Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

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MIPC’s first meeting of the year: A book, a banquet and trip to China

The first meeting of the MIPC for the 2010-2011 school year went very well indeed. It began with a brisk sale of MIPC character placemats, t-shirts and hoodies created by JOES parent Elizabeth Olson (all available on our website as well.)

Jose Ortega Elementary hosted our meeting – special thanks to principal JoLynn Washington who stayed until 7:30 so she could lock the doors behind us.

We’ve got four committees forming for this year that need participants –

Books: Help find our kids fun, enticing books in Chinese! This committee will work with publishers, the library, some universities and talk to other Chinese immersion schools to come up with annotated lists of books for each grade. Let’s get our kids reading!

Banquet: We’re planning a spring Chinese banquet to honor our teachers for all they do to help our children learn Mandarin. It will be held at a local restaurant. If you like food, event planning or just have a line on a great banquet restaurant, this is the committee for you.

China: Our first Mandarin immersion students graduate from 5th grade in the spring of 2012. We’re hoping that eventually we can start fund raising in Kindergarten so that all 5th graders (or potentially 8th graders) can take a class trip to China. But for our first couple of years, we’re thinking more that families that want to can create a stand-alone trip with a strong educational component that’s open to all who chose to participate. This is the committee for those who know China, know travel or just want to make sure there’s a great opportunity for our kids to go somewhere where everyone speaks Mandarin.

and finally,

Middle School: Starr King parent Katie Olson, who’s ably and calmly lead the MIPC Middle School committee during this period of massive change in our middle school plans, gave a great overview of where things currently stand. She urged all parents to make their wishes known to the School Board (emails are on both schools’ lists) and to stay tuned for Sept. 13, when District staff will make their revised presentation to the School Board.

Finally, thanks to Kellyn, who coordinated the meeting at JOES, Scott who created the Powerpoint that kept things short and sweet, and Carrie for all the really delicious plums!

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3 responses to “MIPC’s first meeting of the year: A book, a banquet and trip to China”

  1. Marie Ciepiela Avatar
    Marie Ciepiela

    Hello MIPC,

    Thanks for all the work that went into yesterday. I am writing to apologize for not being there since I kind of dropped the ball on the soon-to-be Books Committee. I hit a wall yesterday, in addition to leaving a whiny message on Beth’s phone. So I am not sure what happened or if we got anyone signed up for that committee.

    I am still willing to be on it and would consider co-chairing with someone. If someone has already taken the chairship, well wonderful. I will join as a team member.

    But had I been there, I would have presented this idea for the committee.

    The idea first come out of discussions among the current 4th grade MI parents at Starr King about the fact that our children were emerging as independent readers and that we could not find appropriate pleasure reading books for them to read at home. I then attended the lecture by Stephen Krashen and wrote the article on MIPC website. And that lead to more discussion.

    In thinking about it more, it seems that there are potentially three categories of need here that could access different kinds of M books:

    1. Emerging independent readers (mid 3rd grade +) who need to find engaging material matched with reading ability level.
    2. K-2/3 pre-readers whose parents do not speak Mandarin. Here, I think we would look at what is out there (and there is a lot) that would substitute for a parent not being able to read to a child. This would include books with CDs, web sites, etc. where a machine reads for you. However, there are still issues about matching to the right reading level.
    3. Language heritage speaking families at all levels. What do they need? And what do they know already that can help the rest of us? Obviously I have no personal experience to speak of here so having a few Mandarin heritage families on the committee would be awesome.

    So I am thinking the committee could have 6-8 people. And that is as far as I have gotten.

    Looking forward to fining out if anyone signed up last night and joining up for an initial conversation.

    Marie Ciepiela

    Reply
  2. Lani Way Avatar
    Lani Way

    MIPC,

    I’ll spearhead the Teacher Appreciation Banquet in the Spring, having recently planned my father’s 80th birthday banquet. I’d appreciate having others to to help plan or to tell me what I’ve missed. I know mostly Chinatown venues.

    My initial list to start – Find the right place with good food, parking and a banquet room big enough for the kids to have room to play. Set the date that coordinates with the main events between schools. Pre-announcement to see if we can get any sense of how many people and then guestimate.

    Develop a short program for the evening with a Starr King and Jose Ortega joint program honoring their teachers. I’m thinking with some kid involvement to make it relevant for them and enough adult involement to keep it moving and making relevant for us.

    Entertainment ideas, Kids from Summer Chinese Music camp? or children singing either a traditional Chinese folk song or translate This land is your land in Mandarin.

    Kids area?- crafts area and someone to supervise their play.

    That’s my first take on the tasks at hand. Let’s hear other ideas.

    Lani

    Reply
  3. Vincent Luong Avatar
    Vincent Luong

    Does anyone know if Lincoln high teaching Mandarin at all? What level? Thanks.

    Reply

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