Center for Chinese Language Teacher Certification and Development (CCLTCD) at
College of Education at the University of Maryland organized a professional
development workshop for Chinese language teacher right before the new semester starts
on August 25th, 2012.
Thirty teachers from different school districts and counties across the Maryland state
attended the workshop. The two workshop presenters—Dr. Henry Ruan and Ruby Costea
have ample experience teaching Chinese language in American public schools. Dr. Henry
Ruan from New York City public school gave two presentations on preparing Chinese
teachers for their first-day class as well as on developing good teacher-student
relationship in American classrooms. Ruby Costea from Maryland State Department of
Education gave a presentation on organizing the classroom games and activities. Both
presenters share their precious professional experience and personal stories with the
participating teachers, and they also provided lots of practical tips for the teachers. The
participating teachers also share their teaching experiences with one another. The
atmosphere of the discussions was very warm. All the teachers expressed that they had
learned a lot from the presenters and each other. They gave very positive comments on
the workshop and they expected to attend such professional development workshops in
the near future.