Sea Cliff Students Continue to Study Mandarin Outdoors

While most other schools have reverted back to the traditional mode of learning, Sea Cliff students continue to learn Mandarin outside under the leadership of Mandarin teacher, Mr. David Schultz. When Covid-19 impacted our world in 2019-2020, many of our North Shore students participated in many activities outside at each of our five schools. Students happily engaged in teaching and learning, snack and/or lunch, wellness activities, and physical education outside under the direction of our North Shore Schools administration, faculty and staff.

During the beautiful Fall and Spring months, you can drive around our schools and see our Vikings participating in many learning opportunities outside. At Sea Cliff School, Mr. Schultz continues his teaching of Mandarin outdoors all year-round as long as there is not too much snow or rain. He said, “Outdoor learning is ideal because it encourages students to communicate and interact directly with the objects of their learning – the ‘real world’ and their peer community. It’s fun, healthy, and meaningful learning that takes our students off their screens and into the ‘real world’ that they are learning to talk about in language classes.”  

At our North Shore Elementary Schools, students start learning Mandarin in kindergarten and continue all the way to graduation. Younger students start by learning to sing songs in Mandarin, playing language learning games, and being exposed to the characters. As they progress, they acquire greater degrees of fluency in the language and culture, perform in Mandarin language drama performances, enter (and winning!) foreign language student video contests, and even participate in a district-wide field trip to Flushing Chinatown. By the time North Shore students are ready to graduate high school, many students have achieved an advanced command of the language, able to maintain increasingly difficult conversations, and develop the cross-cultural communication and linguistic skills necessary to compete in the 21st century marketplace. Additionally, diligent Mandarin students from our district have been inducted into the National World Language Honor Society.

Mr. Schulz concluded by saying, “My hope is that more schools and teachers take their students outdoors to learn, so students can be inspired by the connections made between themselves, the content of their learning, their peers and nature, to become life-long outdoor learners.” Go Vikings Go!

Article by Shelly Newman with assistance from Mr. David Schultz, Sea Cliff School Mandarin teacher. 

Photos by Shelly Newman