Click here for some Brent on-line Chinese Resources:

Ms. Yifang Yu teaches Chinese to students in grades PK-3 to 5 this year. She comes to Brent through the Teachers of Critical Languages program, a prestigious international exchange program awarded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, as part of the National Security Language Initiative, and administered by the American Councils of International Education.  Ms. Yu is a highly experienced elementary school teacher from Beijing and holds a bachelor of arts in English education from Hubei University. She has been teaching English since 2004 at the Asia-Pacific Experimental School in Beijing (1,600 students and 200 teachers). Ms. Yu is one of the editors of “TOEFL – An Examination of Vocabulary.” She won first prize in the National Teaching Ability Competition in Beijing in 2006, was named the “Excellent Teacher in the New Curriculum Reform” in Xicheng District in Beijing in 2007, and was named the school’s leading English teacher for the 2007-08 school year. Her cross-cultural experience with international educators includes teaching basic Chinese to English teachers from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States.

Ms. Joanna Lijuan Xu, Chinese

Ms. Joanna Lijuan Xu, Brent’s beloved pre-k and kindergarten Chinese teacher, is a local educator with over 20 years of experience teaching Chinese and music in China and the U.S. Originally from Inner Mongolia, China, she is an expert in both music and language pedagogy.  She finds that young children learn languages best through music, dance and games and she has developed a specialized Chinese curriculum that emphasizes music and performing arts. Ms Xu has been teaching Chinese through music and the arts at a number of different schools in the D.C. region, including Hope Chinese School in Maryland and Spring Sprouts on Capitol Hill. She is delighted to be part of the Brent community and looks forward to sharing Chinese songs and dances with our youngest students!