Episode Details

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It was an opportunity to immerse and educate the community in the art, culture, food, music, and language of China. For the first time ever, all Chinese Dual Language Immersion and World Language students and teachers in Jordan School District came together for a special Chinese New Year celebration at Herriman High School. They invited the public as well. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside the celebration where there was music, traditional lion and dragon dancing, Kung Fu and delicious food. All in honor of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the Year of the Tiger.

We're here at Herriman High School for the Chinese New Year event. This involves elementary, middle and high school students. Is that right?

Kimberly Chen:
That's correct.

Anthony Godfrey:
So Kimberly Chen, you're in charge of this whole event?

Kimberly Chen:
Yes I am.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, tell me about what gave you the idea to do all this.

Kimberly Chen:
This is the first year that we have the Chinese DLI students. We have from the first grade all the way to the 12th grade. So we have all the students. And so we actually would like to celebrate their success and then showcase their achievement.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is not just a language night, it's a language and a culture night.

Kimberly Chen:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about some of the activities going on tonight.

Kimberly Chen:
Okay. In front of you right here, these are the middle school students. So they are here to do their cultural display. So various kinds of culture such as calligraphy and Chinese instruments like ehru and right here we have origami, paper cutting and back there we have face painting, and we have Chinese medicine, and Kung Fu and Chinese yoyo, Chinese jianzi, all kinds of activities.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I see that the Mustang here at Herriman High School is decorated with a Chinese lantern, so you've really gone all out.

Kimberly Chen:
Yes, we have.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you teach here at the high school?

Kimberly Chen:
That's correct.

Anthony Godfrey:
Are you pretty impressed by the time students get here to high school?

Kimberly Chen:
Of course I am, yes. That is the reason why I actually taught third grade, fifth grade, middle school, and now I'm in high school. So It's very impressive to watch students progress from elementary all the way clear up to high school and because of seeing their success I just felt like very impressed. I want to showcase their achievement.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, after starting out teaching third grade, it must be kind of fun to see where they end up and how much progress they're able to make.

Kimberly Chen:
Exactly. Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you think is the best part of dual language immersion for students?

Kimberly Chen:
I think one very important thing is they actually become very broad minded, very open minded to see all those differences between people and they're very accepting of others, of, you know, all those differences. And