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admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:29:50 +0000

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2012 Election Committee needs volunteers

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:31:22 +0000

From April 19 to May 9, 2012, elections will be held for four seats on the SAS Board of Directors. An Election Committee will be assembled to carry out this important process for our school. We are seeking parents to serve on the Election Committee along with three current Board members not running for election or re-election.

The Election Committee has the following functions:

• Publish dates and procedures of election and campaigning
• Accept applications from candidates
• Publicize information about the election and the candidates through email, school websites and publications, and school events
• Encourage candidates to participate in possible orientation training or “Meet the Candidates” sessions
• Observe and publicize election deadlines
• Prepare and distribute a voting packet to each Association member
• Position and control ballot boxes
• Organize the authenticating and counting of ballots (any Association member except candidates for a Board seat and their spouses may participate in the counting of ballots)
• Issue substitute voting packets to Association members when necessary
• Publicize voting participation and names of winning candidates at the Annual General Meeting on May 10, on the school website, and through school publications.

Within one week after the closing of ballots, the committee will also submit a written report on elections to the Board for inclusion in the next Board meeting agenda.

Non-Board member Election Committee members are limited to four parents. The Election Committee members will be selected and approved by the Board, and the composition of the Election Committee will be published through school publications.

If you are interested in serving on this committee, please contact Board Assistant Kim Lange at kim.lange@saschina.org, or 6221-1445 x 2255, no later than Monday, February 19.

The power of mission

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:30:13 +0000

Before even taking a chair at her interview, one of our young teaching candidates at a recent job fair got right to the point: “Dr. Jacobson, I want to tell you precisely why I want to teach at Shanghai American School and how I can deliver on the school’s promise to its students.” Her directness caught me by surprise.

I’m certain that my eyebrows arched as I replied: “OK, tell me what you’re thinking and convince me that you can succeed.”

She raced ahead. “When I went online to read about your school, I first looked at the mission statement: Shanghai American School inspires in all students a lifelong passion for learning, a commitment to act with integrity and compassion, and the courage to live their dreams. And wow, I started thinking, hey, this is who I am and what I do each and every day!”

This exchange was indicative of the power of the SAS core values and mission statement. The words strike a chord in people as they think about children growing up in the 21st century.

Throughout the interview, the teacher continued to impress me and was hired. We can’t wait to see how our mission and core values play out for her and our children over the coming years.

A major piece of the accomplishment of our mission and strategic objectives is under way right now, in our recruiting. As we interview, we don’t just look for academic achievement and teaching prowess. We also test the underlying values and the “big picture” goals that each candidate displays.

Someone asked me the other day, “When recruiting, does your emphasis on the core values and mission of SAS drive any of the candidates away?”

Just the opposite. The best and brightest teachers are drawn to a school that is courageous enough to set a bold new course for its students — one that is clear and straightforward about what the school aims to produce.

Helping us to set this course is our recently approved strategic plan, including the 37 “results” that were identified by the staff and parent community teams. These results are ambitious targets that will be achieved over the next five years. For the first year (2012-13), our administrative team has chosen five of these results (see box below) to be our focus areas. We will directly address each of these five and measure our progress toward completion.

Achieving these results will involve the efforts of everyone in the SAS community, but if we can recruit new teachers who model the traits that lead to achievement, we are already halfway there.

The five 2012-13 results are:

Human Resources #1
SAS school personnel understand the school’s core values, mission and strategic objectives and have identified ways they can contribute to achieving them.

Marketing #3
All families understand the school mission and core values.

Curriculum #1
Students are regularly engaged in real-life learning that ignites a life-long passion for learning.

Cross-Campus #1
Common courses with common instructors are developed and delivered using (a) videoconference technology and/or (b) blended, online coursework using multi-campus teachers.

Finance #2
The school has instituted a transparent and efficient evaluation process of both capital and operational spending decisions, such as budgeting, educational resources, facilities, and staffing, in alignment with strategic objectives.

By Dr. Kerry Jacobson, Superintendent

Building a culture of integrity

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:26:23 +0000

Recent news from around the world on cheating in schools and universities is disheartening in the extreme.

An SAT cheating ring at a high school in Long Island, New York; punishment for systemic cheating on state assessments in Atlanta, Georgia; the case of two students in China who used wireless earbuds to cheat on an English exam but had to be hospitalized afterward to have them removed! Business Week’s April 2007 edition featured the disconcerting headline: “Duke MBAs Fail Ethics Test: Thirty-four Fuqua School of Business students are accused of violating the school’s honor code by cheating on an exam.”

Greg Toppo’s recent USA Today feature on “high tech cheating” quoted a study from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit advocacy group, which found that “more than 35% of teens ages 13 to 17 with cellphones have used the devices to cheat. More than half (52%) admit to some form of cheating involving the Internet, and many don’t consider it a big deal.”

Signs of a moral decline?

No different from other school communities around the world, SAS too is challenged by acts of cheating on tests and the unauthorized sharing of assignments between students. Incidents of plagiarism fall somewhere between innocent ignorance of how to cite someone else’s ideas, and brazen attempts to short-cut and paste one’s way to an A grade; assessing where they fall on this spectrum is a tricky balance. Recently, rumors of improprieties on standardized tests have surfaced at SAS. During semester exams, proctors have been asked to walk the aisles with increased vigilance. Our institutional subscription to Turnitin.com – a website designed to identify and report plagiarism in papers that are submitted – has sadly proved to be money well spent.

In response to this situation, here at SAS Puxi High School we are piloting a program, with a view to expand to other divisions across both campuses, laying a foundation upon which an enduring “culture of integrity” can be built. With the leadership of Puxi High School Vice Principal Michael Sheehan, a small collection of like minded and committed students and high school faculty have been meeting as an “honor council steering committee” to discuss integrity, honesty, and trust, with the aim of learning from other schools who have put these ideals and values into action. Similar discussions have begun regarding instituting an Honor Council program at our Pudong campus high school. The development of programs such as these on both campuses will further support and bring to greater reality our mission statement, to inspire in our students a commitment to live with integrity and compassion.

Mr. Sheehan, bolstered by his graduate research on the topic, mobilized a similar initiative at his previous school – The American School of Dubai. Here at SAS, the initial conversations centered around academic honesty. Detailed school policy, clear rules, and harsh consequences are one answer to cheating. However, school communities around the world have increasingly recognized that policing and zero tolerance alone are not necessarily the best approach. Instead, institutions have focused their efforts on education and on establishing within their communities a prevailing culture of honesty and integrity.

Most students are aware of morality and values such as honesty, trust, and integrity. However, as Harvard professor Richard Weissbourd writes in an article entitled “Promoting Moral Development in Schools,” teaching values and character isn’t the difficult part. “The much harder and more important challenge is to develop in children a deep, abiding commitment to these values,” he says. “The issue isn’t cultivating moral literacy; it’s cultivating moral identity. It’s making these values integral to the self, so that doing what’s right becomes a reflex.”

A culture of integrity

Within the Honor Council meetings, what initially started as an idea to promote academic honesty, blossomed into a larger goal establishing a global culture of integrity at SAS. What initially started as an idea to promote academic integrity has blossomed into a larger goal – promoting a culture of integrity. Serendipitously, our call for integrity was strengthened by the community’s endorsement of SAS’s new mission and core values, specifically the promise to “Inspire in every student a commitment to act with compassion and integrity.” With this contract in hand, SAS has a compelling opportunity to shape the way things are done within our community, now and for always.

When launched, the SAS “culture of integrity” will include an “SAS Honor Code,” a just and transparent process of handling indiscretions, the establishment of an “Honor Council,” and the opportunity for students to pledge their allegiance to the SAS Honor Code.

The vision

“What will it look like?” is often a visioning question asked at the outset of reform. An SAS steeped in a culture of integrity would see a community where trust between individuals was the norm, where personal belongings could be safely left unattended without fear of theft, where incidents of plagiarism were merely cases of misunderstanding, where proctor duty was limited to the distribution and collection of exams, where students could be left unattended to take make up tests or quizzes, where surveillance cameras were turned off, and where cheating, lying, and stealing were behaviors of the past.

As SAS has already done in a variety of areas, we have an opportunity to become a global leader in teaching and inspiring integrity in our students. I imagine a future where the SAS brand is founded on the term “integrity” and where SAS graduates are distinguished by their commitment to act with honesty and trust.

Why a culture of integrity?

In 1999, the Center for Academic Integrity published “The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity” report, which argued, “an academic community flourishes when its members are committed to the five fundamental values. Integrity is built upon continuous conversations about how these values are, or are not, embodied in institutional life. As these conversations connect with institutional mission statements and everyday policies and practices, a climate of integrity is sustained and nurtured. Vigorous academic integrity policies and procedures, with faculty and student support, promote the learning process and the pursuit of truth. This also helps create a stronger civic culture for society as a whole.”

Two centuries ago, the Phillips family (founders of both the Phillips Academy and Phillips Exeter Academy), wrote a constitution that required “attention to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under his charge will exceed every other care; well considering that, though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous; and that both united form the noblest character. The first and principal object of this institution is the promotion of piety and virtue.” SAS, well known for developing knowledge in its students, would be well served in heeding the Phillips’ advice to also pay attention to “the minds and morals” of its students.

In a 2008 blog posting, Pat Bassett, president of the National Association of Independent Schools, wrote about the role of integrity and character education in today’s independent schools. Bassett suggests something that we would be wise to acknowledge: “Goodness,” he writes, “in the sense of striving for virtue, is, more than anything else, more clearly aligned with achieving success and happiness as side benefits: In fact, seeking happiness or success seldom produces either and almost never both.”

And so we continue the good work of building a culture of integrity – a culture of “goodness.” At SAS, we seek to inspire in our students a commitment to act with goodness, for the sake of their own character and for the health of our society as a whole.

By Ed Kidd, High School Principal, Puxi campus

What’s New with PowerSchool 7.0

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:25:36 +0000

New features and enhancements

SAS has recently upgraded to a newer version of PowerSchool, the web-based student information system that serves as a primary communications interface between parents and the school. The PowerSchool 7.0 upgrade is now in place and working properly, which will allow us to provide dramatically improved service to parents. Below is just a brief overview of some of the new features and enhancements that will be rolled out in the coming months.

Language translation toolkit

One of the new features of the 7.0 upgrade is a language translation toolkit that allows parents and students to translate PowerSchool pages into multiple languages and to rename the labels of existing fields. The addition of 18 new language options should greatly expand use of school-to-home communications for families whose primary language is not English.

The 18 languages (in addition to English) are: Arabic, Chinese (simplified and traditional), French, French Creole, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

Parent portal single login access

PowerSchool 7.0 also includes a standard single login function that will give parents access to all of their children’s real-time information, including attendance, grades and detailed assignment descriptions, school bulletins, and even personal messages from the teacher. Previously, this single login function was customized for SAS by our PowerSchool administrators.

Using the single login function will require a planned communication rollout, which will occur later this semester. PowerSchool administrators will give all parents an account including a complete instruction guide that will allow you to create your own account using the appropriate access credentials. Once your account is created, you can manage your account information, link all of your children to your account, and set email and notifications preferences for each child linked to your account. The greatest functionality to this upgrade is that if you’ve forgotten your account login information, you can retrieve it yourself using auto-recovery, without having to go through your child’s division secretary.

Even teachers will be happy with the upgrade, since PowerTeacher includes 20 major feature enhancements. Some of these are: improved teacher notifications, including birthdays, newly added students, and withdrawn students; custom sort order and the option to add new students to the class roster; the ability for teachers to manage a custom comment bank that can be used to provide more feedback on student performance; and a built-in email function.

PowerSchool 7.0 brings us many exciting changes to our PowerSchool student information system. More detailed information about these new features will be coming your way soon as we roll out the new features.

By TK Ostrom, Director of Admission

Technology fee to be lowered for 2012-13

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:23:31 +0000

Best practice in 1:1 laptop implementations around the world is that students and their families should be given the choice to roll over to a new machine every three years and be required to roll over in the fourth year. Shanghai American School follows this practice.

The educational platform choice for SAS continues to be the Macintosh computer, made by Apple. This fall, Apple discontinued public sale of the standard white MacBook that has been used throughout SAS for the past four years. Because of this change, SAS, following the recommendation of the technology leaders team, will move to the MacBook Pro model.

Despite this upgrade, the technology fee will actually go down next year, to 10,500 RMB, from 11,500 currently. This fee covers a computer, a bag, a lock, software, network services (databases, SmartMusic, LCD projectors, and sound systems), ongoing software upgrades, on-site service centers, and a three-year AppleCare warranty. The AppleCare warranty also provides the school with a 1% allotment of loaner machines to minimize the time when students do not have a computer for use.

The technology fee at SAS is a required fee. Students and their parents will be given the choice of paying the fee in the third or fourth year. Please read the following carefully to determine the best option for your child.

Three-year choice:
- In the fall of 2012, a student whose Macbook is three years old or older can choose to pay the 10,500 RMB fee and receive a new computer at the beginning of their fourth year in the laptop program.
- He or she will receive a 13-inch MacBook Pro with the official SAS software image.
- The student and their family must notify the school of their intention for a new computer by the end of February. SAS technology resource facilitators will be
working with students to determine their choice.

Four-year choice:
- In the fall of 2012, students may opt to use their three-year old MacBook for a fourth year, and pay the technology fee of 10,500 RMB in the fall of 2013. These students will not receive a new laptop until the fall of 2013.
- One factor to consider is that in the fourth year the machines will be out of warranty and thus all repairs and maintenance will be charged to the student and their families. There is no option to upgrade the warranty for another year.
- The student and his or her family must notify the school of their intention to use the current computer for a fourth year, by the end of February 2012. Technology resource facilitators will be working with students to determine their choice.

As the laptop program progresses, students whose machines become three years old and then four years old will have the option of either choice. The fee will only be re-evaluated if there is a change in computer model or a significant price change. Each February, students with three-year-old machines will be asked to choose as to whether to upgrade and pay the fee again or wait another year.

Educational review of the technology program is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2015, when our technology program will be realigned with best practices at that time Until then, laptops are the adopted model for the technology program at SAS. Further questions? Please contact your child’s technology resource facilitator.

By Andrew Torris, Deputy Superintendent, Pudong campus

A tech world requires a community effort

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:22:46 +0000

Shanghai American School embarked on a remarkable path six years ago as we developed a new vision for our students and our school community. Our goal was to use technology in innovative and authentic ways to enhance learning and communication. Our aim was to promote the use of technological tools and create an environment that allows all members of the school community optimum personal and educational growth through the infusion of appropriate technology into daily school learning. Some say the only constant is change and we believe that our seamless use of technology prepares our students for our ever-changing world.

New technologies change the way we teach our students. The technology allows students to make connections, exercise creativity, and practice collaboration skills. The teacher is no longer the “sage on the stage” and the keeper of all knowledge. Technology allows the teacher to be more of a skilled facilitator of learning, honing the skills necessary for our students to enter a truly global and wired society.

SAS is a 1:1 Apple flagship school where each child in grades 6-12 has their own computer. Elementary students’ transition to full ownership is by first acquiring computer skills in a 2:1 environment (laptops are brought in when needed, with two students per machine) in the upper elementary grades and in a guided lab environment complete with Macintosh computers, iPads, and iPods for the lower elementary grade levels.

Through guided use of technology, students are digging deeper into content across the curriculum. Rather than write a single culminating report on the demise of Pompeii, for example, students are writing scripts for newscasts where they work together to use movie making and green screening technologies to place them at the foot of the erupting Mt. Vesuvius while “reporting live.”

Students use the technologies to reflect on their own learning. In the past, students would turn in a written book report. Now, students write blog posts about their interpretations of books and receive feedback from teachers and classmates — and sometimes even have the actual author of the book leave a comment on their blog! The result could lead to a Skype conversation with the author and the entire class. Authentic learning takes place because of technology and the skilled presence of teachers that come from a strong professional development program.

Technology has allowed students to become active participants in their own learning. Traditional parent-teacher conferences have evolved into student-led conferences, where technology is utilized to demonstrate ongoing learning through digital portfolios. Students share what they know using technology and set goals in conjunction with their parents and teachers to build upon their learning.

At SAS we promote balance in the use of technology. While students report that laptops and other devices have led to increased pride in their work, given them greater motivation to work smarter and harder, and have vastly improved their organizational skills, we recognize the need to steer them towards a balanced life. Students must be encouraged to unplug frequently in order to nurture relationships with family and friends. We also conduct monthly Parent Technology Workshops to support parents as they too guide their children at home with the proper use of technology.

We live in a connected world, and one that is always changing. This trend will not slow down nor go away and it is the charge of the school and parents to work together to properly guide our younger children through the networks of life.

Teaching our children about the effective and appropriate use of technology needs to be a community effort. The value of giving our children the gift of collaborative skills, self-confidence in presentation, and the ability to find several answers to a single question so that they can make up their own mind seems clear. But the school’s initiatives around technology must be supported through a community effort so that parents and teachers work together to help our children reach their full potential in a safe environment.

By Amanda DeCardy, Technology Integrator and Apple Distinguished Educator, Pudong campus

Yearbook photo helps SAS alum return to China

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:21:47 +0000

Superintendent Kerry Jacobson with Bill Chu (class of '49).
SAS alumnus Bill Chu (class of ’57) has enjoyed a rich, full life and traveled all over the world since leaving China with his family in late 1949. But for more than 60 years he had never come back to the country of his birth. As the years passed, and as China opened up to the west, he began to yearn to go back, and to show his wife, Christine, the land of his ancestors.

There was a problem, though — Chu was born in a Chinese Army field hospital in Chongqing in 1939 and his birth records had been destroyed in a Japanese air raid. Without this documentation he could not secure a visa to travel, especially as his family’s status in China was already murky for having left China for the United States during the changeover in government. As early as the 1970s, Chu was invited to go with a group of journalists to see the “new China” that was just starting to reengage with the United States following Richard Nixon’s visit in 1972. But he was unable to obtain a visa.

Forty years later, still having difficulties getting a visa, he submitted an online request to SAS early last fall, looking for evidence that he had been a student there. Some diligent digging by alumni relations coordinator Cindy Easton unearthed a photograph of him as a third grader in the 1948 yearbook, the Columbian. The photo was scanned and emailed, and ultimately proved to be an important piece of the visa puzzle: “It was pivotal in gaining substance with the Chinese Consulate in New York,” said Chu.

Chu got his visa and in November 2011 he and Christine spent four weeks weeks touring China, including several days in Shanghai. Their trip included a tour of the SAS Puxi campus, where they visited with staff members and where Chu recounted the story of his long and interesting life.

Renaissance man

Chu’s career has been as varied as it has been accomplished. Over the years he has been a tech consultant, cameraman, TV producer, adman, journalist, and publisher, not to mention keen amateur opera singer and photographer.

After graduating from Penn State he went to Ohio State for graduate work, and then to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. His first job was with ABC-TV in New York, where he worked in programming and operations. His TV experience led him into commercial advertising, managing accounts and making TV commercials.

Moving into print publishing in the 1970s, he spent time at Newsday, where he helped develop the Sunday editorial section.

One of his proudest professional accomplishments is his work with the cult classic TV show Dark Shadows, for which he was a cameraman and also took a series of still cover shots for books devoted to the show.

Changing times

Chu’s life has spanned a time of tremendous change, not only in China, but in the United States. The transition to life in 1950s America was “surprisingly difficult,” Chu recalls. He and his family were not prepared for the prejudice they experienced and for the ambiguous place of Asians in US society at that time. He
remembers a trip to New Orleans in the Jim Crow years when his family sat in the back of the bus. The driver asked them to move up front, but they refused. They ended up sitting in the middle of the bus; “it was a symbolic gesture,” Chu said.

And China, of course, has changed perhaps even more dramatically. Traveling around the country, Chu was amazed at the “rapid, unrelenting growth … in every part of China, from the megalopolises to the remote towns and villages.” Even his “hometown” of Manhattan, the iconic American big city, was dwarfed by the huge new cities of China, he realized.

Some parts of Shanghai were almost as he remembered them, though. One of the highlights of his trip was the “flood of memories” that came back to him as he and Christine strolled along the Bund, near where he had lived in the Peace Hotel.

With a new campus, SAS, of course, is a completely different school than the SAS he attended. But Chu was glad to have reconnected with the school and to be reminded of the “very pleasant experience” he had there as a third and fourth grader. Brief though it was, Chu’s SAS education gave him the beginnings of an international perspective, he says, and added a “resonance and depth” to his education that has carried through his life.

Chu plans to participate in SAS Alumni Association activities back in the US, and he and Christine would like to come back to China one day — next time, he says, “with some of our children and grandchildren accompanying us.”

By Steven Lane, Director of Communications

SAS celebrates Chinese New Year

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:20:40 +0000

Thunderous crowds, agile dancers, and mythical beasts besieged the school last month, as students and staff across all divisions and both campuses got into the spirit of Chinese New Year.

Two days of celebration ended weeks of preparation — Chinese language and culture teachers had devised a range of activities for the classroom and hundreds of students, and even some teachers, had practiced routines diligently for the special schoolwide assemblies held on both campuses.

High school AP Chinese students spent time learning about Chinese culture for presentations they later delivered to parents at a high school principal coffee. Chinese 8 classes produced greeting cards for administrators and teachers with messages of happiness written in both English and Chinese.

“These cards, received with much cheer, were hand-illustrated by the students and filled with celebratory phrases regarding Chinese themes of fortune, luck, and happiness,” said Mercide Li, Chinese 8.

Classes in the middle school also created gratitude messages with auspicious words, written in Chinese characters, for the ayis, guards, and other local workers in the school. Elementary school students learnt Chinese songs and performed in their homerooms, classes, and administrative offices.

“Our aim was for students to share their knowledge about Chinese culture and traditions in the classrooms with the community outside. Furthermore, presenting a ‘real life audience’ not only provokes learning interests but also provides an excellent learning experience of real life skills to student,” said Suyi Wang, Chinese Coordinator.

“The celebration of Chinese New Year in the school has allowed the students to learn more about the country that they are living in,” added Masy Ng, Chinese 8.

On January 19 and 20, assemblies were held in Pudong and Puxi, full of music, dance, and fact-filled presentations. Audiences were treated to lion and dragon dances, orchestras, rock and roll bands, a dancing kung fu panda, and even a line dance by several of the support staff, including bus monitors. Members of Youth Music Love performed “Clarinet Concerto”, a piece composed by the group’s conductor, Sam Wu, grade 11.

Student choirs and gongfu (tea ceremony) groups rehearsed especially for the assemblies, while representatives from Giving Tree, an organization that helps disadvantaged kids in local schools, delivered a presentation supported by a video to raise awareness and seek donations.

The assemblies were a great success, with audiences demanding encores from the high school band, who returned to a rapturous applause.

“Watching the Chinese New Year assembly, I realize that it is truly the most festive time of the year. I realized the importance of having everyone get together; when this year we had the middle and elementary school also come and perform,” said Hailey Tebbutt, grade 9. “We celebrated the assembly with our SAS family.”

Videos of Puxi campus and Pudong campus:

http://portal.saschina.org/video/playlist/PXCNY2012/
http://portal.saschina.org/video/media/33489/Pudong_CNY_Assembly_2012/
http://portal.saschina.org/video/media/33457/PDMS_CNY_2012/

Follow these links for more Chinese New Year stories:

http://www.eagleonline.org/schoolwide/cny-2012-2/
http://www.eagleonline.org/schoolwide/cny-2012-3/
http://www.eagleonline.org/schoolwide/cny-2012-4/
http://www.eagleonline.org/schoolwide/cny-2012-5/
http://www.eagleonline.org/pudong-campus/pd-activities/new-year’s-reception/

By Communications Office Suyi Wang, Chinese Coordinator

New Year rhythm

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:19:24 +0000

Dancing has been a passion of mine for a long time. My mom told me that ever since I was a toddler, any melody would make me move. As I grew up, I tried different types of dances, including ballet, hip-hop, jazz, and waltz. I love dancing, I love the feeling of wearing my toe-shoes and swirling around, I also love the feeling of dancing to the fast tempo of jazz and freely expressing myself. Dance is an indispensable part of my life.

When I heard about the opportunity to perform a dance as part of the Chinese New Year assembly, I was thrilled. I knew that I wanted to be part of this because I have been longing for an opportunity to perform onstage before a live audience. Ms. Zhang, my Chinese teacher, said I should practice outside of school with a group of grade 6 girls I had dance classes with. My friends were all so excited and we got our dance teacher agree to teach us a Dai minority dance.

We only had six weeks, however. The teacher picked a song, which was nearly four minutes long. It was difficult to learn the moves at the beginning, as it was a new routine and style. The main problem I faced was that all my moves were very stiff and jazz-like, instead of soft and “noodle-like,” in our dance teacher’s words. Finding that feeling was hard. But after taking 2-hour dance classes and endless practice at home, soon enough we all mastered the moves!

Another problem was that we would sometimes forget about a move, or miss the beat. However, because we knew that we were in this together we put in a lot of effort, and so did our dance teacher. She was amazing! She spent hours and helped us to re-arrange the music so it would be easier for us to follow. It was a true team effort with everyone working towards one common goal of staging a great performance!

On the day of the show, I was very nervous. As I waited at the backstage, my heart was pounding. I could feel butterflies fluttering in my stomach. What if I messed up? What if the music went wrong? What if … Soon I had to cut the crazy thoughts out of my mind and started to practice. Then Ms. Zhang walked in and told us it’s time — this is the time for us to shine!

Walking onto the stage, I gulped. The moment had arrived. The music started, amazingly my body followed every beat and all went so smoothly – it was great! When the music finally ended, I smiled, feeling relieved as well as so proud. The crowd was clapping and we had made it!

This has been a great experience for all of us. We really enjoyed the show as well as the process of putting the performance together. If there is another similar assembly next year, I think we will all want to attend again.

By Sarah Chan, Grade 6, Puxi campus