Bissell's Blog

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Farewell to Hayes Valley

A quiet has settled over the campuses as faculty continue the task of packing up years of accumulated “stuff” from Waller, Oak, and Turk in preparation for our move to…

Jun 13, 2024

Time…

At CAIS, we have four fundamental resources at our disposal to support us in our mission to embrace Chinese, become our best selves, and contribute to a better world. Those…

Jun 05, 2024

The Long & Short (& Medium) of It! (Part 3 of 3)

In the Long Term — Strategy Our current strategic vision, “Reimagining CAIS” was intended to extend to 2025. We experienced some zigs and zags with the pandemic, but we have…

Mar 08, 2024

The Long & Short (& Medium) of It! Part 2 of 3

In the Medium Term—2025, 2026… Our new facilities offer programming opportunities that we will not be designing immediately. Part of the reason is bandwidth as we contend with the exciting…

Mar 08, 2024

The Long & Short (& Medium) of It! (Part 1 of 3)

Whenever I walk around the 19th Avenue campus, I am flooded with ideas for what CAIS could become. Expansive outdoor spaces, the theater and arts building, the gym, the learning…

Mar 08, 2024

共庆龙年 Celebrating the Year of the Dragon!

I arrived at CAIS in 2010, which means this is my second time around the 12-year Chinese zodiac cycle and my second Dragon Year at the school. To be honest,…

Feb 07, 2024

Happy Teacher’s Day 2023 & Confucius’s 2,574th Birthday!

We’re celebrating CAIS faculty (such as our second grade team shown above co-teaching math in Chinese and English) on the birthday of the great teacher, Confucius. In honor of this…

Sep 28, 2023

Meaningful Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节 Zhōng qiū jié, sometimes called the Moon Festival in the West) is next Friday, September 29. It is one of the most important, family-centered holidays in…

Sep 22, 2023

Progress on Our New Home at 19th Avenue

By far the question I have been asked most often by CAIS parents in recent days (even more than “How was your summer?”) is “How are things going with the…

Sep 01, 2023

Announcing a New Era for Firedragons Athletics

I am delighted to announce that we have hired Mr. Ken Su, an experienced, Mandarin-speaking Athletic Director and middle school physical education teacher for the 2023-24 school year. Among the…

May 05, 2023