Written by Christina Howard-Shi. HoD Langauges: Hillcrest High School
Chinese teachers Chloe Xu (Pinehurst School) and Christina Howard-Shi (Hillcrest High School) demonstrate their self-made paper dragons.
There is no better way to start a new year and a new term than sharing fun moments, tasty treats and teaching ideas with friends. This was exactly what we did at the beginning of 2024, the Year of the Dragon in Auckland, at the new Tui Tuia | Learning Circle site.
A group of Chinese teachers gathered together, exchanged their very first ika harakeke (flax fish) with best wishes, for their colleagues to take away. Later on, the teachers also experienced the making of northern-style tangyuan (a form of sweet-centred dumplings), sugar-coated fruit kebabs, Chinese lucky knots and Fujian-style paper dragon making. Each one of us took away something new to enhance our own cultural knowledge. Dr. Yan Yang generated as much fun as is possible in a one-day gathering.
Because the teaching profession orients our thinking patterns, everything we saw could be transformed into teaching-related materials. Paula Kasper, who co-facilitated the workshop with Dr. Yan Yang, knew exactly how the teachers’ wave lengths expand, and did our homework for us by showing us the possibilities of how Chinese and Māori culture can be woven seamlessly and presented to our learners.
Individual language and cultural groups gather and celebrate their identity, which is great. The language teacher’s ultimate goal can be to widen that focus and discover the fact that cultures and languages have more commonalities than differences. The cultural activities we shared on this day were a great way of broadening the teachers’ horizons to support our students in becoming more open-minded in the future. After all, language and cultural learning is a bridge for people to cross time and space and become global citizens.
Involve students and families in cooking Chinese home-style dishes
Written by Chloe Xu, (Chinese teacher: Pinehurst School)
Picture 1 and 2 is the recipe of Bobo chicken, they were taken by Bosco Jin. People in the picture 2 is Bosco Jin (student, Pinehurst School).
Picture 3 and 4 is the recipe of Fried rice, they were taken by Jayden Huang, a student of Pinehurst School
Chinese cuisine culture is an important part of learning the Chinese language and culture, it’s a reflection of our food history and is always at the centre of Chinese people’s life. As a teacher, when teaching Chinese food and culture, I try to provide hands-on opportunities to promote students’ interest in getting to know wider and deeper of our cuisine culture.
In my Year 8 Chinese as a second language class, after learning the vocabulary around Chinese food, I ask them to choose one of their favourite home-style dishes and write down the recipe.
After that, their next task is required to go home and cook the dish using the recipe as a reference. Additionally, parents need to record the cooking process, offer advice and the whole family will taste the food together.
The next day when students come back to school, they are encouraged to do an oral presentation with the whole class and the others are allowed to ask technical questions about how to cook the food and any challenges they may have faced.
My students love to take part in this activity and show off their cooking skills; some of their parents emailed me that they found this was a meaningful teaching activity. Their children learn how to cook and gain more Chinese cooking culture and more importantly, when they tasted the food together, they shared their ideas, and their relationship became closer.
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2024 - Chinese - Term 1 Newsletter Articles
Celebrating Chinese New Year Workshop
Written by Christina Howard-Shi. HoD Langauges: Hillcrest High School
Chinese teachers Chloe Xu (Pinehurst School) and Christina Howard-Shi (Hillcrest High School) demonstrate their self-made paper dragons.
There is no better way to start a new year and a new term than sharing fun moments, tasty treats and teaching ideas with friends. This was exactly what we did at the beginning of 2024, the Year of the Dragon in Auckland, at the new Tui Tuia | Learning Circle site.
A group of Chinese teachers gathered together, exchanged their very first ika harakeke (flax fish) with best wishes, for their colleagues to take away. Later on, the teachers also experienced the making of northern-style tangyuan (a form of sweet-centred dumplings), sugar-coated fruit kebabs, Chinese lucky knots and Fujian-style paper dragon making. Each one of us took away something new to enhance our own cultural knowledge. Dr. Yan Yang generated as much fun as is possible in a one-day gathering.
Because the teaching profession orients our thinking patterns, everything we saw could be transformed into teaching-related materials. Paula Kasper, who co-facilitated the workshop with Dr. Yan Yang, knew exactly how the teachers’ wave lengths expand, and did our homework for us by showing us the possibilities of how Chinese and Māori culture can be woven seamlessly and presented to our learners.
Individual language and cultural groups gather and celebrate their identity, which is great. The language teacher’s ultimate goal can be to widen that focus and discover the fact that cultures and languages have more commonalities than differences. The cultural activities we shared on this day were a great way of broadening the teachers’ horizons to support our students in becoming more open-minded in the future. After all, language and cultural learning is a bridge for people to cross time and space and become global citizens.
Involve students and families in cooking Chinese home-style dishes
Written by Chloe Xu, (Chinese teacher: Pinehurst School)
Picture 1 and 2 is the recipe of Bobo chicken, they were taken by Bosco Jin. People in the picture 2 is Bosco Jin (student, Pinehurst School).
Picture 3 and 4 is the recipe of Fried rice, they were taken by Jayden Huang, a student of Pinehurst School
Chinese cuisine culture is an important part of learning the Chinese language and culture, it’s a reflection of our food history and is always at the centre of Chinese people’s life. As a teacher, when teaching Chinese food and culture, I try to provide hands-on opportunities to promote students’ interest in getting to know wider and deeper of our cuisine culture.
In my Year 8 Chinese as a second language class, after learning the vocabulary around Chinese food, I ask them to choose one of their favourite home-style dishes and write down the recipe.
After that, their next task is required to go home and cook the dish using the recipe as a reference. Additionally, parents need to record the cooking process, offer advice and the whole family will taste the food together.
The next day when students come back to school, they are encouraged to do an oral presentation with the whole class and the others are allowed to ask technical questions about how to cook the food and any challenges they may have faced.
My students love to take part in this activity and show off their cooking skills; some of their parents emailed me that they found this was a meaningful teaching activity. Their children learn how to cook and gain more Chinese cooking culture and more importantly, when they tasted the food together, they shared their ideas, and their relationship became closer.
