Mandarin is one of the key courses

Chinese welcome slogan made by American students

Reserved Chinese Reading Room

Reserved classroom and offices for the volunteer Chinese teachers

Chinese New Year in the Eyes of American Pupils

On February 24, 2011, Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at UT Dallas was invited to The Westwood School to guide the development of the Chinese program and the cooperation. The school applied for Confucius Classroom in December of 2010. The head of the school Mr. Marc Corbeil has advocated that the K1-12 students must learn Chinese language. English, Spanish and Chinese will become the required language courses for all the students in the school. This is the first leading trendy private school.

The Westwood School is the first private Montessori-IB blended high school in North America. This combination fosters independent thinking and encourages students to develop a sense of their own competence. The school provides the opportunity for self-motivated, independent students to develop intellect and build character through a balance and integrated curriculum. The Montessori Method is child‐centered. In a Montessori classroom, one will find the “triad” of student, material/subject, and teacher—each part providing balance to inspire independent thinking. The teacher facilitates learning by giving lessons on specialized materials/subject topics that allow students to learn for themselves. Different grade students study in one class to encourage students to help each other. Higher grade students help lower grade students under the guidance of the teachers. This school, with more than 260 students from 43 countries, is a typical international school.

Mr. Corbeil once was invited by the Confucius Institute Headquarters to visit Beijing and Chongqing in December of 2010. He felt that a international school must study Chinese language as required course, otherwise students will fall behind the development of the world. Therefore, he decided that all the students would study Chinese language.

The Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at UT Dallas attended the classes, visited the reserved reading-room with adequate daylight, spacious classrooms and 2 offices for the Chinese volunteer teachers, and discussed the Chinese program and the construction of the Confucius Classroom with Mr. Corbeil and the Chinese Teacher. The Chinese director expressed the idea to support the Chinese program in the school on behalf of the Confucius Institute and promised to seek for a sister school in China.