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 Over the years, things have accumulated and we need some help from parents to organize and purge some of the outdated items.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.