǒu足zú). Two important parts of the body which imply the close relationship of the brothers. For once he was listening, without giving me his usual sighing and rolling his eyes.
Later when my other twin came home, he asked about his sick brother. I was very touched.
“Hey, you feeling better?”
“Yeah, a little bit. Did you pick up my homework?”
“Yup! So you slept the whole day? ”
“No, mommy cooked me that Chinese thingie and we watched TV … and she was teaching me Chinese of course … ” I heard them chuckle.
I thought it was such a precious moment to hear my two boys talking like grownups … and before I could finish my thought, my sick son apparently miraculously recovered because he was running from his brother screaming “Yeah I am the hands so I can slap you and you are the feet because you stink like SHI*&^^!!!”
I yelled “Watch your language! ….” As my other son was running past me, I asked “What is going on?”
He turned around without stopping “Oh nothing, he is just teaching me how to say brothers in Chinese”.
Your principal,
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
April 1, 2016
校長的話 / Principal's Notes, 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
NWCS Weekly Newsletter – 3/19
Dear NWCS families:
We have posted audio tracks of the pilot curriculum Chinese Wonderland online for you to download to laptops and smartphones. This Saturday at 9:30, board member Mr. Harry Villareal, will hold a tech clinic to help parents download the MP3 to your laptops and/or smartphones. Please feel free to bring your laptops, Android or iPhone to see Harry. We want our students to be immersed in the sound tracks so conversations come natural to them. If you consider yourself a techie and want to help (please!), come and join Harry to help fellow parents.
Class parent and communications
We are alerted by recent campus events, though not at Briarcliff school district, that prompt us to be extra cautious with safety and security. We would like each class to have at least one class parent through whom we can quickly propagate urgent messages, preferably through text SMS. Will class parents please let your teacher know?
Moving academic contest to early April
For the middle and upper grades, both A and B tracks, we are looking to move the date of academic contests (speech, multimedia presentation, Chinese culture Jeopardy, and Karaoke) to April 9 so we can submit entries for the ACS competition before April 16. For the ACS Region 2 schools, there will also be a warm up contest on April 30 so we are looking to send students to participate. Please follow your teachers’ instructions to prepare and rehearse. For the lower grades below age 9, we will hold academic contests on April 30 as scheduled on the school calendar.
Picture book of 2016 graduation ceremony and Chinese New Year performance now available for purchase
A must see and keep! The picture book contains beautifully shot and edited photos by chairman emeritus Mr. Benson Louie that you don’t want to miss. Please reserve your copy with board member Ms. Francine Fang. We are still selling raffle tickets. We have Saks Fifth Ave gift cards, a Kindle Fire, a $50 Starbucks gift card, a wonderful arts and crafts gift basket by Ms. Terry Taylor, and books published by NWCS alums as prizes. Raffle Drawing will happen this Saturday at 10am. Please hurry!
Financial planning for college seminar this Saturday
Dr. Tso-hui Ting, and his team are independent brokers based in the Greater New York City area. They have helped hundreds of families in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts for their saving and investment needs. This Saturday at 10:10 am in the Middle School theater, they are going to host a seminar to give an overview on family finance planning, especially to address topics on how to prepare and manage kids’ education fund without impacting grant and scholarship qualification. Please feel free to attend.
Your principal,
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
March 10, 2016
校長的話 / Principal's Notes, 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
NWCS Weekly Newsletter – 3/12
Dear NWCS families:
Thanks to all the parents who joined us last Saturday to talk about the Chinese Wonderland curriculum. Our Dean Ms. Hsuei Wang, and I heard a pleasant surprise that our parents would like to see more (!) writing assignment within the new curriculum. We can assure you that our aim is to tip the balance back so our students speak Mandarin better, not to discourage them from reading and writing. Many of our students write beautifully and we would like them to continue doing so. Teachers, Dean and I would like to keep hearing feedback from you to fine tune the teaching and learning.
ACS Chinese school academic competition rules posted
The Association of Chinese Schools annual meeting on 5/28 and 5/29 just opened registration for academic competition. Every year, over 50 Chinese schools from Virginia to Massachusetts send their best and brightest so we won’t be absent. We intend to send as many willing students (as well as their parents) to compete according to the entry rules. Competitions include speech, multimedia presentation, Chinese culture Jeopardy, and Karaoke for students aged 9 and above. For the first time in history, Chinese as Second Language students are invited to enter speech contest in a new category. I have messaged our teachers and we will solicit our best and train them to win. See http://www.acsusa.org/acs2016/
Picture book of 2016 graduation ceremony and Chinese New Year performance now available for purchase
A must see and keep! The picture book contains beautifully shot and edited photos by chairman emeritus Mr. Benson Louie that you don’t want to miss. Please reserve your copy with board member Ms. Francine Fang. We are still selling raffle tickets. We have Saks Fifth Ave gift cards, a Kindle Fire, a $50 Starbucks gift card, a wonderful arts and crafts gift basket by Ms. Terry Taylor, and books published by NWCS alums as prizes. Raffle Drawing will happen on March 19th at 10am. Please hurry!
Financial planning for college seminar on March 19
Dr. Tso-hui Ting, and his team are independent brokers based in the Greater New York City area. They have helped hundreds of families in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts for their saving and investment needs. On March 19 at 10 am, they are going to host a seminar to give an overview on family finance planning, especially to address topics on how to prepare and manage kids’ education fund without impacting grant and scholarship qualification. Feel free to attend.
Services and goodies offered by NWCS families
I created a moderated posting to list services and goodies offered by NWCS families and friends. The first entry is from Miss Sarah Seissler, daughter of proud parents Peter and Shuna. Please check out at http://www.nwcsny.org/?p=1265
Donate to NWCS by shopping at AmazonSmile program
Please remember to use Amazon.com through www.nwcsny.org website so we can get 0.5% of the sale proceeds from eligible purchases. The 0.5% would have been pure profit to Amazon if you do not go through our school’s link.
Your principal,
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
March 3, 2016
校長的話 / Principal's Notes, 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
NWCS Weekly Newsletter – 3/5
Dear NWCS families,
I was very glad that no cancellation was needed last Saturday. Let’s hope today’s strong gust does not result in power outage at our school or anywhere.
Chinese Wonderland curriculum briefing at 11 am
Our Dean, Ms. Hsuei Wang, teachers, and myself would like to brief NWCS families about the pilot program we are implementing with B track (Chinese as Second Language) classes. We aim to emphasize a lot of learning in listening and speaking abilities. Please come joining us. (Apologize about the time since Dean and I both teach.)
Picture book of 2016 graduation ceremony and Chinese New Year performance now available for purchase
A must see and keep! The picture book contains beautifully shot and edited photos by chairman emeritus Mr. Benson Louie that you don’t want to miss. Please reserve your copy with board member Ms. Francine Fang. We are still selling raffle tickets. We have Saks Fifth Ave gift cards, a Kindle Fire, a $50 Starbucks gift card, a wonderful arts and crafts gift basket by Ms. Terry Taylor, and books published by NWCS alums as prizes. Raffle Drawing will happen on March 19th at 10am. Please hurry! (Speaking from experience, last year my son won the grand prize and I ended up paying for it by being principal. This year, if you are the lucky winner of the grand prize, you may end up having my job. )
Mark your calendar: upcoming Breakfast Club events
There is a slight change of plan about the Chinese culinary class. Instead of offering weekly cooking lessons, the Breakfast Club is organizing the following themed events on these dates. 4/16: Dumpling sale, 5/14: Summer Rolls Sale, 6/4 (Open house): cupcake bake sale, 6/11 or 6/18 : BBQ Picnic. I got to say NWCS parents are the most talented bunch!
Your principal,
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
February 26, 2016
校長的話 / Principal's Notes, 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
NWCS Weekly Newsletter – 2/27
Dear NWCS families,
Welcome back after (only!) six weeks of break. I am sure our students are all looking forward to learning Chinese with their classmates. In this semester, our B track (Chinese as Second Language) teachers will pilot the new curriculum based on Chinese Wonderland that emphasizes more on speaking and listening. We are looking forward to studying students’ learning progress as well as getting parents’ feedback. Our Dean, Ms. Wang, teachers, and myself plan to brief NWCS families about the pilot next Saturday, March 5, at 11 am in the Middle School theater next to the cafeteria.
Raffle drawing to support our school
We are still selling raffle tickets. We have Saks Fifth Ave gift cards, a Kindle Fire, a $50 Starbucks gift card, a wonderful arts and crafts gift basket by Terry Taylor, and books published by NWCS alums as prizes. Raffle Drawing will happen on March 19th at 10am. Please come to the cafeteria during class hours to buy tickets if you have not done so already. Thank you to those who have purchased tickets! Every penny goes to help our wonderful school! (And if you are still interested in donating prizes, please contact chairperson@nwcsny.org).
Seminar in Chinese 如何培育杰出的第二代
Westchester Chinese Christian Church 將在2/28舉辦「如何培育杰出的第二代」講座，
Parent duty list
Our dedicated co-counselor Suzanne has been updating the duty list based on availability requests. We are hoping to send out the next update by Friday.
Your principal,
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
January 9, 2016
校長的話 / Principal's Notes, 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
NWCS Weekly Newsletter – 1/9
Dear NWCS families,
We will have class this Saturday and then final exam for some classes on the 16th with graduation ceremony and performance starting at 10:30 am.
Chinese New Year celebration performance rehearsal
Our vice principal Mr. Ping-Chuan Wang along with counselor Mr. Kenny Soohoo and board member Mr. Harry Villareal will be at the high school auditorium running the second (also last) performance rehearsal. If you wish to have an early peek and may be helping out, please feel free to stop by. It is really a team effort to ensure the programs go smoothly. We are grateful that NWCS parents are always eager to help.
Luncheon survey
With the change of our graduation and celebration to Jan 16, we would like to find out how many families can attend and maybe help with homemade dishes. Kay and Vivian can then plan ahead to make sure we don’t run out of food. It takes 30 seconds to fill the survey here http://goo.gl/forms/d5QNXw7Q4q so please respond.
Seminar in Chinese 如何培育杰出的第二代
Westchester Chinese Christian Church 將在1/10和2/28舉辦「如何培育杰出的第二代」講座，
Sample lessons from 華語小學堂 Chinese Wonderland
We put a few sample lessons from Chinese Wonderland from books 1, 2 and 5 at https://sis.nwcsny.org/
Your principal,
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
January 3, 2016
校長的話 / Principal's Notes, 每週通訊 / Weekly Messages
NWCS Chinese New Year Luncheon survey, Seminar in Chinese 如何培育杰出的第二代
Dear NWCS families,
Happy New Year! Hope you had a wonderful holiday break with your loved ones! We have two more school days on Jan 9 and 16. Please follow your teacher’s instruction to prepare for the final.
Chinese New Year Luncheon survey
With the change of our graduation and celebration to Jan 16, we would like to find out how many families can attend and maybe help with homemade dishes. Kay and Vivian can then plan ahead to make sure we don’t run out of food. It takes 30 seconds to fill the survey here http://goo.gl/forms/d5QNXw7Q4q so please respond.
Sample lessons from 華語小學堂 Chinese Wonderland
We put a few sample lessons from Chinese Wonderland from books 1, 2 and 5 at https://sis.nwcsny.org/
Culinary school bake sale and dumpling making photos
They have been posted here http://www.nwcsny.org/?p=
Seminar in Chinese 如何培育杰出的第二代
Westchester Chinese Christian Church 將在1/10和2/28舉辦「如何培育杰出的第二代」講座，
Stay warm!
Your principal,
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
Yuan-Chi Chang 張元極
