Hello everyone! My name is Elaine. I come from China. I am studying at East China Normal University, majoring in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. I have been in Melbourne since February 2017 and I will spend the whole year in Australia.

I really enjoy every moment at Thomas Mitchell Primary School. My main role is assisting Mandarin teachers, Ms Liang Ms Xiao, in their Chinese classes. I help them with helping students to complete their tasks, presenting lessons on Chinese culture, as well as sharing culture-related folk stories to the class, e.g. Chinese Spring Festival and Chinese animal zodiac. In Mandarin classes, we are not only focusing on teaching Chinese language and culture, but we also aim to develop students’ other skills through various other activities such as making zodiac paper chains, lanterns and Mother’s Day cards.

With support from Miss Wong and Miss Xu, we have been successfully running Chinese Calligraphy Club every Monday since this term, where students are exploring Chinese calligraphy. Students have the opportunity to learn how to use traditional ancient Chinese brush to write ‘fu’ (福) which xxx. This is not only a great opportunity for the students, but also a pleasant experience for me.

I live with my lovely homestay who treats me as a part of their family. Now I have my Australian family, so I never get homesick.