Archive for July, 2008

Recent developments

July 26, 2008 at 10:31 am · Filed under Facilities

In recent weeks, Shu Ren International School has made rapid progress towards our goal of opening the school in September 2008. Below are a few of the main developments:

- The City of Berkeley has approved both our Use Permit and Building Permit for our new site at 1333 University Avenue in Central Berkeley. Construction is now well underway. See the post below for details about the site design.

- We have submitted our application for a Community Child Care License.

- On June 11 and June 14, Shu Ren held open houses at our new site, and they were a great success. About 40 families toured the site, met Shu Ren teachers and administrators, and learned more about the IBO curriculum.

We are now confident that Shu Ren will be able to open in September, and we encourage parents to follow our progress through this blog. If you have any questions regarding our programs, please email Jie Moore at jie.moore@shureninternationalschool.com.

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Shu Ren building design

July 5, 2008 at 7:48 pm · Filed under Facilities ·Tagged

We are very pleased that Twig Gallemore, a Shu Ren parent and an architect with Elevation Design + Architecture, is designing the new Shu Ren site. Attached as PDF files are the latest versions of his architectural plans, including a Floor
Plan, a Furniture Plan, and an Exterior Plan.

The plan incorporates several traditional Chinese design elements including the planting of bamboo. The three classrooms will be named in honor of the “three friends of winter” (岁寒三友) from traditional Chinese culture, which uses three different kinds of trees represent various ideals of the human character, including integrity and perseverance. The two preschool classrooms will be called Plum Garden (梅园) and Bamboo Garden （竹园）, while the Kindergarten classroom will be Pine Garden （松园）. The multi-purpose room will be Peach Garden （桃园）, which alludes to a Chinese idiom about the fruitfulness of education.

The reception area will be a Hall of Peace, where flags of the home countries of all Shu Ren families and staff will be hung in a sign of international solidarity and multicultural understanding.

We are very excited to watch Twig’s beautiful design come to life over the next couple of months.

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New hirings

July 5, 2008 at 7:37 pm · Filed under Faculty, Staff ·Tagged ,

Shu Ren is excited to announce that we have hired two key staff members, an office manager and our Pre-K Chinese teacher.

Chen Meng-Pei

Chen Meng-Pei

Meng-Pei Chen, the Pre-K Chinese teacher, is from Taiwan and received her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education there. She also has a Master’s Degree in Education from Dominican University of California. During her graduate study, she researched different approaches to learning a second language and identified which environments work best especially in the context of a young Mandarin learner. Her career goal is to work with children. She has taught children Mandarin through game playing and through various educational activities. In addition, she believes that her music training and experience as a music teacher (she is a certified piano teacher) will be very useful in the teaching of children to learn Mandarin. As a teacher at Shu Ren, she wants to provide the best environment for children to be bi-cultural and bi-literate.

Ping Xie

Ping Xie

Ping Xie, our office manager, is a native of Beijing and received her BA degree in Electrical Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology. She was then accepted to the MBA program at California State University Los Angeles. She left the corporate world after 8 years to become a full time Mom. She has always been interested in bi-lingual bi-cultural education and has taught Mandarin to adults in various institutions. Ping and her husband and son live in the city of El Cerrito.

We are thrilled to have Meng-Pei and Ping as part of the Shu Ren team!

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