QD Learning
2016 Sep Newsletter [New School Year Special Edition]
Welcome to the new school year!
Program Updates
Why?
We believe project-based learning can connect student's learning to real world problems and ultimately develop what NEA (National Education Association) identified as 4Cs skills (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication).
What changes have we made so far?
- Project in our after-school program is two weeks long now. This gives more time for students to discover and create the project content.
- Our new enrichment programs including Chinese and Critical Reading/Writing have started incorporating project-based learning.
- We have launched a Programming/Robotics class and are adding project-based elements to it.
- We have expanded our Public Speaking/Debate/Leadership program to help build student's communication and collaboration skills that contribute to the outcome of PBL.
Below is a poster for our new school year's offering and a trailer.
We are developing more curriculum that incorporates PBL and 4Cs. Notably, we are building a project that involves using the credit card size computer called Raspberry Pi. There are other exciting changes coming as well. We will keep you posted in our monthly newsletter. Like or not like where we are headed. Share your feedback.
Team Updates
Qian Liu - VP, Business Development
Qian Liu is a part-time faculty and teaches courses in college of information systems and general education. He have been working as professor in universities, researcher in national research centers -National Center for Supercomputing Center (NCSA) and California Institute for Telecommunication and Information Technology (Calit2), software engineer in industrial corporates and collaborator for international research organization -Cinegrid. His research and teaching interests are: computer programming, network administration and management, database management, virtual machines and cloud computing, data-mining and search-engine, virtual reality, and computational statistics. Professor Liu has joined QD Learning as VP, Business Development.
Dr. Wenling Li - Academic Consultant
Dr. Wenling Li is a Professor and Program Director of the Ph.D. Program in Educational Leadership, leading program development and academic excellence. Dr. Li holds her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology in Beijing Normal University and had Post doc in Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Li was a senior research scientist at the Center for the Study of Reading (UIUC) prior to Trident. Her primary research interests are reading, writing and instructional approach in K-12, and school leadership and administration. She has authored five books and numerous articles on dynamic issues in children’s learning and language mastery.
Dr. Li is a member of the American Educational Research Association, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Dr. Li has joined QD Learning as an Academic Consultant.
Qian Li - After-School Program Lead
Ms. Li has 6 years teaching experience in the United States, China and Mexico. Before moving to the United States, she worked as English teacher in New Oriental School in China. She has taught Chinese in Los Angeles Chinese Cultural Center, Angela Preschool and Kindergarten, and Paramount Academy since 2011. In her class, she implemented strategies such as hands-on activities, fun manipulatives, and learning centers to ensure students understanding of the objectives. In the summer of 2016, she taught third grade writing in Imagine Tempe Elementary school in Arizona. In 2013, She went to Tecate Mexico as a volunteer to teach high school English at the IYF English camp.
Ms. Li holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of California, Los Angeles. During her forth year in UCLA, she worked as research assistant to develop teaching materials for Chinese language teaching.
Ms. Li is the Mandarin Bilingual Instructional Assistant in the Marian Bergeson Elementary school in Capistrano Unified School district. She was selected to join national teacher corps by Teach for American and will commit two years teaching in public school in 2017.
Ms Li has joined QD Learning as our after-school program lead.
Nan (Nancy) Yang - Program Instructor
Ms Yang (Nancy) has joined QD Learning as a Program Instructor.
September News
After-School Program
Updates from Mr. Jerry
Summer has passed us by, well, perhaps at a very warm snail’s pace, and we are entering a new season of learning here at QD with new students and new approaches. The summer camps were filled, literally, with happy students learning everything from the basics of film creation to what it takes to create a small business – and took away with them knowledge that they can apply to everyday skills.
Looking ahead, QD has moved into new territory with Project Based Learning where during cross-curriculum, the emphasis of a bi-weekly project are theme related and heavy research based. Students are encouraged to research their projects by joining together forces, as in last week’s “Superhero Challenge” where they were asked to solve a problem relating to the origin of the superhero’s birthplace. Some superheroes, for example, as in Maddie, whose superhero hailed from North Carolina, discovered the declining bee population which is vital to humankind of her home state. As a superhero, perhaps the problem can easily be solved with their super strength and intelligence, but the project called for the superhero’s powers to be suddenly taken from them during the last days and they had to readjust their thinking – and present their case to the United Nations in an advocacy speech, seeking help for the dire situation. Reducing the Herculean task back down to a mere mortal human mission, brings the students closer to the task of realizing what truly makes a hero isn’t superhero powers, but courage to change and the strength to do something about it.
Currently we are in the midst of learning of just what makes a home a home, by learning what exactly a refugee is – focusing specifically on the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Is it the walls of the home, the environment that surrounds it? The landscape? Or is it what you take in your heart? Hope? The children will learn and again, research these issues and discover what happens to refugees and what exactly a home is by constructing a play of their own and bring to light, the plight of the refugee to an audience.
All the projects moving forward will share this theme-researched base and will get the students questioning what they research and where they find it – and make decisions on their own by utilizing critical thinking, performance, and creativity. All in all, an exciting year is ahead indeed.
Updates from Anthony Pina
This has been our first full month back in the swing of things. As always there are high hopes for the coming school year. All and all our homework hour has been running quite smoothly. Some of our students struggled a bit in the beginning readjusting to being in school, but as we move forward our continued communication is leading to increased productivity.
New to this school year I have started leading a homework club which gathers daily from 4pm-5pm to complete unfinished work or to partake in further academic engagement. As the school year goes on I hope to see continued growth and independence in the students in my classes.Updates from Ms Nancy
This is a new semester for QD learning and this also marks my new beginning here. Through September, I have been getting familiar with all students especially with the students in my class. Overall, everyone is special and brilliant. Here is my new school year resolution:
1. Help every student finish their homework everyday
2. When student has more spare time, I will challenge them to take on additional tasks that are available at QD
3. Build trusts with my students and help them establish interests in studying and cultivate great habits
4. Apply differentiated instruction when applicable since every student is different.
5. Develop team camaraderie so they can help each other
Look forward to a great year together!
Public Speaking, Debate and Leadership
Public Speaking PL2 Class with Willie
Public Speaking PL3 Class with Ted
Public Speaking PL4 Class with Harry
Critical Reading/Writing
Journal Writing is required in each class
Getting busy in learning narratives
Reading/Writing sometimes calls help from each other
Programming/Robotics
Ms Jen facilitates individualized learning
from blocks to scratch, from Javascript to HTML/CSS
Our students are building critical computational thinking skills
Irvine Campus
Coach Willie leading the PL2 class
Mr. Ted leading the PL3 class
Coach Willie's Debate (D1) class is starting on Oct 19
Upcoming Stuff
October 15 - Parent Workshop
Speaker: Dr. Wenling Li (QD Learning's academic consultant, Trident University's Professor in Educational Leadership)
Date: 10/15/2016
Time: 3:30 – 3:45 Check-in
3:45 – 5:00 Presentation, Q&A
Address: 1086 N Tustin Ave, Anaheim CA 92807
"Little Orators" Tournament
Address: 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton, CA 92831
Park in Lot F off of Nutwood near the Marriott Hotel. Enter campus on Folino Drive, adjacent to Mihaylo Hall. Parking is free on Saturday.
Feel free to drop by to check out the event. We also have a tournament coming up on Nov 12th at LA. The event is open to all ages. We will announce more details once they are available.
Design Your Own Video Game
We are launching a new series in video game making for Grade 3-8 at our Irvine Campus. Students will learn to build their own video game! They'll learn the foundations of game design while using the coding language Scratch. Each week, students will receive instruction on how to build a new game that incorporates key computational thinking concepts (e.g., conditions, variables) and then use those skills to produce a game of their own design.
Saturdays: 9 am - noon
5 weeks: Nov 12 - Dec 17 (Nov 26, no class)
Cost: $300 + $50 lab fee
Campus: 10 Truman St, Irvine CA
If you are interested, let us know here. We will send you more details later.
About QD Learning
Email: info@qdlearning.net
Website: http://www.qdlearning.net
Location: 1086 N Tustin Ave, Anaheim, CA, United States
Phone: 866-669-9228
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/qdlearning
Twitter: @QDLearning