From: NWCS Principal <principal@nwcsny.org>

Date: 11/22/2013 9:17 PM

Gobble Gobble Gobble … I hope that you are all ready for that big Turkey dinner? We are working on the guest list and a menu that can probably feed an army … the way that our family and friends eat, we probably are feeding an army! Hold that thought! We have one more Chinese school day before we can start preparing for the holiday feast!

One of my twins just called me (I am on the train) … “Mommy, do you think the smoke condition has been cleared?” It took me a few seconds to realize that he actually remembered the reason we canceled school last week. This kid cannot remember something I told him to do like 1000 times a day, yet he can remember that piece of information from a week ago.

Speaking of the cancelation of last week, a parent expressed his disappointment that the school was closed for a smoke condition. I would like to take this opportunity to let everyone know that our school is closed when the hosting school is not available, so last week we really did not have a choice. A parent actually said, (I hope jokingly) why can’t the kids just wear a gas mask … In any case, the hosting school needed the weekend to clean and make sure that it is in a safe environment for the students to return the following Monday.

With last week’s cancellation, we are faced with another issue. We need to find another weekend to make up for the session. The board members are discussing options as we speak, of course, taking into consideration the hosting school’s availabilities. As soon as we know, we will announce it to everyone and also post on our website.

Our chairman, Calvin, asked me to share the following with you:

1. BIG FUN GENERAL MEETING 11/23- Tell us what you think, hear what is up with NWCS

(I agree! Everyone should grab a rice roll, a cup of coffee, and come sit around so we can chat about our school operations, finances, and how we can all help the school … you know all that good stuff. We hope to see everyone there! It starts at 10:10 right after the break)

2. Keep using your Amazon account through OUR WEBSITE. (Yeah … the more you shop by going through our website, the more you are HELPING our school)

3. SMILE and say hello to Shuna, Francine, Kay, Heidi, Min and the many volunteers, and buy snacks, coffee, and other delicious items (… remember the more you buy the more you are HELPING our school J )

4. NO SCHOOL ON 11/30 so eat, drink, and be merry w/friends, family, and loved ones… (isn’t that a movie name? ….. oh, and check out our Happy Turkeys on our website)

Last but not least, please be sure to check the parent on duty list and order your lunch here!

See you tomorrow! Classes start at 9am sharp! Please be on time.

From: NWCS Principal <principal@nwcsny.org>

Date: 11/8/2013 8:54 PM

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone remembered to turn back the clock this past Sunday morning … my girlfriend sent me a reminder “Don’t forget to set your time back!!!” I told her “Ok, I will set my time back to when I was 20!” Oh well, it obviously did not work so I guess I will settle for an hour. Well, with the extra hour, I hope everyone had enough rest and is ready for Chinese School tomorrow!

Now that we are busy planning for the next holiday… who is making the turkey… who is making the dessert …. Etc…our kids are all excited about the next big holiday and working on their Christmas list. My 18 year old stepson asked me if I can get this ridiculously expensive electronic thing (after hearing the price, I kind of lost interest in any other details) for him for Christmas, I said “… you think money grows on trees? …” He said to me “… well, technically, yes! “, then he went on explain how money is made of paper and paper is made from trees … blah blah blah, looking at his proud grin, I let him enjoy his moment a little longer, then said “fine, I will give you the money and you can go get it yourself” He was so touched and speechless … I then told him “and I will even ask your dad to help you cut down any tree of your choice from the backyard … that’s how much I want to give you the gift, because you are so smart”.

So what do we have for tomorrow, oh, yes, SMILE! Everyone, we are having our class pictures taken. So dress nice and neat and be ready to say CHEESE ………… in Chinese. (Ask your teacher how to say it).

A special request to our Kung Fu class parents, if you can come to the classroom tomorrow at 11:10am for a quick meeting, I would like to discuss a few items and hear your input. For those who cannot attend, I will send a message out to you during the week.

I have two high school students available to tutor kids in math, so if anyone is interested, please let me know.

Over the winter break, I will be working with the webmaster to put together a list of tutors for Chinese who will be available to our NWCS families.

And our chair of the Board, Calvin, asked that I remind everyone of the following:

1. U$E your Amazon account through our school WEBSITE and buy things to help earn $$ for NWCS, your favorite Chinese School.

2. SMILE – Please greet other dedicated parents at the cafeteria! We know we have the friendliest parents here. So Smile and say ‘glad to see you’. (Especially tomorrow, it is the Picture Day!)

3. WHAT IS UP? General Meeting on 11/16. Come, learn, ask, and contribute.

Last but not least, please be sure to check the parent on duty list and order your lunch here!

See you tomorrow! Classes start at 9am sharp! Please be on time.

Happy November! I actually was a little sad to see October coming to an end … it was a very colorful and fun month. You can see the changes in the trees practically every day … love all the different phases. Then there is the apple picking, pumpkin carving, hot cider drinking … and we have our friends over at our house every weekend and we have the hot pot and the Korean BBQ. Although I don’t like to cook, I have many friends that are good cooks and they know my kitchen better than me. LOL This is the beginning of perfect weather for all the fun cooking … we cook the BBQ so much the smoke filled the house and we set off not just one, not two, but three alarms in the house … it was going off for a while. Ahhhh…. good times with good friends … what more can one ask for. And to top that off, I hope everyone, like us, ended the month on a sweet note by getting tons of candy trick or treating!

Let’s start November on a fun note too….by studying Chinese! We are well into our week 8. My sons’ teacher did not give them homework since they just had their midterm! (How thoughtful!) Instead they just have to listen to their Chinese song and start practicing it. Listening to the familiar melody, I started to look up some of the old songs that I still hear my mom and dad sing. There were a ton on YouTube, and of course I played it really loud and started to sing along … There was this song called “I only care about you” (yes, a love song) and one part says “ … 不可惜 bù kě xī …” (it implies “no regret” in the song). My husband, who was sitting next to me enjoying (more like being tortured) my talent, jumped up and said excitedly “ you just sang ‘you are welcome’ … I thought I recognized the words”… He thought I sang “… 不客氣 bú kè qì …” I told him very good! (close enough) and asked him “Do you want to hear another one and see what other words you can recognize?” Hey, why ruin his excitement and interrupt my singing … (How thoughtful on my part).

I don’t know about you but I have started my gift list for the holiday … well, okay, I have started a list for me. Our chairman, Calvin and webmaster, Harry, posted a link to Amazon on our site! All you need to do is go to our school site www.nwcsny.org and click on the Amazon link and continue to purchase as you normally do … and we, NWCS, will get a % from your purchases! What better way to help the school, while doing one of your favorite things to do, shopping! I hope you all will make your purchases thru our school’s website! Thank you!

Last but not least, please be sure to check the parent on duty list and order your lunch here! http://23.23.192.51/ibm-restaurant/onlineorder.html

See you tomorrow! Classes start at 9am sharp! Please be on time.

From: NWCS Principal <principal@nwcsny.org>

Date: 10/25/2013 2:27 PM

Hello Everyone,

Before you know it, the weekend is upon us … Have you been to the stores lately? I went with my husband to buy Halloween candy (yes, Halloween is next Thursday!) and I saw all these Christmas decorations all over the place … it totally took me by surprise and confused me a great deal. I asked my husband, “Honey, isn’t there another holiday in between Halloween and Christmas?” … He laughed and said “Yes, in America, it is called Thanksgiving …” and he added “… we are probably going to have 40 people again this year …” Time certainly flies and it flies way too quickly these days, and the stores are not helping either by putting all the decorations out so early each year (like that is going to help me)!! Wait!!!!! What did he just say? 40 people again?! Now I wish we could just skip right to Christmas. I need a vacation NOW!

At least I know exactly what week we are up to in the Chinese School. Here we are, week 7. Most classes will be having their midterm exams, depending upon their progress. So good luck to those who are having midterms! I know my sons will be saying later when they get home … “midterm? Really?” Yes, really, time to get on the laptop and log on to the site and start studying now!

Some kids were asking me if they can come in their Halloween outfits! Of course you can! I am riding my broom into school tomorrow myself! We will continue our Halloween tradition. There will be candy for the students leaving the school tomorrow. A Happy Halloween wish from NWCS!

Tomorrow, we also have the monthly Board meeting starting at 10:15am. Any questions, ideas, suggestions that you would like to share with the Board, come see us!

A quick glance ahead:

See you tomorrow! Classes start at 9am sharp! Please be on time.

From: NWCS Principal <principal@nwcsny.org>

Date: 10/18/2013 9:29 PM

Whew! For some reason, for a short week with Monday being the holiday, it actually felt like it took forever to get through!!! It is time for the Friday night madness, where is your homework? What do you mean you don’t know? Did you study for your quiz? What do you mean you don’t know what to study? Where is your book? Where is your Chinese dictionary? Where is your Chinese text book? ….. Where is your head?! Actually we have been going to the Chinese School for the last 9 years, starting from Pre-K …and now the twins are in the 7^th grade, we are actually used to the routine …. It has not gotten any better, but we all know what to expect on a Friday night in the Thomas’ household!

I realized we are not the only ones … one of the moms, also a close friend of mine, told me that, like me, during the week she gets up before everyone else to get ready to leave for work in the peace and quiet… the kids actually look like angels in their sleep … and by the time she gets home, the kids are usually done with their homework, getting ready for bed … Then comes Saturday morning , she became this crazed woman like me, not used to having to manage others in the wee morning hours, she said she always yells and screams the whole time to get them out of bed, to feed them, to check to be sure they have their homework packed; and then scream at the top of her lungs to get them into the car and head for the Chinese School … I asked her where is your husband during all this? She said he usually hides in the bedroom until the tornado is over. Same as my hubby, right when everyone is ready, he emerges from the bedroom, all dressed and ready to drive us to school …

Tomorrow we have the parent teacher conference meeting. This is an opportunity for the parents to meet with the teachers to share their experiences and input with one another so that we can continue to improve the learning our students receive. Your teachers will let you know when (usually the third hour if they are not teaching) and where (usually the same classroom). For those teachers who are not available tomorrow, they will schedule another time to meet. There is always email that you can use to communicate with your teachers.

Recently, our Calligraphy class teacher, Ms. Daisy Rose, submitted some of her students’ work to the Annual ACS Calligraphy Contest 2013 and we were just informed this week of the results! Please join me in congratulating the following NWCS Students!!!!! Bravo !

For the middle grades:

Danielle Chu 趙慧欣 won 2^nd place!

For the senior grades:

Kevin Chang 張凱文 won 2^nd place!

Elisabeth Clemmons 柯安迪 won 1^st place!

We are very proud of you! And a special thanks to the teacher for working with the students. Congratulations!　

Hi Everyone,

Have you noticed the fall foliage … I see it every year … but every year it still takes my breath away … I don’t like however, that when I leave the house in the morning it is dark and often times when I get home, it is dark again … but when I get the chance to come home at a decent hour, I catch the most beautiful time of the day, the sun setting and its rays through the leaves… just beautiful! Yup, the cool weather is here and it is getting harder and harder to get out of bed each morning … so finish your Chinese homework, study for your quiz, and get ready for bed because we have Chinese School tomorrow!

Our board chairman, Mr. Calvin Chin, and I keep in touch often during the week to go over the priorities of the school. During our Thursday night conversation, we realized that we never had the New Parent meeting … Yikes! Calvin and I will be at the cafeteria tomorrow starting at 11:00am … if you have any questions about anything (related to our school of course), please stop by and see us.

It is already the 5^th week of the Fall semester. I mentioned to my 1B/Introduction to Chinese I class about their performance at the Chinese New Year celebration party in January. They were so excited and so eager to show me their dance moves! Speaking of which, our teachers will be starting to prepare for the Chinese New Year celebration and each class will be showcasing their talents! Parents, please reach out to your teachers and see if you can help coordinate the performances.

Last week after my weekly email, I received an inquiry from a parent asking if she and other parents in her child’s class donated a white board, would we have a place to store it … I was so touched with the thoughtfulness, and yes we do have a storage room that we can use.

One of the topics that Calvin and I spoke about was how we could organize our storage space better. The hosting school is letting us use part of the copier room to store our things. Over the years, things have accumulated and we need some help from parents to organize and purge some of the outdated items. If you are willing to lend a hand or a little muscle, please see Peter Seissler, one of our board members. He will work out a schedule when we can go tackle this issue.

Calvin is also taking the Adult Chinese Conversation class in our school. The class is taught by Ms. Fei Wen Chen, who also teaches Chinese in a regular high school. Right now, Calvin is the only student in the class. He said he wants to keep up with learning Mandarin (he speaks Cantonese), because his daughters, who are attending our school, are always correcting his Mandarin. When we were younger, we worked hard to impress our parents, and now he is working hard to impress his daughters. It just never ends, does it? Is there anyone else who would like to join Calvin in the quest to learn Chinese?

Last but not least, please check the Parent On Duty list. This is not something you sign up for. This is a task that all the parents are required to do … I will see if I can have the list published so you can plan accordingly.

And don’t forget to order your lunch here. http://23.23.192.51/ibm-restaurant/onlineorder.html

See you tomorrow. Classes start at 9am sharp. Please be on time.

From: NWCS Principal <principal@nwcsny.org>

Date: 10/4/2013 10:02 PM

I apologize that this weekly message is so late! I originally was going to work from home then decided to go in to attend two meetings in person … and before you know it, I was the last person to leave the office … in any case, I hope that everyone had a great week. The Indian summer was a pleasant surprise … last chance to put on those shorts before putting them away for the year …

We have school next Saturday, 10/12. Originally we had the day off, however, if you recall, we had to delay our first day of school by one week due to the hosting school being under construction. Therefore in order for us to make up the lost week, we decided to use the October 12th date to make up for the day instead of extending our Fall semester by one week.

Thanks to our parent’s input, we are changing our Thanksgiving weekend off to 11/30. So we have school on 11/23. We will update the calendar to reflect this change.

Last week, we had a very productive board meeting. Thanks to those parents who came and joined us. We discussed the financial status, curriculum and student enrollment. Other topics discussed were what equipment we need to support our teachers. Our teachers are not allowed to use the smartboards in the classroom and not allowed to erase whatever is left on the white boards by the regular school teachers. Many times the teachers have a limited area to write upon while teaching … with the technology advancing by the second (it does feel like that, doesn’t it), we thought providing projectors for our teachers will allow them to utilize their laptops, making it easier to share material with the students.

Speaking of projectors, I am sure that many of you remember that one of our teachers, Ms. Jennifer Huang, who taught 6B and 1B in our school moved to California over the summer. We collected money as a farewell gift for her. Ms. Huang decided to use that money for our school! She purchased 3 projectors and donated them to our school. Here is a BIG THANK YOU to Ms. Huang! We miss you! I am still trying to talk to her about doing an online course for our students … J

Ok, I have lots of stories to tell but it is getting late so I will save them for next week!

See you tomorrow! Classes start at 9am sharp. Please be one time.

From: NWCS Principal <principal@nwcsny.org>

Date: 9/27/2013 5:48 PM

Are you ready to say good bye to September? The stores are all filled with Halloween decorations and goodies already … I don’t know where the summer went … time seems to fly faster every year … and yes, it is Saturday, time to learn Chinese again!!!