CAIS Connections (Spring 2013)

MIddle scHool lIFe at caIs 中学生活

From academic achievements outside of the classroom to extracurricular programs, middle school students take advantage of opportunities to participate in many activities outside of the regular school classroom; they are involved!

GREEN TEAM Launched this school year, the Green Team is com-prised of middle school students who share a desire to help the CAIS community reduce its ecological footprint with green initiatives. Even though they only meet once a week during their lunch period, they were able to initiate many activities this spring. Th e seventh and eighth graders organized a trip to the Golden Gate National Parks Marin Headlands Native Plant Nursery and participated in an ecological service learning project. Th e Green Team provided time, people and work to help the eff ort of restoring native fl ora to the Marin coastline.

Th e sixth grade Green Team organized a fundraising bake sale to raise money to support the endangered Hawaiian monk seals.

Additional plans are also in the works Continued on Page 3

Gate National Parks Marin Headlands

restoring native fl ora to

fundraising bake sale to raise money to support the endangered Hawaiian

Additional plans are also in the works

Go Green!

Winter 2013 | CAIS ConnectionsCAISC O N N E C T I O N S

MIddle scHool teacHeR ReceIVes HeRBstFoUndatIon aWaRd FoR teacHIng excellence 中学部教师获颁“Herbst 基金——杰出教育奖”

Page 1 - Social Science Teacher RecognizedPage 1 - Student Life in Middle SchoolPage 4 - Alumni Updates

Page 5 - Post-ShowCAIS 2013Page 6 - Teacher FeaturesPage 7 - Class of 2013 Graduates

It’s no secret that we have a bevy of talented teachers at CAIS. From Pre-K through eighth grade, we are surrounded by dedi-cated faculty members, all of whom have a hand in helping CAIS students embrace Chinese, become their best self and create their place in the world.

One of these gift ed members of the CAIS faculty is seventh and eighth grade English social studies teacher Kelly Reimer, who is one of 14 recipients of the 2013 Herbst Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence. Th e Herbst Foundation is a private founda-tion based in San Francisco that awards classroom teachers who teach in independent schools that serve kindergarten through high school. Kelly’s award includes a grant of $5,000 and a gen-eral contribution of $5,000 to CAIS.

During Kelly’s fi ve years at CAIS, she has been quietly turning middle school students into lovers of history and social stud-ies through her creative and non didactic approach to teaching. “History can be really dry,” Kelly said. “I try to bring activities to class that engage and interest students. Whenever possible we analyze primary sources rather than read from textbooks and I reinforce research skills so students have an understanding about how research can substantiate an argument.”

Words such as passionate, caring and unassuming are repeatedly used to describe Kelly and her teaching style. “Kelly is enthusi-astic about her work,” Middle School Director Elizabeth Larose explained. “She wants her students to really understand the ma-terials. She has them reading books, discussing and writing. Her approach is not only engaging, but it also connects them to the subject matter more so than reading history from a textbook can do,” Elizabeth continued. Continued on Page 2

Spring 2013

Spring 2013 | CAIS Connections

Page 2 | CAIS Chinese American International School

Continued from Page 1A A trait for which Kelly is known is her ability to seek out professional development. Each spring she searches for opportunities for the summer, most of the time applying for grants or fellowships. During the summer of 2009 she received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to go to Philadelphia to study the US Constitution, which is studied in her eighth grade class. In 2011 Kelly received another grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to go to Honolulu for three weeks to study World War II and SE Asia. “In seventh grade, students study the spice trade and I’ve really been able to bring a deeper understanding to my students about how the spice trade fueled so many inventions,” Kelly explained. “We also cover the Dutch colonization of SE Asia,” she continued.

In order to learn more about how to incorporate tech-nology into her classroom, last spring Kelly decided to apply for a scholarship through Google. She was one of only 150 educators from around the world selected to attend the Google Geo Teachers Institute held in Lon-don last summer. At the institute, Kelly received hands on experience with Google Geo products including Google Earth. “Th is year I brought pieces of technology into the classroom in numerous ways. In my seventh grade class I had students map out historic sites around the world using Google Earth and present the maps to the class,” Kelly said. “It’s great seeing students get so excited about using technology in their projects,” she continued.

Kelly received another National Endowment for the Humanities grant and this summer will travel to the Low Country of South Carolina to learn about the Gullah, a distinctive group of African Americans who live in small farming and fi shing units and have survived slavery, the Civil War and the emergence of modern American culture. Kelly will learn how the Gullah’s African cultural heritage has been preserved and the connection of their origins in the United States to the transatlantic slave trade of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Spending her summer learning a variety of things to incorporate into her already rich lesson plans is something Kelly enjoys. “I majored in arts and humanities in college and have always had a fascination with culture and how it shapes a society. I consider myself a lifelong learner and always try and bring that passion to my students,” Kelly said.

Whether it’s history or current events, Kelly continually asks her students to scrutinize and analyze various news sources in order to obtain balanced, non biased information. “In a recent discussion about current events, a student mentioned that she noticed when she was watching a news story about the Boston marathon inci-dent, the reporter was interviewing a Saudi man and asking leading questions about the bombing. It made me happy that my student pointed this out in class because it’s an example of my students thinking critically and uncovering bias on their own,” Kelly said.

Congratulations to Kelly for receiving the 2013 Herbst Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence. A representative from the Herbst Foundation will present Kelly with her award and check for $5,000 on June 13 at the CAIS faculty and staff end of year luncheon. When asked what Kelly planned on doing with her award money, she was quick to answer “I’m going to purchase a new Apple laptop that I’ll be able to bring along on my travels.”

Green Team!

MathCOUNTS!

Green Team!

Science Fair Winner!

MathCOUNTS!

Varsity Futsal!

CAIS Chinese American International School | Page 3

CAIS Connections | Spring 2013

Continued from Page 1B for a Green Team-led school wide ed-ucation on recycling and composting and the selling of reusable “sporks” to encourage people to reduce landfi ll with plastic single use utensils.

Although the Green Team is in its infancy, students have shown great initiative and collaboration to help raise environmental awareness in our community.

SCIENCE FAIREighth grader Benjamin Lee won third place in environmental engi-neering in the junior division of the California State Science Fair held in Los Angeles. Th e fair was attended by more than one thousand highly competitive middle and high school students with more than 800 projects from more than 400 schools through-out California. His project focused on

the use of duckweeds to clean chemical contaminants from water. He has represented CAIS well and gives thanks to the help and support from middle school science teacher Ms. Sherman and his schoolmates and parents for all of their moral support.

MATHCOUNTSOff ered through the CAIS Auxil-iary Program, MATHCOUNTS is a national enrichment, coaching and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achieve-ment through club involvement. MATHCOUNTS has been a popular aft er school activity at CAIS for many years, thanks in large part to Rita Soukhova’s more than 15 years of dedication to the team.

Th is year’s team placed at the MATH-COUNTS regional competition, where eighth grade student Jonathan Chu won fi rst place in the individual round, and seventh grader Rachel Zheng took home third place in oral competition. Th e CAIS MATH-COUNTS team went on to compete

at the state competition held at Stanford University, but did not advance to the national competi-tion. FUTSAL PLAYOFFS Th ree out of the four CAIS futsal teams advanced to the league playoff s this season. A feat every member of the futsal team is very happy about. If futsal isn’t famil-iar, it’s an indoor version of soccer played between two teams of fi ve players. Th e varsity gold team won the semi fi nal game 6-3, advancing the team to the fi nal league championship game. Th e Firedragons weren’t able to hold off the opponent and ended up second place in the city league, an achievement for which the team is proud.

SOCIAL (MEDIA) BUTTERFLIESTh ree and a half years ago, Megan Conley (1995), pictured above, founded her company, Social Tribe, an agency that specializes in delivering social media mar-keting campaigns. With the growth of her own company, Megan hired alumna Tatiana Natzke (1999) to work together on the Social Tribe team. Together, they navigate the social landscape and help companies connect to a targeted internet audi-ence. “A year or two ago, the majority of professionals with a social media presence were just on LinkedIn and now there has been a large growth on Facebook,” Megan explains. “With that expan-sion, people have to be more careful and thoughtful about what they want to share. Goal setting plays a big role when you start becoming more active across the social landscape.” (Photo source: Social-tribe.com)

A SAN FRANCISCO PRINCESSOn Sunday, March 10, San Francisco introduced nine princesses to its Miss San Francisco 2013 royal court, and among them was a CAIS alumna. Aft er a night that showcased beautiful evening wear, talented performances and candid interviews, Julia Li (2010), pictured in the middle, was crowned Miss San Francisco’s Outstanding Teen. Since the coronation, Julia has been promoting Asian Pacifi c American Heritage Month and will also compete with other outstand-ing teens within the state of California in the near future. (Photo source: AsianWeek)

BRIDGE CUP WINNERSTh eir CAIS Chinese teachers are so proud. Th ree recent alumni Romi Yount (2011), Bakari Smith (2011), pic-tured on right, and Oscar Trenam (2012) represented their respective high schools to compete in the 9th Annual Chinese Language Bridge Cup Contest in March. Organized by Confucius In-stitute at San Francisco State University and SFUSD, the contests provide an oppor-tunity for students K-12 to exhibit their Chinese cultural learning through categories such as painting/drawing, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese composition and Chinese translation. Our three alumni competed in the poetry reciting contest, where Romi placed fi rst. Barkari came in second and Oscar was awarded honorable mention. (Photo source: Bakari Smith)

A HANDFUL AT CARNEGIE MELLONOut of the combined CAIS classes of 2005 and 2006, fi ve alumni made their way across the country to study at one of the world’s top private research institutions, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Two of the fi ve CAIS alumni will graduate from CMU this spring. Located in Pennsylvania over 2,500 miles away from San Francis-co, CMU boasts an incredible alumni network that include the CEO of General Motors, pop artist Andy Warhol and mountaineer Aron Ralston, who spoke at this year’s com-mencement ceremony re-counting his famously heroic experience of being trapped in a canyon for 127 hours. CAIS alumni JR Wong, pictured in the middle, and Adrienne Chum (2005) join the CMU alumni network this year. Francis Aw, Rachel Browne and Justin Wong (2006) will graduate in the next two years. “CMU is an excellent school in many disciplines,” Rachel Browne (2006) said. “To have fi ve out of a group of 31 students from CAIS all the way across the country in Pittsburgh at such a good school is pretty amazing!” (Photo source: Alonso Wong)



alUMnI neWs2013毕业班——迈入新里程

CONGRATS TO CAIS CLASS OF 2009 FOR GRADUATING HIGH SCHOOL AND BEST OF LUCK IN COLLEGE!

stay connected with us!www.cais.org/alumni • fb .com/caisalumni • [email protected]

Photography by Carlin Ma Photography



RaRe IndIgo exceeds all expectatIons “青出于蓝而胜于蓝” 辉煌之夜 • 更胜一筹

Following the 30th anniversary-themed ShowCAIS event last school year, this year’s Rare Indigo 青出于蓝而胜于蓝 event featured an aspiring expectation for the next 30 years. Rare indigo is a well-known saying in Chinese. The literal translation is “The blue from the indigo plant is a deeper blue than the plant itself.” The saying is a metaphor for stu-dents whose achievements are greater than their teachers. It often signifies “the student surpassing the master.”

With more than 400 registered guests, ShowCAIS 2013: Rare Indigo was anticipated to be one of the highest attended CAIS fundraising gala’s in years.

On the night of May 11, 2013, CAIS community members, including parents, board members, staff and faculty, alumni and friends gathered at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco where the reception area was adorned with orchids in blue and white porcelain vases and silent auction items including but not limited to jewelry, wine and spirits and artwork. Af-ter a chance to place bids for the silent auction, guests were invited into the ballroom where they were greeted by CAIS parent and emcee Patricia Martell. Former interim Head of School and long-time supporter of CAIS, Betty Shon was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award and announced the Shirley Lee Memorial Fund for Teaching Excellence (for-merly Fund-a-Need), which raised over $200,000. The night was not without a few highlights including an enthusiastic response to CAIS parent and CTO of Twitter, Adam Mess-inger, auctioning off a lunch and tour of the social media company’s headquarters and a surprise appearance by well-known restaurateur and James Beard Foundation winner Cecilia Chiang, who offered a live auction item that included dinner for 10 at her home.

Gross proceeds for the event came to over $680,000, and this could not have happened had it not been for the leader-ship of co-chairs Helina Au, Juliet Bergh and Ida Kwan. The advancement team appreciates all the volunteers for their contribution and support to such a successful event. “We have not had co-chairs for a number of years and this year’s co-chairs were a blast,” Director of Advancement Karen Hui said. “Ida [Kwan], brought her experience from working with previous ShowCAIS and professional experience when she worked at the Fairmont and was a big help in concoct-ing our specialty cocktail that night - Sparkling Indigo, while Juliet [Bergh] and Helina [Au], even though they are new parents to CAIS, just caught on and brought enthusiasm to the event, spreading it among the CAIS community.” Special thanks to our alumni who also came to volunteer, Wesley Yee (2010), Celine Gauchey (2011), Jaclyn Lee (2011), Bailey Lanman (2012) and Gabby Wong (2012).



CC: What has your � rst year teaching at CAIS been like?

YH: Very busy! Outside the classroom, the faculty is in the process of organizing

the curriculum and it takes a long time to fi nd materials and resources. In the

classroom, it’s been very joyful and I feel a sense of accomplishment. I am oft en

impressed that I can use Chinese to dis-cuss economic and global issues with my

students, a fi rst in my teaching career!

CC: What were you doing before coming to CAIS?

YH: I was teaching at another Chinese immersion school for fi ve years, called

Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Char-ter School in Massachusetts. Prior, I went

to Middlebury College in Vermont for graduate school to get a degree in teach-

ing Chinese as a second language.

CC: What were some of your favorite moments

with your sixth graders?YH: We were learning about Confucius

in September, and they still recite his quotes and talk about him. It’s great see-

ing how active their learning is aft er all these months. Th is year, I was invited to go with the sixth grade to outdoor ed in Westminster Woods. I was able to bond with many of them outside of the class-

room. Th ey even took special care of me, because I was their new teacher!

CC: What are you doing this summer?YH: Th is will be my third year co-admin-

istering summer STARTALK programs on the East Coast. One will be at Univer-

sity of Virginia and the other at College of the Holy Cross for a total of six weeks.

Th e programs are professional develop-ment opportunities for less experienced

teachers training to be Chinese teachers.

CC: How’s your � rst year of teaching? KH: Exciting and enjoyable! My kids are intelligent, inquisitive, and there’s never a dull moment in our learning community. I also like learning Chinese. Even though I’m really slow at it, at least I can say hello, thank you, excuse me, name the planets and count to 100!

CC: What were you doing before coming to CAIS?KH: Th is school year is my seventh teaching middle school. Before CAIS, I was teaching all levels of middle school math and science at a small private school in San Jose. I’m thankful for the experience, but it’s nice to focus on just one grade this year.

CC: What have been some of your favorite moments with your CAIS students thus far?KH: I appreciate that I have the opportunity to give them time to artistically and innova-tively show their understanding. For example, I loved how creative they’ve all been through paper maché planets, creating video lessons, writing poems about Pi, or graphing cartoons on a coordinate plane graph! My students also have a great sense of humor. My favorite is when we use S.R.N. to abbreviate science read-ing notes, but we also use it to say, “Seriously, right now?”

CC: What are you looking forward to in your second year teaching at CAIS?KH: With my studies in teaching and learning in the global environment, I am excited that I will get to directly apply what I’m learning in my coursework—and CAIS is a perfect place to do that. I’m also excited to learn more Chinese! I hope to go on one of our awesome international program trips and would love to have at least basic conversational skills upon traveling. I like that when I say I work at CAIS people ask, “Do you know Chinese?” and I get to answer “我说一点点中文” (I can speak a little bit of Chinese).

teacHeR FeatURe: neW to sIxtH gRade 教师专访：六年级的新力军

Ya-Ching Hsu-Kelkis (YH), aka 许老师, and Kristina Hereford (KH), aka Ms. Hereford, joined the middle school faculty team this school year as sixth grade Chinese teacher and math/science teacher, respectively. CAIS Connections caught up with them to � nd out how their � rst year at CAIS has been going.



As the school year is beginning to wind down, eighth graders are ramping up for their leap from CAIS to vari-ous high schools throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Five students from this year’s graduating class are leap-ing a short distance to attend International High School. We’re excited at the prospect of seeing CAIS alumni in the shared CAIS and International High School building, and hope the other 29 students come back to visit from time to time.

Below is a list of where the class of 2013 is headed.

Campolindo High School (Moraga, CA) Ethel Walker (Simsbury, CT) Galileo Academy of Science and Technology (SFUSD)International High School Lawrenceville (Lawrenceville, NJ) Lick-Wilmerding High School Lowell High School (SFUSD)Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory St. Ignatius High School Stevenson (Pebble Beach, CA)Stuart Hall High School Th e Bay School of San Frwancisco Th e Branson School Th e Urban School of San Francisco University High SchoolWebb (Claremont, CA)

class oF 2013 Heads to HIgH scHool2013毕业班——迈入新里程

Photography on page 6-7 by Little Bird School Photography


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UPCOMING DATESJUNE 10pre-K graduation

JUNE 12last day of school (early dismissal)

JUNE 13Fift h grade promotion

and eighth grade graduation

JUNE 17summer camp session one startsJULY 15

summer camp session two starts

AUGUST 26First day of school, all grades

Documents

CAIS Connections (Spring 2013)