Ensights Magazine

Year of the Tiger

The Year of the Tiger: Highlighting Ensworth’s K-12 Chinese Program

Michelle Andrade, Assistant Director of Marketing & Communications
It has undoubtedly been a year of the tiger, but not just because the Chinese lunar calendar declared 2022 the Year of the Tiger. This year has been full of courage, perseverance, assertiveness, and innate leadership. Emerging from an intense time with Covid restrictions and masks, mandates, and exhaustion from more than two years of having to modify, pivot, and calibrate, the Ensworth Tigers emerged stronger and more present. When choosing the theme for this summer’s Ensights, the serendipitous celebration of the Year of the Tiger was clear.
A small exposure is all it takes to spark a deep dive into a culture and language like Chinese, and Ensworth strives to offer such inspiration to the entire school community. By executing school-wide K–12 experiences, teachers and administrators alike hoped to impress upon everyone—not just our students who elect to take Chinese—the gifts and magic of Chinese as we celebrated the Year of the Tiger. 
Ensworth integrated Mandarin Chinese into the core curriculum in 2006. Nancy Scoville, who was the Lower/Middle School World Language Department Chair at the time, shared, “The addition of Chinese to the Ensworth program is an unparalleled initiative which underscores both a long tradition of World Language education and a commitment to preparing our students for the future. The importance of developing the communication skills necessary to build relationships with the most populous country in the world is a priority we cannot ignore. Early exposure to Chinese will help our students develop both familiarity and confidence with the language and the culture.” Building and expanding this program over the past 16 years has been of utmost importance at all levels, introducing Chinese to Lower, Middle, and High School students. 
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Beyond the basics of studying language and grammar, the integration and examination of cultural norms and traditions have been vital, prioritizing the weaving of well-known traditions like Chinese New Year and lesser-known cultural traditions into Ensworth’s curriculum. This sixteen-day spring festival is based on the Lunar calendar that is synced with the 12 animal signs in the Chinese zodiac. This year, the Chinese New Year was celebrated from January 31-February 15, and with it being the Year of the Tiger, it was especially celebratory for our Ensworth community.

“[Celebrating the Chinese New Year] is a great opportunity to celebrate the outstanding Chinese program we have here at Ensworth in all three divisions. When I describe our Chinese program and its successes to peers around the country, it is clear we have a uniquely strong program, not only in Tennessee but nationwide,” Mrs. Harris expresses.

For the celebration, all students and faculty received a special Year of the Tiger t-shirt to wear to school on Monday, January 31st. At the High School, Chinese students prepared a presentation and dance that they performed in assembly to educate their peers about the significance of the Chinese New Year. On the Red Gables Campus, Middle School Chinese students taught about Lunar New Year traditions in China as well as the Zodiac calendar. K–8 students gathered on the field to do a countdown in Chinese to 10:00 a.m., which corresponded to midnight in China. After the countdown, everyone received hong bao (red envelopes typically given as gifts to children on the Chinese New Year) with red gummy fish. Red is a popular color in Chinese culture, symbolizing luck, joy, and happiness, and fish are a symbol of wealth and abundance. SAGE also prepared a special lunch for each campus with signature Chinese dishes such as Mongolian beef, braised tofu, cabbage, and sticky rice.
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Lower School Chinese Teacher Jennifer Toppins was excited to begin her Ensworth teaching career in the Year of the Tiger. Ms. Toppins shares that her first exposure to the Chinese culture came through a close childhood friend. She continued with a yearning to learn more about Asia, sparked by her Vietnamese family heritage. “I thought Chinese was the best way to access that side of the world. I also really enjoyed it after I began my language studies and wanted to go further.” Read Jennifer's profile here.

Andy Kelley, High School Chinese Teacher, has studied Chinese for over two decades. He shares that Chinese “has changed who I am and expanded my imagination of what the good life can and should look like. It is what I do now professionally—teaching language and culture—but it is also what we do at home—building family traditions that honor our little family’s life stories, histories, and cultures in all its diversity. It strikes me that this is what we do whenever we build strong communities: we respect, love, and embrace what makes the individual parts as they truly are.” Read Andy's profile here.
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The tiger represents courage, assertiveness, and innate leadership in the Chinese zodiac. K–12 Chinese offerings and cross-curricular cultural celebrations have taken the learning beyond the World Languages Department and the classroom setting to create immersive and engaging experiences for our students. 
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Grade 3 MosaicINSERT

Grade 3 students prepared and resented Mosaic: Arts in Concert for the third consecutive year. This annual cross-curricular collaboration celebrated the Chinese culture. Students explored traditional arts and literature of China, examining folktales, music, and landscapes. They also learned to narrate a story, underscore it using music class compositions, and sing lyrics in Chinese. Students created artwork and developed a stop-motion animation movie with traditional shanshui-style landscapes created in art class retelling the "Great Race." the Chinese zodiac myth. The culminating performance occurred at the 3rd Grade Mosaic Concert in March, allowing students to showcase their talents, knowledge, and love for Chinese culture and language. 
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In addition, Caitlin Harris, Heidi Wolter, Evie Coates, and Leslea Gaines presented a workshop session on this project at the Tennessee Association of Independent School Biennial Conference.
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Red Gables Campus (K–8)

Nashville, TN 37205
(615) 383-0661

Frist Campus (9–12)

Nashville, TN 37221
(615) 301-5400
Ensworth is a coeducational, kindergarten through twelfth grade, independent day school.