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: 校長的話 / Principal’s Notes

NWCS Fall 2021 Newsletter – week 8 – 10/30/21

Dear NWCS Families,
Many thanks for our volunteers last weekend to help out with the annual fire drill.  Overall, everyone was able to follow the preassigned evacuation route to exit the building orderly and effectively.  One point to keep in mind:  Fire drill is to let everyone know where the exit is in case of an emergency.  Teachers and students have the chance to practice the drill.  Each teacher is responsible for the entire class’ student count and makes sure everyone returns to the classroom when the drill is completed before the class is dismissed.  Parents would expect the same before picking up your kids.
Halloween fun this weekend
We will kick off Halloween weekend with a visit by story book author, David Quinn, also our NWCS long time friend and former co-chairperson.  Pre-K to second grade classes will join David’s story telling session at the cafeteria.  Parents and students are encouraged to dress up when coming to school.  We also prepare Halloween candy!!
Halloween bake sale - bring your baked goods – cookies, cupcakes, etc to donate & help feed our hungry trick-or-treaters this Saturday!
Best Regards,
Rick Chan 詹文芳
NWCS Principal

NWCS Fall 2021 Newsletter – week 7 – 10/23/21

Dear NWCS Families,
Time flies fast – it is the midterm week!  Also, to take advantage of the nice weather, we plan to hold our annual Fire Drill exercise this Saturday at 10:50 AM.  Language classes will end 10 minutes earlier than usual.  Attached is the fire drill evacuation plan.  Please spend a few minutes taking a look at the exit route near you.  Class teachers have been informed about their routes.  For younger age classes, Pre-K to first grade, if some parents can volunteer to assist class teachers, please let class teachers know and arrive at the classroom a few minutes earlier.  We have volunteers standing at key places in the building to direct exit flow safely and effectively.  Please follow their instructions when hearing the alarm sound.  3rd hour culture class will resume at 11:00 AM.
Next week is Halloween weekend, we will invite former NWCS co-chairperson and author, David Quinn, back to school and tell the Halloween story for Pre-K ~ 2nd grade students.   Get your kids’ favorite costume ready for next Saturday….
Support NWCS by shopping at AmazonSmile program
For your holiday shopping, please consider designating NWCS as your charitable organization of choice via AmazonSmile or shop on Amazon.com via www.nwcsny.org website.  Thank you all in advance for your support!
Best Regards,
Rick Chan 詹文芳
NWCS Principal

NWCS Newsletter Week 5 (10/09) – Fall’21

Dear NWCS Families,
Hope you all are enjoying this fall weather!  After a few weeks of in person learning, I hope everyone finds the new balance back to routine.  We have a few items to share this week -
(1).  Oct 9th is the last day to withdraw with a 50% refund (less fees & material).  School registration system will be closed after Oct 16th.  Families still have not made final changes in the class selection (especially in electives), please take a moment to make the change and help us keep the enrollment record accurate.
(2). I’d like to invite new families to join us at the middle school auditorium (the room next to the cafeteria) for an orientation (Q&A) session this Saturday (10/9) at 9:15 AM.  If you have any questions or suggestions for us, please feel free to join as well.
(3). Each class teacher will start reaching out to organize a parent teacher conference this or next week.
(4). For those parents with smaller kids at school, please be advised to pick up your kid(s) inside the school building rather than letting them walk outside the building and waiting at the curved side of the road.  There are other sport activities during Saturday morning with vehicles moving in and out of the school parking lot.
Best Regards,
Rick Chan 詹文芳
NWCS Principal

NWCS Newsletter Week 4 (10/02) – Fall’21

Dear NWCS Families,
Hope this email finds you well.  With your commitment and support, thank you everyone for doing their part to help and create a safe and fun learning environment for our students.  By now, things will slowly return to normal after students settling in each class.  If your child experiences any challenges academically, please don’t wait until the end of the semester or school year.  Please don’t hesitate to communicate with me or class teacher.
Some items to share here:
(1).  For families with smaller kid(s) at school, if, for whatever reason, you have to leave the school premises temporarily, please teach your kid(s) to wait at the cafeteria area and not leave the school building until you return to pick him/her up.  Cafeteria is the most commonly used area by our school families.  Therefore, we always can keep an eye on any students who might be present waiting for pick up.  During weekend, there are other sport events take place the same time during our school hours so traffic and people can be overwhelming for small kids.
(2). Last week (9/25) was the final week of withdraw with 100% refund less fees and material/textbooks.  Since I missed the announcement, if deciding to withdraw by this this Saturday (10/02), we will honor the 100% refund.  The next withdraw deadline with 50% refund (less fee and material) is on 10/09.
(3).  During pandemic remote learning, our students worked hard with their teachers.  Many students have accumulated lots of reward stickers.  I plan to  change our reward station slightly this year to mange the flow better.  Every last week of each month, I will announce the reward redemption threshold.  For example, in last week of Oct (10/30), we will provide reward exchange for students who have collected 40 stickers or less to redeem.  If there is no ideal prize to redeem, you can keep accumulating and wait for November (most likely will have prize that would require 40 ~ 80 stickers).  I will make a separate announcement in advance when we get closer.
(4). Please supervise your child(ren) school work at home.  Through regular practice at home, that will help to reinforce their memories on material learned in class.
Below is the calendar for remaining semester.  You may find the complete copy from NWCS website.
2021 Fall Semester
Best Regards,
Rick Chan 詹文芳
NWCS Principal

NWCS Newsletter Week 3 (9/25) – Fall’21

Dear NWCS Families,

 

Hope everyone enjoys this early fall weather and stays safe and healthy.  As students are settling down in each class, there are a few topics I like to share:

 

School Work & Experience Sharing - 

Please help to supervise your kid’s school work and communicate with the class teacher if your child is experiencing difficulties in the class.  Many of you may or may not speak Mandarin at home so it may pose a challenging task for your child when doing homework at home.  We have other families who have gone through similar processes and can share their valuable information with new families.  If you like to share your child’s mandarin learning experience with new families, please let me know.  I can make an introduction.

 

Before we finalize the fall semester enrollment in the school system, please take a few minutes to check your child(ren) enrollment record(s) if properly registered.  You can log in to your account and select “Parent View” to view and make necessary changes.

 

Health Policy -

NWCS is following the recommendation from the NY State Health Department and Education Department to require wearing a face covering mask inside the school building at all times.

 

Emergency Phone Notification System -

If there are any last-minute school closures or emergency notifications, an email will be sent out, as well as a text message. We encourage you to opt into the text message option to make sure you are notified. This will be used for emergency notifications only, except for two test messages (one each semester) to make sure the system is working properly.

 

Instructions:

1)     Text @nwcsnotify to the number 81010

2)     You’ll receive a welcome text from REMIND, the app.

3)     If anyone has trouble with 81010, they can try texting @nwcsnotify to (478) 225-3884.

 

 

We have audio files on the NWCS web site after you sign in to your account.  Please feel free to take a look and play for your kids from home.

Textbook links

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Regards,

Rick Chan 詹文芳
NWCS Principal

NWCS Newsletter Week 2 (9/18) – Fall’21

Dear NWCS Families,
It was so nice to see many of you back to school in person.  Like to use this opportunity to welcome new families to join NWCS as well.  The planning for opening day was crazily busy, but the work was definitely worth it to see our kids back in the classroom.  Thank you to all the volunteers for making this task look easy and smooth!  Few items I’d like to highlight for this week:
(1). Next Tuesday (9/21/21) is the mid autumn festival (中秋節) according to the Chinese lunar calendar.  We will prepare some mooncakes at the breakfast club for sale.  Please make sure to stop by to get your favorite mooncake.
(2). With students fully returning to public school this fall, we can not let our guards down with COVID.  Please continue to follow COVID guidelines (sent in the first week communication) when entering into school building and exercise social distance in class and during intermission.  If anyone doesn’t feel well, please stay home and inform the class teacher about your kid’s absence.
(3). We tried our best to organize the class according to students’ age and language proficiency.  First few weeks will be somewhat unsettling for some students, especially after months of remote learning.  Please feel free to work with the teacher on any concerns you might have.  If anything academic related, please feel free to reach out to me.
(4).  In order to provide a quality learning environment for our students, we need volunteers to help with areas like breakfast club (students’ favorite), parent duty coordination, and others.  If you like to get involved with helping the school, please don’t hesitate to contact me or other school members.
School calendar can be found on NWCS web site.
Best Regards,
Rick Chan 詹文芳

NWCS Principal

NWCS School Opening Day (9/11/21) – Welcome Letter, Policy, and Instructions

Dear NWCS Families,

 

Welcome to the 2021-2022 Northern Chinese School year! Our first day of school is on Saturday 9/11, starting at 9am. We are excited to see many of you back to school. Although it has been a very challenging situation for all of us to face in the past year and a half, we are back now and even more prepared to provide a safe environment for our kids to learn the Chinese language and culture. Please take a few minutes to read over the details below and the attached documents. You will find the protocols for our opening day, welcome letter from school, school calendar, and assigned classroom floor map.

 

I would like to use this opportunity to outline areas that we need your attention and help:

 

1). NWCS will follow Briarcliff School District health guidelines in conjunction with New York State Health Department and School Education Department -

Beginning on Monday, August 23rd and until further notice, all students, staff, and visitors must wear a mask while inside school facilities.  All students will be stationed at least three (3) feet apart while in classrooms.

 

Each classroom will be provided with sanitizer and wipes.  If any students or parents feel sick or not well, please stay at home and do not come to school.

 

Although temperature check is not mandatory by the school district, to be extra cautious, we will measure temperature periodically when students or families enter the school building.  Please use the front entrance ONLY for the ease of managing foot traffic flow.

 

2). Most classes will be offered in-person with a few exceptions due to teachers’ personal health considerations.  If your kids have the following schedule conflicts, please consider bringing your kids to school.  We will host classrooms for students to take online classes with counselor’s supervision.

(a). Families with multiple kids that have both in-person and online classes

(b). Students taking in-person language classes but having a online elective class – i.e. Chess, or vice versa

(c). Students who prefer to have school learning set up instead of home even for remote learning

 

Please bring the laptop with a headset to school for the cases listed above.

 

 

3). Instead of our regular intermission break time at 10:00 AM for all students, we will create 2 periods of break time for different age groups.

(a). 9:50 ~ 9:50 AM -> 5th grade and higher.

(b). 10:05 ~ 10:15 AM -> 4th grade and lower.

 

4). Our breakfast club will offer only packaged snacks/drinks and self-serve coffee/tea until further notice.  Therefore, please feel free to pack snacks or small bites for your kids to bring.

 

5). We will not have an open assembly this year.  Instead, we will have volunteers at the front entrance to guide families/students to their classrooms.  Please bear with us if the traffic flow is a bit slow on the first day.

 

Classroom Guideline

 

  • Kindly bring your kids to school 5-10 minutes before 9:00 AM.

 

  • There is no eating when inside the classroom so please make sure your kids have breakfast before arriving at school.

 

  • Respecting the class teacher is one of the most important traditions in Chinese culture.  We cannot stress enough of this value. Please emphasize this point to your kids at home.

 

Below is the classroom and teacher assignment with an indication of in-person or remote teaching.  Please review carefully along with the building map. Please feel free to reach out with any questions.

 

2021-22 Classroom Assignments

NWCS – 2021 Spring Semester Newsletter – Week 13 – 06/05/21

Dear NWCS Families,
Can’t believe we are near the end of the semester.  Some classes will start their final tests this week and finish the last session next week before the start of summer long vacation.  A few items to keep in mind here:
General Assembly
This weekend 06/05/21 at 9:30 AM via Zoom. The meeting link is listed below.  Please come and join us at the virtual meeting from your comfortable living room!
Please see principal email for Zoom info.
Online Summer Tutoring
NWCS alumna , Meilee Kry and senior student, Claudia Strollo, are very kind and agree to assist with online tutoring this summer.  If anyone is interested in online learning for Chinese, please feel free to reach out and inquire about their schedule and cost:
Please see principal email for contact info.
Early Registration
Fall’21 early registration will be open for enrollment from NWCS website starting 6/12/21 until 7/10/21.  Please help to spread the word of our language school and enjoy a $50 early bird enrollment discount (pay in full by 7/10/21).  Your early action will help us in teacher assignment and class management during summer recess.
Best Regards,
Rick Chan 詹文芳

NWCS Principal

NWCS – 2021 Spring Semester Newsletter – Week 12 – 05/22/21

Dear NWCS Families,
Many thanks to our volunteers for judging the speech contest during the past three weekends.  The effort by our teachers to prepare our students for this annual event is greatly appreciated.  After finalizing each class’ score, award winning certificates will be mailed out in the next week or two.  Couple important dates to keep in mind - No school on 5/29 (Memorial Day) and last day of school on 6/12.
We have reached out to the Briarcliff school district in preparation for in-person learning in the fall semester if the situation allows.  The intention is to have all options available for us to choose from when the external factors are right.  As we move forward to summer, we will have a better picture if this fall will be in person, remote, or some type of hybrid.
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Best Regards,
Rick Chan 詹文芳

NWCS Principal

NWCS – 2021 Spring Semester Newsletter – Week 8 – 4/24/21

Dear NWCS Families,
Hope all is well.  Speech contest will start this week.  Please help with your child/children practice before their contest date.
I like to share the wonderful news that Brenda Horan from our Advanced Chinese Study class has been awarded a full scholarship to go to Taiwan for a year to study Chinese. She will study at a University in New Taipei City.  It is a program that is supported by the National Security Department of the United States in order to foster critical language acquisition among our youth.  She is one of the 35 recipients from nearly 4,000 applications to attend the program in Taiwan.  Big congratulations to Brenda and wish her all the best for this wonderful opportunity.
Best Regards,
Rick Chan 詹文芳

NWCS Principal