MANSFIELD — Friendship, love and happiness. With Discovery School launching a new Mandarin program on Jan. 3, students have learned the characters for these key words and more from the Confucius Institute curriculum.
For Chinese New Year celebrations in January, students in kindergarten through 6th grade learned about the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac, traditional foods and legends.
“In my head, I wanted to make a bigger celebration, but I had to keep going with the material,” Mandarin teacher Anzhele Ransom said.
She hopes to implement traditional Chinese dancing and costumes into the celebration next year. Ransom weaves experiential learning into lessons as much as possible.
Though Chinese citizens celebrate Valentine’s Day in August, all of her classes collaborated to create a stick arrangement complete with ornamental valentines. Each valentine features one of the Chinese characters students learned.
Students take Mandarin once per week, and they have enjoyed the lessons so far.
“They are all liking it,” Ransom said. “They are not afraid to make mistakes and speak.”
Ransom has one student who is adopted from China and others whose parents have traveled to China.
“We will build and keep learning,” she said.
Ransom has experience teaching early childhood education in China, and she taught Chinese to university students in Russia. She came to Mansfield in July 2016 and submitted her resume for a preschool or prekindergarten position to Head of School Amy Oswalt.
Meanwhile, Oswalt traveled to China for 10 days in November 2016 as part of the College Board program, Confucius Institutes and Classrooms (CICC). According to the College Board website, CICC supports U.S. school districts and independent schools by providing funding, resources and guidance for K-12 Chinese language and culture education.
Oswalt observed at schools in Nanjing, China to learn about operations. She also built partnerships with other administrators and superintendents from throughout the U.S.
“After the trip I reflected a lot on how amazing it would be to have Mandarin program at Discovery School,” Oswalt said.
She approached Ransom with the opportunity to launch the program.
Ransom agreed because of the curriculum and resources Discovery School had acquired.
“The kids love it,” Oswalt said. “It is insane to me how much they love it. It is such a relevant language to speak, especially when our students think about moving further in their life and careers.”
Discovery School earned its International Bachelorette Primary Years certificate in February 2016. Preschoolers through sixth graders remain at the center of their learning with inquiry based lessons offering a global context. Class sizes remain small to average in size with 16 to 20 students.
The nonprofit, tuition-based school student engages students in industry-relevant classes such as coding. Students are also immersed in Spanish classes each week.
The benefits extend to faculty members and administration as well. Earning the International Bachelorette certification has meant all teachers have participated in specialized training.
“Training has been amazing and has given us a common language as staff,” Oswalt said. “We have to work together.”
The school is diverse in that many faculty members have taught overseas, and students are from diverse areas around the world.
“It helps students understand that there is a bigger world out there,” Oswalt said.
During the weekly “genius hour,” students craft a plan and complete independent research on topics that interest them with oversight from their teachers. Friday afternoons feature enrichment time as well as town hall meetings and community speakers.
Enrichment time allows students to participate in year-round and seasonal clubs focused on interests including cooking, the outdoors, fitness, knowledge, robotics and origami. Sixth-grade students can create their own clubs, and all grade levels intermingle for enrichment time.
“Giving kids the opportunities to interact together shows them how to lead instead of just talking about it,” Oswalt said.
Oswalt said it works well to makes clubs open to all grade levels.
“We stress that caring and making thoughtful decisions is important.”
Parents volunteer to help with clubs and assist students with reading. The Parents for Discovery School committee organizes Family Literacy Night, Family Fun Nights and teacher appreciation events.
Oswalt is in her fifth year as head of school, and plans to continue providing innovative programming beyond what other schools offer.
“We want to be as forward thinking as we can be,” Oswalt said. “What will they need in the future to be successful?”
Oswalt marvels at the students’ ability to ask thoughtful questions, and thinks the Mansfield community would be surprised at their level of knowledge and interest in various subjects.
Families are eligible for in-house financial assistance and accept the Ed Choice Scholarship, the Jon Peterson Scholarship and the Autism Scholarship.
Development Director Annette Schutjer oversees the school’s annual giving campaign and auction which cover the gap between tuition and operating expenses. The school is accepting sponsorships and donations in kind for this year’s auction on April 22, 2017.
Schutjer moved into the development role six year ago after serving on the Board of Directors while her three daughters attended Discovery School. During her tenure, the school raised funds for six additions including an early learning center.
Oswalt believes Discovery School will grow by adapting to the world around it. She has a long- term vision including a curriculum overhaul and ongoing analysis of lessons.
“How can we adapt to the changes in Richland County while creating deeper learning experiences for kids?”
Discovery School is enrolling students for the 2017-2018 school year. Call 419-796- 8880 to learn more.
