With my short summer time back in Tibet/China, I worked on three different activities. ReSa Montessori School is the first and only private school in southwest of Tibet/Qinghai in China. Officially, the school started recruiting regular Tibetan students in October 2013. The school now has 74 full-time children attending as regular classes at pre-school level, and serves over 320 elementary and middle school student during holiday times on subjects like Tibetan writing, Contemporary Arts, Math and Physics. ReSa is a Tibetan word and it means to be “wise”.

To better equip teachers in Montessori education, over the summer in 2015, I organized a-week-long training on Montessori education in Beijing Normal University that was carried out with International Children’s Education Association. The training helped teachers at ReSa to gain basic skills and knowledge in classroom management, curriculum design, math class activities, science and practical life classes for young children. Teachers were able to conduct real classroom practice with young children later on. All teachers were certified as level one Montessori teachers.

Looking for a Baby Yak
 

My second program was to work on my children’s book “looking for a baby yak” which sold out in local Tibetan bookstores this summer. The story is about a young Tibetan child and his baby yak. The baby yak was lost one day. The boy went out to grassland to search for his beloved yak. On the way, he had many exiting adventures. I spent some time in transporting some more copies to government pre-schools in Tibet. I also worked on another book, communicating with illustrator and publishing house about the project. Such children’s books are very rare in Tibet and the benefits are unimaginable.

Ford Fellow Program
 

In the summer I also was part of the Ford Fellows program. Early in June 2015, for about two weeks, joined other Ford Fellows at a cultural center in New York. The program brought 24 leaders, founders, and educators from 15 different countries to engage in a dialogue of “engagement, community, leadership and education.” We visited some charter schools and public schools in New York. The cultural center is an amazing place to be. It has a history of more than one hundred years, but it always has managed to bring people from all walks of life to participate in creative educational programs, from infants to seniors.