How Do We Tackle Learning Loss Caused by the Pandemic?

A Case Study at Tarwater Elementary School, Chandler School District, Arizona

The challenge
Due to the pandemic,  students were given the choice of attending in-person school or attending online school during the 2020-2021 school year. When the DLI students chose to attend the Chandler Online Academy (COA), their instructional time for learning Mandarin was down to 30 minutes per day, while their peers at in-person school had half-days in Chinese language arts in addition to content areas.  How to make up for the learning gap in Mandarin for the online group of students became a challenging task .

The goal
The goal was to maintain the online students’ Mandarin proficiency at their current level to try and keep up with their peers when they were eventually reunited in school.

How did we tackle the learning gap?
Tarwater Elementary School utilized effective online Mandarin learning resources to build an extended Mandarin literacy program by:

• Adopting Mandarin Matrix DLI Proficiency Builder as our core curriculum.  The spiral up proficiency readers from Foundation ( Novice Low) to Intermediate 3 (Intermediate Mid) levels align to ACTFL and Common Core standards which provided the framework for our students.

• Choosing essential language concepts and skills based on the MMX Curriculum Map and Teacher Guides.

• Utilizing the MMX Student Online Platform to individualize students’ reading tasks. Students were assigned to read different levels of books based on their proficiency.

• Using the online exercises and worksheets provided by MMX to build a routine for students to follow. Each day, we tackled a learning area and celebrated students’ successes on Fun Fridays when we used interactive games to review and have fun

• Collaborating with parents to secure their full support to use reading logs to record the books their kids read every day.

The result:
By the end of the 2020-2021 school year, Third to Sixth grade DLI students had the option to take the STAMP test to assess their Mandarin proficiency.  In the 1st quarter of 2021-2022, the Tarwater Elementary DLI program also did a key vocabulary test based on the MMX Proficiency Builder series. Per the data from both the STAMP test and the school-wide pre-test, the students who chose to attend online school met or exceeded the program goal.

The conclusion:
Tarwater students did not experience learning loss, and in many cases accelerated their learning with the support of Mandarin Matrix Online Platform despite having a fraction of the learning time that their in-class peers experienced.

You may also be interested in: Mandarin Matrix’s CEO Robert Davis Guests on the ‘Wisdom & Productivity’ Podcast

The post Don’t Remediate, Accelerate Learning with Mandarin Matrix appeared first on Mandarin Matrix.

Dr. Efrain Martinez is the principal at Northwood Middle School in Woodstock, Illinois, and the man behind the US-based podcast ‘Wisdom & Productivity’. Having worked in the education industry for over 20 years, he started this podcast with the goal to seek wisdom and deliberate over productivity as a means of better serving his community. 

Last month’s guest was our very own Robert Davis. As the Global CEO of Mandarin Matrix and former leader behind the Chinese Language and Culture Initiative at The College Board, Robert has played instrumental roles in the design and implementation of ground-breaking, internationally focused K-12 education initiatives in the US and abroad. His long career in education was initially sparked by an interest in Chinese, and to this day he remains extremely passionate about providing equitable access to academic opportunities. 

Here’s what Robert had to say.

Today I have the distinguished honor of interviewing Robert Davis, Global Chief Executive Officer of Mandarin Matrix. Robert, for the listeners of this show, can you walk us through your interesting professional trajectory up to this point?

My life and career has been very unorthodox. I am a lifelong educator, and while I don’t recommend this path I will tell you that I have never to this day taken a course in education. I had been a student and I have worked in institutes of education but I’m not formally trained in it. This is a very Chicago thing in some ways, learning on the streets and learning through growing up. I grew up in a family where my father was a journalist at the Chicago Tribune, and he covered Chicago politics his entire career, so I grew up with a background of understanding city politics and the way things happen in Chicago. I went to Northern Illinois University to major in Art History focusing on China. It was there where everything really changed. I had some great teachers who encouraged me to learn Chinese, which I did, and I graduated and found myself in 1997 in Xi’an China. 

I became a teacher at the Xi’an International Studies University. It was probably the single most transformative experience of my life, moving to China in the ’90s. I did not know a single person there, I barely spoke the language, and it really just changed me in so many wonderful and positive ways.

In 1999, I came back to the US and wanted to teach Chinese so I approached the Chicago Public Schools and I said “My Chinese is good enough to do level 1 or level 2 Chinese.” However at that time the Chicago Public Schools did not teach Chinese, so I was really confused because I had just come back from China where things were just like blossoming and blooming and there was this renaissance happening. So I looked into my Chicago playbook and I called the superintendent Paul Vallas, and I requested to meet with him and he agreed. I said “Paul, this is crazy, I don’t understand. I just came back from China, it’s like the future. Why aren’t we teaching Chinese? If you’re not doing it now you will be doing it later.” He said you’re hired and gave me six months to get this thing started. 

We started with just three schools and that Chinese program, called the Chinese World Language Program, proved to be the largest Chinese program in the United States in any school district. This was in part due to the great help of Richard M. Daley. When you work in language and culture you went to all the community events. I attended an Asian heritage event and I saw the then-mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley. I approached him and said I just wanted to say “hi, I know you knew my father.” And he said “your father was great, he was very kind to me, and he took the time to talk to me.” The conversation eventually led him to ask me what my job was so I said I work for you in the Chicago Public schools and I run your Chinese program. Then he replied “you gotta be kidding me! I keep asking people who does this, do you have a card?” So I gave him my card and the next day I got a call from city hall saying the mayor wants you to come in to talk. I walked to city hall scared as can be sat in the mayor’s office. He told me his brother Bill Daley, was the secretary of commerce, “My brother Billy keeps saying that China is the future, we really need to connect to China, what do you think we should do?” I answered “Mayor, I think we/you should go to China,” and he said to set it up. 

From that point, I started working a strange career where I was at Chicago Public Schools but I was also working with Mayor Daley. We went to China together eight times, he was a big supporter of the work, speaking publicly about it on multiple occasions. What was interesting about this was that the community that we were working with was not what we would think a Chinese program would start with. The Chicago Public schools had and continue to have these really diverse populations of students who all are coming into the school as multilingual and multicultural students learning another language, so they are really global citizens. I know I’ve tangented a little bit but it’s important to insist because that’s what changed my perspective on how you can do things. Be creative, be excited, take risks and chances and then people respond to that and you can get things done. I did that job for over a decade and then when the mayor retired I decided to look around and do different things. At that time I was approached by the president of the College Board, former president Governor Gaston Caperton who invited me to come to the College Board to run their partnership with China, the largest US-China education partnership. I had the great honor and pleasure of working there for a decade, built an amazing team whom I consider family and friends and still talk with all the time.

Now I’ve been given the wonderful opportunity to be the global CEO of Mandarin Matrix, which is a product and organization that I was very familiar with beforehand. I’m very fond of it. We really focus on dual language immersion which I believe is very strong. I’m just getting started here, getting to know people, in the middle of the pandemic. My office is in Hong Kong. I’ve never been there. I’m working from home but I can’t wait to get on a plane and go see them and spend some real human time with them as soon as I can. I also can’t wait to get back into a classroom and see what’s going on structurally to learn about how the students and teachers are using the product and what they like and dislike about it. A really fun ride and I’m just excited about what comes next. 

Do you remember when you first started learning if it was an immediate attraction and love for Mandarin? Or initially were you hesitant while learning it?

It was my second to last semester of college when I showed up to Chinese 101. I was the only non-Chinese person in the class. All these kids were from China and they were in there because they needed to get a language credit. My teacher was professor XiaoXiao Chuan, who is on my list of mentors as well. So I had this ideal situation when you think about it from a learning perspective – a dedicated teacher and a whole classroom of native speakers who were just there willing to help me. I liked it because I thought it was exciting. I had studied Spanish beforehand and I liked that as well but there was something about Chinese that just clicked for me. What always has been hard for me about romance languages is verb conjugation and all that kind of stuff. Chinese has other complicated stuff but it was exciting and it was connected to what I was studying academically – Chinese art history. I think when you have that connection and you see it coming to life it’s just a much better environment for you to dig in and really get into it.

Robert, who do you learn from?

Hopefully everybody, right? I think it’s a decision, you have to be open to it. Daily I learn from my children, from my colleagues, my wife, from my mentors I still keep in touch with. 

In terms of my actual field that I mentioned, I learned so much from Armando Almendarez (Deputy Chief Education Officer of the Chicago Public Schools). He was a smart leader who took good care of his people. Part of that was insisting that people have a life. I remember him walking into the office at 5pm and saying work is over. Not because he didn’t want to stay but because he wanted us to be balanced. He also thought that we should get our work done during our work hours, focusing on doing it better. There was this kind of gentle but direct approach with this. Whenever he had the opportunity for any office member to go to a concert or anything cultural he’d give it to us. He wanted us to enjoy living in a multicultural city and celebrate it, celebrating each other’s cultures. While I was there, he sent me to Mexico for a trip and it was just amazing just to see it. It was just a really different time and I think that he just took the time to be a great leader. So I learned from him now still, even though I don’t even interact with him because I look back, and in a way I think of my father. I look back at lessons I learned from my father and they mean something different as you get older and go through your life and your career.

Additionally my colleagues – I’m so impressed and love working with them and at all my jobs there have always been a few that made me think differently about things, see that I should be less rigid and that there was multiple ways to get things done. I really do try to pay attention and now that I’m a leader I try to give my team and my colleagues a space to be successful and to fit in. I think there’s such lessons in both of those aspects.

Lastly, I would say, if you work in education, like us, I think one of the greatest ways to learn is spending time with students and teachers and that’s where I really kind of get it.  You can have the greatest plans and brands whatever it is, and if it’s not working it’s not working. Teachers and students will tell you why, very directly and they will be right. So I found that if you really want to understand if you are a success, it’s not to look at your colleagues, it’s actually going to that classroom and see how it’s going. And if it’s not working there it’s not working period. What I miss most about being in the district was the possibility of going into schools quite often, even with the College Board I traveled quite a bit. With Covid it’s a little bit more difficult because they want to limit the amount of people in the building and rightfully so. However, I’m really looking forward to getting back and just being in that atmosphere but also just paying attention to see if the programs that I am overseeing now and the products are working or not. 

Who are your biggest influences?

It’s going to be my parents, I’ve been so lucky to have such wonderful parents, my mother who is still alive and I see her all the time. They just made me who I am at such a foundational level. My wife, for sure, I just think she is much smarter than I am and is a better person, the best person I have ever met and she just does things with such grace and genuineness that I learn from watching her every day.

There was a professor in Uni, Dr. Richard Cooler, he was my art history professor that just took me under his wing. Seeing that I was interested and could do more, he gave me research projects at a very young age and then hired me as his research assistant and then he had me write a thesis as an undergraduate. Pushing me in ways that I wanted and he could see that. He was the person that told me to pick a major language and learn it and told me that Chinese is probably what I should learn. A lot more opportunities lie in China and literature, so I’m really glad that for that moment he said “I believe in you, you can do this.” It just changed the whole path of my life. XiaoXiao Chuan my Chinese teacher, he was the one who told me to move to China and introduced me to his university and got me my first job and led me to move there.

Richard M. Daley just adore the man, he scared me in a way that made me more productive, positive and real. He taught me things that he probably didn’t even know. When his wife would walk into the room his whole world would stop and it was all about her. We could be with the president of China and he would just stop and greet her. I learned something just from watching, that you can be at a high level position with all eyes on you but you can still be yourself at all times and that was a big takeaway for me.

At the College Board there was a wonderful man named Jim Montoya who immediately took me under his wing, just a fantastic educator. He’s been in admissions his whole life, he just had a really interesting path himself. He lived in Idaho. Latino, got himself into Stanford and worked really hard but always had time for everybody. I would call him when I was stressed out or nervous and we would talk for like half an hour, and then he’d say he should probably get back to bed and he’d be like in France and it’d be 3 am but he’d take the call. I appreciate him and still consider him a great friend.

The last thing I will say is China, this is a really broad one but, I’ve been to China 98 times. I’ve learned there for years. It’s just such a big part of me, it challenged me in ways I never knew but I also think the experience of being a foreigner, being an outsider being a minority is something that most white Americans don’t ever have a chance to have, or normally even welcome. It has influenced so much in my life and being able to be a little empathetic and patient and understand the challenges of moving. I have worked with guest teachers coming from China for two decades but just having that perspective really really helped. I’m so grateful to all these people and places and also hope I can do this for just one person alone and that would be such a joy.

Being successful must include staying on top of our productivity but these can mean so many different things for so many different people. How would you describe your productivity system?

That’s a good question, it’s pretty basic, I pray to the church of lists. I don’t always make good or smart lists. I would email a list of things I want to remember the next day, or jot it down, sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night and write something down. I do think that I get a little scatterbrained without things written down and I feel successful when I can cross things off and I can prioritize. That’s very basic but it works for me. I think the other thing that I really and firmly believe is that I include stakeholders in every step of the way. If I’m doing things that will impact other people or making decisions that will impact others I very much like to include said people. I think that otherwise you’re guessing and that’s arrogant and I don’t want to be arrogant.

Also including stakeholders in decision making will lead them to become invested as well and they will contribute more. It could be anything from the community or staffing decisions. I have my team members interview other people because I want it to be a team. I want people to care about each other and feel comfortable to say no.

Giving yourself time to step away a little bit is also something very important. I play basketball. It’s a hoop I “put in for the kids” which I use every day. I find that since my schedule is strange since my office is in Hong Kong, I do a lot of night meetings, etc. I feel that it’s good for me otherwise I just sit in front of the computer every day. It’s also a space where I get a lot of clarity, understanding what I need to get done for the day and it’s really been great from me. 

Contrary to that, I think in general I give myself space to not be working, and I think that’s really important. Don’t alway be working, because that means you won’t get your best work done. Save your energy, be creative, have fun and be present with your other activities that you do and that will give you a great foundation and the energy for you to do your job well.

Finally, I struggle with this, but insist on it, we have to build in time for failure. If we’re building new processes or products or programs we need to understand that in that process we will fail along the way, we need to put time in that to not be behind but at the same time not be defeated. Nothing works perfectly the first time out, so knowing that will be the case can help us learn from those experiences and put time for that. Starting earlier and having longer process timelines and making sure that your team understands why. Clearly expressing that failure is not a deficit but it’s part of the path. If we all do that together we’re all gonna learn from the mistake and not do it again in the future. Those are the only things I have, I wish I had something more interesting but it’s worked for me so far. 

Thanks for answering and for this great conversation! I love asking that question because everybody has their productivity system and people like me can see people they admire and understand that’s how they do it. Is there anything you’d like to add for the listeners of the show?

I would, I just want to say I could do a few shout outs, let’s shout out to the language learners. You are magnificent and you are doing something really special that’s going to make a huge difference to you, your family, your community, and to the world. The teachers too! The teachers who are just the warriors out there. It’s really worth doing and there will be a moment where it will click and you will be a person of the world, you can go places and be whoever you want to be. The other thing is if you have the opportunity please travel, get out there, make yourself uncomfortable, eat the food, meet people, get on the street and you’re going to find that the world is really quite similar and people are excited to meet you and you’re excited to meet them.

Lastly, I’d just tell students that it’s a really hard time right now and you are going to be the most resilient and interesting generation that we have ever seen and I could not be more excited for your future. You’re going to get through this and we are too and you’re going to have skills that no one has had before because of it and you are going to be such a magnificent group of people. You already are but you are going to be more magnificent than we’ve ever seen before. Yes, today is hard, it’s been rough times and weird, but you got this and the future is going to be so special for all of you. I could not be more thrilled and I cheer you all on.

We hope you enjoyed this transcribed version of the Wisdom & Productivity podcast! If you’d like to listen to the audio in its entirety, you can find the full version here. Happy listening!

[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity]

More about Robert Davis

Robert Davis has greatly impacted the Chinese learning industry in the United States. He established the Chinese World Language Program in Chicago Public Schools in 1999. This grew to become the largest district-level Chinese program in the USA. He then served as Executive Director of the Chinese Language and Culture Initiative at the College Board for a decade. He is a values driven leader who helps organizations to fulfill their mission. Joining Mandarin Matrix in April 2021, he has been working with our team to constantly help and improve our products for the benefit of all our students learning Mandarin as a foreign language.

The post MMX CEO Robert Davis Guests on the ‘Wisdom & Productivity’ Podcast appeared first on Mandarin Matrix.

Aisling Quinn has worked with Mandarin Matrix from genesis to adolescence and is the Chief Operating Officer. As a mother with three children learning Mandarin, she focuses the development lens, demanding that traditional teaching methods be more interactive and compelling. Aisling has a BA in Consumer Science and she brings a scientific approach to both the product and human capital employed on three continents.

Hi Aisling, can you tell us a bit about Mandarin Matrix and this event?

We are delighted to be able to participate in this outstanding event hosted by the IOE CI (Institute of Education Confucius Institute). The CI’s contribution to the Mandarin teaching industry has been overwhelmingly positive, their work has had a real impact all across England for Mandarin learning students. We wanted to use this opportunity to showcase Mandarin Matrix materials in the exhibition. I am glad to be able to be present at this exhibition in order to showcase our materials and take part in this event!

What kind of resources does Mandarin Matrix provide?

I’m glad you asked that! Mandarin Matrix offers an Online Classroom that has a curriculum that is very easy to access. I’ve always valued interactive material and think that it is an important part of motivating students to learn. The Online Classroom option we provide is a great way to learn Chinese in a manageable way. It is so interactive and engaging and helps keep students’ attention. The new speech recognition and writing function have been a real boost and give students immediate feedback so they self correct these areas to improve their Chinese learning journey.

Learn more about how Mandarin Matrix’s Online Classroom can help your child here

This year’s conference theme is “Teaching Resilience,” how important is this theme for you at Mandarin Matrix?

The theme of “Teaching Resilience” is especially important to us here at Mandarin Matrix. Trying to ease the burden of teachers worldwide through providing teaching materials is one of our biggest goals. Helping teachers be able to spend less time preparing class activities in order to maximise time spent on more important tasks. Teachers can customise learning opportunities for students in order to maximise effectiveness, which I feel is a great way to personalise curriculum to fit students’ needs and skillset!

What resources will Mandarin Matrix be showcasing during the event?

We recently added a brand-new audio analysis feature, which provides our students with an interactive environment to better help them on their learning journey. This new audio analysis feature immediately analyses and gives feedback on the pronunciation of students. We think that this new feature is extremely helpful and can give students insight into which areas of their pronunciation need to be fine-tuned.

Another feature that we will be showcasing is the enhanced character writing feature. This also happens to be a new feature to our Online Classroom that will help students improve their writing of Chinese characters. Many students find learning a new form of writing difficult, this new program will give visual guidance and character stroke order information to students. Enabling them to improve both of these skills!

The 18th Annual Chinese Teaching Conference will take place on Saturday 11th September 2021 at the UCL Institute of Education, University College London.

Please click here to see the 2021 Conference Programme

The post 2021 Annual IOE CI Chinese Teaching Conference appeared first on Mandarin Matrix.

Highlights from the ESSER FAQs document (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary & Secondary Education)

A-3. How may an LEA use ESSER funds? 

An LEA may use ESSER funds for the broad range of activities listed in section 18003(d) of the CARES Act, section 313(d) of the CRRSA Act, and section 2001(e) of the ARP Act. Some of the ESSER funds (ESSER I, ESSER II, or ARP ESSER) may also be used to support school programs. We have consolidated below the three ESSER programs’ lists of allowable uses of funds.  The activities that are listed in section 18003(d) of the CARES Act, section 313(d) of the CRRSA Act, and section 2001(e) of the ARP Act that an LEA may support with ESSER funds are:  

13. Funds can also be used to purchase educational technology (including hardware, software, and connectivity) for students served by the LEA. This can help regular and substantive educational interaction between students and their classroom instructors, including low-income students and students with disabilities.

C-19. Can an LEA use ESSER and GEER funds to support distance learning, including the purchase of educational technology for student use?  

Yes. An LEA may use ESSER and GEER funds for activities that support distance education and promote long-term improvements in technology infrastructure and operations. These activities might include providing online learning to all students, including those with disabilities, English learners, students experiencing homelessness, and students in foster care. This includes helping with training educators in the effective implementation of online learning.

Continuity of learning:

An LEA may use ESSER and GEER funds to purchase educational technology for students and educators including:

 •Purchasing of mobile technology devices such as tablets and laptops. 

•Providing off-campus WiFi access students and teachers through the purchase of devices/equipment, mobile hotspots, wireless service plans, or installation of Community Wi-Fi Hotspots, especially in underserved communities.

•Offering Teleconferencing applications or programs.

•Providing Software/online/virtual programs, screen capture/recording software, online/virtual cultural curriculum/programs, online/virtual tutoring curriculum/programs and learning management systems.

 •Giving technology accessories, such as headphones, speakers, laptop cameras; and  

•Assisting with technology devices – such as dedicated communication devices and applications for text-to-speech, graphic organizers or word prediction.   

Supporting distance learning requires the effective use of technology by educators. Funding may also be used to provide professional development support for educators – who can provide meaningful learning opportunities for students. These funds can also support personnel such as speech therapists, guidance counselors, and social workers.

The post ESSER FAQs appeared first on Mandarin Matrix.

The Event

The June 8 event featured a virtual tour of Haiwaii’s A.I. Station, followed by Expert and Youth Spotlight Sessions addressing the climate crisis and environmental movement worldwide.

Schools including CIS, CDNIS and Renaissance College co-led this event, promoting ‘Ocean Conservation’ and highlighting ‘Climate Change’. Parley by the Ocean’s most influential voices discussed ocean conservation and its critical role in support living organisms on Earth.

Ending Plastic Pollution:

The Parley team also gave the students a virtual tour of its newly finished AIR station in Hawaii and discussed how the company is actively working with global stakeholders to end plastic pollution. 

Kids also explored major threats against the oceans and learned more about Parley AIR’s recent innovations to protect our environment. The next event will be held on Saturday, June 26 from 10-11.30am, where students will convene again with Parley for Oceans and the Oceans Uprise Youth Panel. Similar discussions will be held on climate conservation.

Turning Plastic Waste into Product

Parley’s partnerships with companies such as Adidas were explored, as the sports company moves towards phasing out single-use plastics and microbeads by launching entire product lines and new collaborations to build a better future for our oceans and planet. Through the power of sport, community, education and activism, Parley hopes to turn the oceans cause into a truly global movement that transcends borders. This will help engage people of all ages and backgrounds to help protect and clean up our oceans before it’s too late. 

MMX, KIDsforSDGs and Parley AIR hopes to end the fast-growing threat of marine plastic pollution by educating students on environmental concerns.

Meanwhile, Mandarin Matrix strongly believes in equity in education and provides a world class education for students in Chinese language learning, whilst also supporting a wide range of SDGs goals. Promoting innovation, gender diversity and literacy for both boys and girl is top of the agenda for the company.

Resources Supporting Environmental Sustainability

To continually support sustainable development goals and education on climate change and life under water, Mandarin Matrix has published a wide range of Chinese learning texts focusing on environmental protection. These texts, along with publishing COPE Disaster Risk Reduction materials, teaches and empowers children to develop resilience and understand how to cope with natural disasters.

The COPE Series consists of beautifully illustrated not for profit story books, aimed to increase disaster resilience of children. The books cover natural hazards ranging from floods to earthquakes and wildfires to cyclones. It provides coping tools for children through imaginative and fun ways.

COPE was created in 2018 by the acclaimed author Martha Keswick, award-winning illustrator Mariko Jesse and global disaster risk reduction expert, Dr Timothy Sim.

To know more about COPE, please visit: www.cope-disaster-champions.com

MMX Resources on Environmental Sustainability

The Mandarin Matrix online platform offers a wide range of materials featuring book topics related to:

Protecting the Environment 保护环境

Recycling Competitions 废旧物品设计大赛

Natural Disasters 极端的天气 

Renewable Energy 可循环能源 

Beach Clean-Ups 沙滩大扫除

River Clean-Ups 河流清理 

For more information about our products, visit www.mandarinmatrix.org.

The post Mandarin Matrix Celebrates UN World Oceans Day 2021 appeared first on Mandarin Matrix.

Our experienced team will demonstrate the benefits of The Mandarin Matrix Online Classroom and will introduce its new features:

The new audio analysis feature instantly provides students with real-time feedback on their pronunciation and intonation.

The character writing feature highlights the characters that need more practice.

We make teachers’ lives easier with our fantastic teacher guides and 15-day lesson plans.

Sign up here to receive a Zoom link.

The webinar is free and will be conducted in Mandarin Chinese and English.

We look forward to seeing you all!

infommx@mandarinmatrix.com

The post Free Webinar! Improve your Students’ Proficiency with Mandarin Matrix appeared first on Mandarin Matrix.

The three-day virtual NCLC conference, which starts today from April 15-17 (Thursday-Saturday). The conference brings together over 2,800 PK-16 Chinese language teachers and education leaders to LEARN, ENGAGE and SUPPORT like-minded educators. Shaping the future of Chinese language education and cultivating multilingual young leaders, this conference is sure to attract many!

Join our Chief Commercial Officer Yalan King on Saturday, April 17^th from 12:00 – 12:15 PM (EDT) Yalan will discuss “How to Boost K-12 Literacy in any Learning Environment”.

Yalan will show how Mandarin Matrix can help improve proficiency in K-12 immersion and foreign language programs. She will introduce our new range of products that addresses the challenges of learning a language in Middle and High School. These readers provide relatable content for real-world communication.

New Products Launch

We are excited to announce our new Chinese Connections Readers. A series designed for Middle School, High School and College world language learners. This series will engage students from Novice to Pre-AP level with real-world stories to help improve literacy.  Chinese Connections will be available through our online platform with exercises and assessments.
 
In addition, we are also launching our brand-new K-5 Chinese Math series. These series are aligned to Common Core Math Standards and 1^st to 6^th grade Science Readers aligned to Next Generation Science Standards. Both series correspond to our Dual Language Immersion series and proficiency levels. These are great resources to supplement your students’ learning.

Stay tuned for our brand-new Audio Analysis feature. To learn more about our new products, join us at NCLC and visit our virtual booth. 

“I am proud of Mandarin Matrix’s participation at the National Chinese Language Conference and remain committed to supporting this engaging three-day interactive digital education conference which offers broad and comprehensive education opportunities for the leaders of tomorrow,” said Mandarin Matrix CEO David Tait.

To request a free trial or get more info, please contact schools@mandarinmatrix.com

NCLC Registration Details

Date: April 15-17, 2021 (Thursday-Saturday)
Time: April 15 & 16 (6-9 PM EST ) | April 17 (10 AM-3 PM EST)
Location: Online, anywhere with a solid Internet connection
Ticket Price: $100 (Regular Admission Price)

Don’t forget to register here to join this year’s NCLC virtual conference! We look forward to seeing you there!

The post Mandarin Matrix at NCLC 2021 appeared first on Mandarin Matrix.

Our Mandarin learning platform is suitable for children ages 5-18 years, and covers K-Y12 curriculum including GCSE learning materials.

Join us for a 30 minute FREE Zoom demo followed by a Q&A session. Don’t forget to register to enter our *Lucky Draw*!

Details of the event are as follows:

Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Time: 10:30 am (HKT)

Registration Form: https://forms.gle/sYQYxtmcNsCzzWhq6

See you all soon!

The post Free Online Mandarin Demo for Hong Kong Parents appeared first on Mandarin Matrix.

Due to the Covid-19 situation, many workshops are canceled this year. However, teachers are still eager to understand the new standards and expectations which are to be applied in the coming new school term. Thus, we invited Ms. Alison Yang, an MYP Coordinator at KIS Bangkok who has 17 years of experience teaching in MYP, to lead us to discuss the changes in the new guide and to clarify the details for us.

Note:

• This is a small-group interactive workshop for Mandarin teachers only. It will be conducted in Mandarin.
• A certificate from Mandarin Matrix will be provided. Please note this is not an IBO workshop. We share what we know but we are not representing the IB.
• The session will be recorded, but it’s only for attendees who sign up but are unable to attend the live workshop.

Time: 16.30 UK GMT
Date: Wednesday 14^th October
Time: 16.30 UK GMT

Register here: https://forms.gle/7v2iWgBbhfxAwEYC8 

For IB Mandarin teachers only, Limited seats.

The post UK Workshop: How to Keep Students’ Attention During Online Teaching? appeared first on Mandarin Matrix.

The Summer School course is designed for children from 3 to 16 years. Different classes are assigned to children based on their age and Chinese proficiency and students can decide to choose a course for one week or up to three weeks from June to August.

Asia’s Online Mandarin Summer School

Summer Program

• Fun Topics: During the course, topics related to everyday life are introduced in a fun, engaging and interactive way.

• Flexiblity: 
  • All lessons are recorded to make it easier to download.
  • Students can join any class at any level to gain more access to all features in our platform.

• Sustainable Learning:
  • Once you join the program, students can obtain a 6-month subscription to the Mandarin Matrix Online Classroom.
  • Teachers can monitor the student’s learning process for 3 months after the end of the course.

For more information, click here to read about Asia’s Online Mandarin Summer School.

U.S. Virtual Chinese Immersion Camp

The Chinese Immersion Camp is designed for children who are new to Chinese or who are already in a Chinese immersion program. This is a project-based camp where peers can work together on a personal language project.

In the summer course, teachers assign children to different classes based on their Chinese proficiency where each level of students learn about different topics each week.

Camp Topics:

• Summer Hobbies
• Exploration & Adventure
• The Natural World
• Fantasy & Science Fiction
• Chinese Ancient and Modern Culture

Camp Highlights:

• Speak to peers and teachers across the country
• Work on a personal language project throughout the week to share with the teacher and class. These projects might be “published” with permission to the whole Mandarin Matrix network for others to enjoy!

Click here for more information about The U.S. Summer Talk Virtual Chinese Immersion Camp.

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