A Note from Morgan Rothschild Academy German Intern 2012

Hello.  My name is Clarissa N. I´m 20 years old and I grew up in Germany. In the last four month I passed an internship at Morgan Rothschild Academy and I would like to tell you about my experience I made.

I came to Shanghai in August after graduating from high school. I knew Shanghai from further vacations which I took here in Shanghai but I wanted to stay a longer time, longer than two weeks at least ;-)  That is why I started to look for Internship with a social background because this was what I wanted to do after graduating from high school: To get involved with a social project associate with living in Shanghai. I researched a lot and found the Morgan Rothschild Academy on the Internet. It attracted attention to me because of the professional and friendly appearance. I was very happy when Morgan offered me an Internship that I could start directly after my graduation.

I had a great time. Not only because the children made me smile every day but also because of the harmonic contact with my colleagues at work. Me as a German intern had even the chance to work not only with English speaking children but also with German kids. This was always a lot of fun for me and also a little helpful for not being homesick ;-)

What I really appreciated was the size of the school. Morgan Rothschild Academy has a well-arranged number of students which gave me and the other teachers the opportunity to relate a personal relationship to every child. I also appreciated the different nationalities which get together in the academy (from Japanese children to German or Belgian children). That’s why you can be sure to hear a happy mix of languages when you enter the school.  It gives the school a special and unique atmosphere. I remember being so impressed during my first weeks here. Some of the children in the school growing up with three languages and they doing so well!  

My personal job in the last month was it to be an assistant for the English and Chinese teachers and help whenever I could. My job was never boring. From supervising the children up to helping with art projects or preparations for the Christmas concert. That was my little highlight during my Internship. I really enjoyed practicing the songs and the dance with the children; it was a lot of fun! Next to this we had to make costumes for our kids. Our kids were dressed as little Santa clauses and they did a great job performing “Santa Claus is coming to town”. We were so proud of them and the Christmas Concert was a complete success. It was definitely one of my highlights at work.

I had another great moment with the kids. I used to sing a German song to them, even if I knew nobody understood. One day they started, out of the sudden, to sing the song to me J  I was so proud of them and it was so cute listening to them. It wasn´t real German, but that made everything even more adorable ;-)

I am very sad that my time at Morgan Rothschild Academy is over now. I really learned a lot about dealing with children, teaching and I really appreciated to discover the Chinese culture in a new way. I enjoyed every day of my time in Shanghai and I will miss Shanghai and the children a lot.

I would like to recommend the Morgan Rothschild Academy warmly to you. Your child will be treated very well and all of the teachers are really interested in your child feeling comfortable.

I can only repeat it: I will miss my work a lot and I am very grateful for my time at Morgan Rothschild Academy.

Clarissa N.

Im August 2011 startete ich, Clarissa 20 Jahre alt, aus Hannover – Deutschland, mein Praktikum in der Morgan Rothschild Academy.

Nach meinem Abitur wollte ich mich sozial engagieren sowie unbedingt für eine längere Zeit in Shanghai verbringen. Ich kannte die Stadt schon von mehreren Urlauben umso größer war mein Wunsche einmal für länger als nur 2 Wochen hier zu sein. Meine Arbeitsstelle war schnell gefunden. Durch Recherche im Internet stoß ich auf die Morgan Rothschild Academy, die mir besonders wegen ihres professionellen und freundlichen Internet Auftritt gleich ins Auge fiel. Umso glücklicher war ich als mir ein Praktikumsplatz angeboten wurde den ich gleich nach dem Abitur in Anspruch nehmen konnte. So absolvierte ich dort ein viermonatiges Praktikum welches mir großen Spaß machte. Dies lag nicht nur an dem harmonischen Umgang mit meinen Arbeitskollegen, nein besonders die Kinder haben mir jeden Tag aufs Neue großen Spaß bereitet. Ich als Deutsche, hatte die Chance neben den vielen Englisch sprechenden Kindern auch mit deutschen Kindern dort zu arbeiten, was mir besonders viel Freude gebracht hat J Besonders gefallen hat mir die Größe der Schule. Da die Schule eine übersichtliche Anzahl von Schülern hat, lernt man fast jedes Kind persönlich kennen und kann dadurch eine gute und intensive Beziehung aufbauen. Auch die verschiedenen Nationalitäten die dort aufeinander treffen (von Amerikanern, über Japaner, über Belgier bis hin zu Deutschen…) machen diese Schule besonders und geben dem allem eine einmalige Atmosphäre.

Meine persönliche Aufgabe lag vor allem im assistieren von den dort unterrichtenden amerikanischen sowie chinesischen Lehrern. Es gab immer eine Menge zu tun. Sowohl Aufsicht der Kinder, als auch praktische Hilfen wie z.B. Hilfe beim Kunst Projekt. Auch konnte ich Eltern helfen, deren Kinder Deutsch als zweite Muttersprache lernen. So habe ich vermehrt mit ihnen Deutsch geredet und gelesen.  Besonders die langen und intensiven Proben für das Weihnachtskonzert haben mir großen Spaß gemacht. Neben einstudieren von Liedern und den passenden Tänzen mussten auch noch Kostüme entworfen und gestaltet werden! J Es war eine tolle Arbeit die vor allem auch den Kindern enormen Spaß gemacht hat.

Besonders erfreut hat mich hier ein Moment mit den Kindern. Ich habe ihnen immer wieder zwischendurch ein Deutsches Lied vorgesungen, obwohl ich eigentlich felsenfest überzeugt war das kaum jemand zuhört. An meinen letzen Tagen kamen dann die Kinder zu mir und haben tatsächlich das Lied vorgesungen. Es war zwar kein richtiges Deutsch, aber umso süßer war es ihnen zuzuhören J

Meine Zeit in der Morgan Rothschild Academy ist nun leider vorbei, da mich die Universität ruft ;-) Ich habe hier sehr viel gelernt im Umgang mit den Kindern aber vor allem habe ich die chinesische Kultur noch einmal ganz anders entdeckt. Auch das Leben hier in Shanghai habe ich in vollen Zügen genossen und bin sehr traurig das meine Zeit nun zu Ende ist.

Ich würde Ihnen die Academy gerne für ihr Kind ans Herz legen, sei es ein Platz in der Kinderkrippe, oder im Kindergarten… Ihr Kind wird hervorragend betreut und wird schon im jungen Alter entsprechend gefördert.

Liebe Grüße

Clarissa N.

Morgan Rothschild Academy Toddler Room May News 2009

The Toddler Room  has two birthday’s this month. We would like to say Happy Birthday to Mary on May 5^th, and Taka on May 9^th!

Time off  There will be no school Friday April 30^th - May 4^th at Morgan Rothschild Academy. Chinese government has declared these days as a national Shanghai Holiday. School will resume Wednesday May 5^th. 

Spring Concert I would like to thank everyone for coming out to our fifth Annual Spring Concert at Morgan Rothschild Academy. All the students were so excited to show off their hard work. We had a ton of fun performing and hope you enjoyed the show!

Conferences: End of the year conferences are soon approaching at Morgan Rothschild Academy. The toddler room conferences will be held on May 20^th and May 21^st. I am excited to share/show the progress and growth each of your children has shown this year. If you have not signed up for a conference time, please contact us as soon as possible.

Mother’s Day! We would like to wish all our mother’s a Happy Mother’s Day.  Mother’s Day falls on May 9^th this year.

M.O.M

M is for the many times you’ve hugged me.
O’s for the outstanding things you do.
M is all our memories together.
Mom, I’m so glad I have you!

One Song and One Poem to Practice English at Home:

Hokey Pokey
Hands on Shoulders

Ms. Katie.

Morgan Rothschild Academy Preschool Room Autumn Overview 2008

To begin, I would like to say what a pleasure it has been to work with each one of your children these past few months at Morgan Rothschild Academy.  They are all so very special to me!  There isn’t a day that goes by that one of them does not delight me by their progress and their show of kindness to each other in our Preschool Room. 

Darren gives hugs to his classmates often.  Nio always shares his toys with others on the bus.  Lisa fixes Vangi’s hair and offers her a seat beside her.  Lucas helps his classmates up the slide with an outreached hand.  Vangi wipes tears away when she notices a classmate cry.  As the loving mommy in the play house, Yvonne feeds all the kids who pretend to be dogs, cats and sheep.  Alex proclaims that he likes Nanna (Vianna) “because she is very nice.”  Christopher and Vianna share the magnet letters to build great chains on the board.  Maggie and Vangi absorb themselves in fits of giggles before nap time as they try to tell each other “Shhhh!”  These past couple of months we have missed Melody, so each of the students helped to make a giant card for her to see upon her return.  I am proud of the students’ kindness toward each other as it has helped to foster new friendships at Morgan Rothschild Academy.

Apart from showing our consideration, we have been learning to verbalize it with consideration phrases and greetings such as “Please,” “Thank you,” “I’m sorry,” “How are you today?” “I’m fine, thank you.” “Good morning,” “Good afternoon,” “Good-bye,” “See you tomorrow,” and “No, thank you” at Morgan Rothschild Academy.

From Ms. Michelle.

Morgan Rothschild Academy Toddler 2 Room April Newsletter 2008

Dear Families, It looks as if spring is finally here in Shanghai! Time really does fly when you are having a good time and we certainly have been having a good time learning and making new friends at Morgan Rothschild Academy. The Toddler 2 Room is very excited to welcome two new students, Fin and Yoyo, to our class. They are an excellent addition and already seem as though they are seasoned MRA students.

     We in the Toddler 2 room have been busy preparing for springtime, it being our March classroom theme. We have enjoyed and explored the subject of spring in all of our core learning components; language and literacy, number, science, music, and art. By incorporating a theme that has been chosen according to the students’ interests, we have been able to construct a curriculum that not only includes the fundamentals of learning but also makes the lessons captivating and enjoyable at Morgan Rothschild Academy.

       In our Language and Literacy component, we learned various vocabulary words that are associated with spring. The first two weeks had a focus on weather and the last two weeks had a focus on the signs of spring. We constructed a weather wheel and every morning we go to the window to see what type of weather needs to be placed on our wheel. Morris really enjoys being the “weather helper” and is always the first to inform me if it is raining. For our signs of spring lessons we were able to dissect and explore various types of flowers. Dennis told me that his favorite flower was the Tiger Lily because it was orange like a tiger.

       For our word component we have been focusing on a different letter every week. Each letter is introduced by also showing words that start with that letter. These words are words that the students already recognize and know at Morgan Rothschild. After our lesson the letter is then used as the class password. After our lesson on the letter ‘T’, Yoyo recognized the letter ‘T’ on his Thomas the Tank Engine shoes.

       In our science component we have used various hands-on activities to encourage active exploration among the students. We went on a nature walk to see spring emerging in our own school community. Kevin loves to go outside and look for grasshoppers and butterflies in our schoolyard. We also had a lesson in which we explored changes in volume using different shaped containers. Martina loved making predictions as to how much water would fill the triangle shaped container.

       In our math component we have been focusing on recognizing numerals, shapes, seriation, and making patterns. We had one lesson in which we incorporated mathematics and art. We made rainbows using semi circles. The students all really enjoyed placing different colored circles in the right order to make a rainbow. At Morgan Rothschild, the students improved their fine motor skills by using scissors to cut out different sized raindrops. The students then glued the raindrops in descending order from largest to smallest drop. Emily concentrated very hard on this project and insisted on completing it all by herself.

       In our music component we have been learning various different songs for our spring performance. We are very excited to work with the Toddler 1 class for our spring show. All of the students really enjoy singing and learning new songs at Morgan Rothschild Academy. After learning the song “Clementine,” Patrick told me that he wanted to sing it by himself. He said, “Ms. Sofia, just Patrick sing Clementine.” Vanessa just loves singing the song, “I like to eat apples and bananas.”

       In our art component we have been creating some wonderful projects with a spring motif. When we made our weather mobiles Lilian told me that he was going to give his weather mobile to his mother. We also made spring visors to wear when we go outside to keep the sun off of our faces. Fin loved wearing his spring visor when we went outside to the playground.

       This upcoming month also proves to be exciting and learning filled! Our April theme is insects. We will also be working continuously on our own garden, which should be ready to work on by the end of the week. I encourage you to keep writing your comments in the daily progress reports. I really appreciate your comments and also enjoy hearing about your child at home. I look forward to seeing all of you at our spring performance at Morgan Rothschild Academy!

All of my best,

Ms. Sofia

Morgan Rothschild Academy mentioned in the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Delegation for

Morgan Rothschild Academy mentioned in the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Delegation for

Diversity 2008 Agenda

In 2008, we received a group of educators from the U.S. The visit was organized by the National Association of Independent School http://www.nais.org/

Following is an excerpt from the delegation’s schedule.

Tuesday, July 29

Shanghai

Go-to Person:  Gene Batiste

Dress:  Business Casual/School Dress

·        Breakfast from 7:00 A.M. to 8:00 A.M.

·        Coach departs Equatorial @ 8:30 A.M.

·        Name of School:

Morgan Rothschild Academy (9:30 AM – 11:30 AM)

Host:  Morgan Huang Founder.  Mr. Huang will give us a thorough introduction to MRA’s programs, including the reading, math and science curricula.  Questions, of course, are welcome.

Context:

The Morgan Rothschild Academy (MRA) takes a particularly innovative approach to  early childhood education, an approach not seen until now in mainland China.  Morgan Huang, MRA’s Taiwan-born and Harvard-educated founder, conceived this bilingual academy for children aged 2 to 6 years, in 2001, during a visit to the mainland.  Today, in each classroom children learn from one English-language teacher and two Chinese-language teachers.

Morgan Rothschild Academy strives to meet the high expectations of parents, who are concerned about results and academic learning in an early childhood program.  To address these expectations, MRA makes its educational results evident to parents and, at the same time, helps parents to understand

the school’s own expectations for the children. 

For example, Moran Rothschild Academy teachers draw up monthly curricula for their students, detail every lesson under each subject area, and display these for parents’ reference.  Morgan Rothschild Academy teachers treat every child as a unique individual, and work earnestly to ensure that each child’s own particular personal and academic needs are met.

Agenda:

à 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM:  Presentation by Morgan Huang, followed by Q&A.

à 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM:  Tour of the facility; talks with teachers; introductions to young students in the Morgan Rothschild Academy.

à 11:30 AM:  Coach departs Morgan Rothschild Academy.

·        Visit Qibao Ancient Town, w/ Lunch in Qibao Restaurant (12:00 PM – 1:30 PM; Lunch Own Account)

Teacher Feedback from Morgan Rothschild Academy Preschool Room Teacher 2008-2009

Teacher Feedback from Morgan Rothschild Academy Preschool Room Teacher 2008-2009

My decision on coming to China and to teach at Morgan Rothschild Academy was a difficult one.  It meant leaving a tight knit family, friends, and a significant other.  I have been living and teaching in Shanghai for eight months and never regretted my decision on coming here.  The City is English friendly and extremely easy to navigate.  The language barrier is not a problem; I have already learned many words just from teaching at the school.  The culture’s history, values, and traditions are deeply rooted in the city and it has been a wonderful learning experience.    I also have gotten the opportunity to travel to other surrounding cities in China.  The knowledge that I will come home with will be priceless. 

       I am the preschool teacher and Morgan’s Rothschild Academy.  I thoroughly enjoy it, the children are wonderful!  They amaze me on how brilliant they are.  Some children can speak three languages!  The small class sizes at allows for more one-on-one interaction with each child.  I have really gotten to know each child’s personality and come to love them.  Morgan Rothschild Academy is bilingual and has English Speaking administration to help with anything I need at school and at home.  The other Chinese teachers are very helpful as well.  The Chinese teachers along with the other English teachers have become like family to me.    My ESL teaching experience in China and at Morgan Rothschild Academy has helped me become a better teacher and I feel I will be more valuable to future employers.

Sarah Verdeyen

verdeyener@gmail.com

Morgan Rothschild Academy Celebrated Fifth Annual Christmas and New Year Concert at the Four Seasons

Morgan Rothschild Academy Celebrated Fifth Annual Christmas and New Year Concert at the Four Seasons

Every year at Morgan Rothschild Academy, we hold two concerts for children to perform for their parents. One of them is the Christmas and New Year Concert. The children will use this time to show off their talents of dancing and singing. In 2010, we had our concert at the prestigious Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai.

In the past years, we had our concerts in the Academy. However, due to the increased enrollment in 2010, we had decided to move our concert to the largest ballroom of the Four Seasons. We were thrilled not only to have families and friends from Morgan Rothschild Academy to come and celebrate the joyous holiday tradition with us, but also we had entertained a few families outside of the Academy. Combined together we had over 120 people came to our concert.

The whole event ran from 1030 a.m. to 1200 p.m. on December 10. Everyone from the Nursery Room, the Toddler Room, the Preschool Room and the Kindergarten Room went up to the stage to perform. Though it is a novelty to parents from the West to see their young children singing and dancing on the stage, the concert is actually quite common in the Chinese culture. Therefore, we at Morgan Rothschild Academy are no exception. That said, children were all very excited to perform at the Four Seasons for their parents to see.

Besides singing the Chinese and English songs, our Kindergarten friends also preformed an English poem, “The Snowman.” Some may wonder if very young children could perform in group. Well, we do remind the audience that all of the performances are “subject to change at the discretion of the artists!” At Morgan Rothschild Academy, we firmly believe that the most important thing is to have fun! If it is not fun, why do it?