About DW Center
 
The DW Center for Language Education and Culture Exchange is pioneered and directed by Dr. Wobus, in a joint effort with the "MLP Chinese" author Dr. Liping Ma, and authorized by Dr. Ma as the only training program for teachers of MLP Chinese program.   Dr. Wobus, aka Zhang Laoshi., a very experienced educator of Chinese language and culture in the greater Washington region. The mission of the Center is to benefit more schools, more students and families, and more teachers with Dr. Wobus's 10-plus years experience of teaching and managing language education and culture education programs.

The DW Center provide education related services that can best be understood in the following questions the DW Center will answer:

1. MLP Curriculum and Teacher Training
  • How does the MLP curriculum connects the grades in its design?  What are the goal for each grade?
  • How can the school organize teachers of different grades prepare lessons in a whilst manner？
  • How to best utilize the various teaching tools in classroom?
  • What are effective techniques for vocabulary teaching?
  • What is the procedure and techniques for teaching Chinese writing?
  • What are characteristics and techniques in teaching Chinese culture?
  • How to train the new teachers and improve the experienced teachers?
  • What supportive tasks must teachers do to effectively manage the teaching and reaching a good outcome?
  • What supportive tasks must administrators do to effectively manage the organization?
2. Application of Cloud Computing techniques to language and culture education
  • Are there the approaches that help students learn vocabulary effectively and with interest?
  • Are there ways to make students and parents read the teacher's comments on homework?
  • Are there effective approaches in teaching Chinese writing?
  • Are there any effective ways of managing students homework, assessment outcome?
  • Are there effective ways for two-way communication between teachers and families?
  • Are there ways in which an organization effectively manage its documents so that there is no versions and duplicates to worry about?
  • Are there ways for administrators to monitor and manage preparation and execution of lesson plans, student assessment, store of test results, all in front of a computer and with everyone else participating?
  • Are there good methods for school administrators effectively communicate with teachers and student families?
  • Can we get help for school administrators set up communication system so as to collect and manage school data correctly, professionally, and systematically?
  • Are there ways to effectively involve teachers to meet the school needs?
  • Are there ways  to dramatically improve the teaching outcome, winning the appreciation and cooperation from student families, accomplishing teaching and managing twice better but with half effort？
  • Is DW Center's Cloud-Computing Technology for Teaching service available for schools other than Maryland?
Our answer: YES! to all questions if we use Cloud-Computing technology, which has no country boundaries, no regional differences, no time limits--there is Cloud, there is DW Center!

3. Chinese language or Chinese culture study and tutoring
  • How to score well in College Board's SATII Chinese and AP Chinese exams?
  • Are there any 'crash courses' in helping students prepare for Chinese exams?
  • Are there any help on Chinese writing?
  • Are there any tutoring on Chinese culture study?
  • Are there any tutoring on Chinese language or culture that are tailored to individual students?
  • Is there a Chinese culture class that is taught in English language to non-Chinese speakers?
  • Is there any online tutoring on Chinese language and culture study?
  • Do you have English-Chinese or Chinese-English translation or interpretation services?
Our answer: YES! to all questions.
About the Founder and the Teacher/Trainer

    Dr. Wobus grew up in Beijing China.  After earning an associated degree in Electrical Engineering from Beijing Mechanical Institute (BMI) and an B.A. in English from Beijing No.2 Foreign Language Institute, she taught English for six years to engineering majors at BMI and was the director of Foreign Affairs Office supervising and managing an US MBA program by Chinese government that involves a dozen of professors from several high-ranking US universities including Columbia University and University of Massachusetts.

    In the mid 1980's Dr. Wobus followed her dream to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies in Education and obtained a M.Ed from Trenton State College and a Ph.D. from University of Maryland at College Park.  While working in the fields of education research and later health services research, she kept teaching English and Chinese in her spare time.

    In the late 1990's, Dr. Wobus joined a team of American educators and Chinese entrepreneurs to establish an international K-12 school in China and served as the Chinese-counterpart principal in charge of curriculum development and teacher training, including screening and hiring licensed international educators and the headmaster.  For about ten years since 2004, Dr. Wobus taught Chinese to speakers and non-speakers in different capacities including heritage weekend schools such as Hope Chinese School and American Chinese School in Maryland. 

    In 2005, Dr. Wobus introduced the Ma Liping Chinese Curriculum to her current weekend Chinese school--American Chinese School, and set up the teaching team dedicated to teaching it.  She painstakingly documented every step in her preparation and delivery of the lessons, which became the basis for an online workshop for teaching Chinese language and culture.  She frequently published articles about her teaching, sharing her thoughts and experience (see samples in Chinese and English).  

    During the first fours years of teaching MLP Chinese curriculum, she designed an effective delivery system that helped materializing the potential of the curriculum to achieve good learning outcome in students. In the years that followed, she kept expanding and updating the system. The system now has the capability of not only helping teachers in preparing lessons and becoming effective in delivering the materials but also contains an entire array of Internet resources to enhance the outcome of the teaching.  As of fall 2014, the system is capable of helping teachers of Grade 1 through Grade 10 plus SATII and AP Chinese courses of Ma Liping Chinese Language and Culture curriculum and has served over 200 teachers from the four branch campuses of American Chinese School as well as about 100 teachers from over 20 Chinese schools worldwide.

    Dr. Wobus's effective and inspirational teaching is well liked by her students and their families, which made her one of the most desired teachers of Chinese language in the area as well as among schools that teach MLP Chinese curriculum.  The MLP Chinese Information Center, an online system for disseminating MLP curriculum and sharing experience, created and hosted by Dr. Wobus and her Chinese school, is highly regarded by the author of MLP Chinese curriculum and is listed as the go-to place and consultation center at Dr. Ma Liping's website for all schools in the US and abroad teaching MLP Chinese curriculum.  In Dr. Wobus's own words, "Spearheading the implementation of this curriculum gave me a great flexibility to create and experiment a series of teaching techniques and management strategies to support the delivery of the curriculum.  Heading the entire team has given me invaluable experience in training teachers and managing teaching resources and sharpened my skills in student management including entrance and exit assessments."

    Dr. Wobus is considered by her peers and administrators as experienced in effective organization of lessons, motivational delivery of content, professionalism in communication, and outcome evaluation and research.  Her mastery of classroom instruction skills, distant learning strategies, superior Chinese and English language, her experience in connecting with students, and most importantly her educator instinct made her one of the most desired Chinese language and culture educators for any education programs.

    Dr. Wobus has also been very active in her community life for the past 20 years, involving herself in her child's elementary, middle, and high school parent-teacher organizations as a leader and volunteering in various local educational and cultural organizations and events that involve working with youths.  She was instrumental in motivating high school students to volunteer for local political campaigns and setting up student club dedicated to involving Asian students into local political life.  She is also a major contributor to youth leadership programs.

Please visit:：
Dr. Wobus actively organizes her teahers to share their teaching experience with the community to help parents and students understand the curriculum and learn how to study Chinese effectively.  She has been a frequent contributor to local Chinese language publications by sharing her own insights and experience about the curriculum and teaching experience.  Some of her articles have been translated into English (English title underlined with a link).
My blog on Language & Culture
My blog on Stories behind the Photos (forthcoming)