On Monday, March 13, the Preschool and Kindergarten Chinese teaching teams visited our neighboring school, Silicon Valley International School, to visualize the possibilities of how indoor and outdoor space at 19th Avenue can be transformed and how the learning environment can be intentionally designed to amplify CAIS Early Childhood best practices. The teaching teams were incredibly inspired by this visit and are eager to start with any immediate implementation possible.

While these teams were having a great visit, the remaining Chinese faculty delved into a two-day intensive training provided by Theresa Jen, a regular trainer at American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). The purpose was to refamiliarize faculty with ACTFL’s Language Proficiency Guidelines and to review the principle of the assessments on the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and Writing Proficiency Test (WPT). After the training, not only were the teachers’ interviewing as well as rating skills restrengthened, their understanding of the integration between assessments and instruction was also reinforced. Most importantly, the whole Chinese team now has a crystal clear picture of how students’ language proficiency is developed, enhanced, and benchmarked in every stage of their immersion learning across the Chinese Program. Chinese Program teachers left the In-Service Days’ programs of engaging, meaningful, and practical Professional Development feeling refreshed and reinvigorated!