Teachers •    …]]> What makes our program special are our quality teachers, unique curriculum, and communication with parents in pursuit of this goal.

Teachers
•    Most have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in bilingual education or early child education
•    Significant work experience with young children
•    Native speaking dual language teacher staff
•    Quality interactions with low student to teacher ratios
•    Significant training and development of teachers
Curriculum
•    Meets requirements for childhood best practices
•    Content focus is strong in science, math, arts, and music
•    Meets ACTFL (American Council for Teaching of Foreign Languages) standards
•    Mandarin Chinese language arts is optimized to enhance important skill areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing
Parent Support
•    Newsletters and frequent updates support non Mandarin speaking households
•    Help in selecting materials for at home support
•    Connection with Chinese community and other families with similar interests

Teacher Xu – Ms. Xu was most …]]> Our teachers are native speakers with backgrounds in early childhood and second language acquisition.

Teacher Xu – Ms. Xu was most recently the full time teacher in Delaware’s H.O. Brittingham Elementary School where she taught Mandarin daily to approximately 120 K-5th graders. Prior to that has also been involved in coaching high students on the Chinese AP test, and well as a language arts teacher at a private school in Hong Kong. Ms. Xu loves young children and has recently relocated to Manhattan.

Teacher Hao – Ms. Hao, currently a head teacher for Bilingual Buds in Summit, has an MA in Asian Studies specializing in teaching Mandarin as a second language from Seton Hall University in NJ. Prior to this, she tutored students for 5 years, and taught at various heritage programs in NJ. A native of Beijing, Ms. Hao volunteered for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Sharon Huang is the Director and Founder of Bilingual Buds. She founded this school in February 2005 because she wanted an immersion environment with enough meaningful exposure for her sons to learn Mandarin in a fun, natural way. Previously Sharon worked in the corporate world for 15 + years including at Nabisco in various brand management positions and in senior director positions at AirTouch Cellular and Weightwatchers.com. By consulting with various experts in the field of second language acquisition and drawing upon best practices from various methodologies, Sharon developed the curriculum currently in use at the school.  Sharon received her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley, and an MBA from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Sharon was born in the United States, a daughter of immigrant Taiwanese parents. Sharon is married and has twin 6 year old sons who are enrolled in their fourth consecutive year at Bilingual Buds.

Carina Bellmann is the Director for Early Childhood Curriculum.  Her responsibilities include acting as a key contact point for parents and overseeing our bilingual curriculum from an early childhood standpoint. Carina comes to Bilingual Buds most recently from Sundance School where she was acting curriculum coordinator (K-3). She has an advanced degree in Elementary Education from Middlebury College and is bicultural and bilingual as she is a dual citizen of Germany and the United States.