Author: Elizabeth Weise

  • Austin’s Joslin Elementary School, is one of 12 schools named as a possible closure in the district’s ongoing school changes plan. From the Austin Independent School District: October 21, 2019 Austin ISD’s Joslin Elementary School located in south Austin received a $284,000 School Action Fund Grant from the Texas Education Agency to reimagine the school through…

  • This is an interesting program. It sets up chats between kids in the United States (and elsewhere) and China, half in Mandarin and half in English. What seems useful about it is that there’s a facilitator, to keep the kids talking. We did some “video pen pal” like tries in our grade school and mostly…

  • There will be 327 Mandarin immersion schools in the United States in the fall of 2020. That’s 22 more than last year and a remarkable increase from the 235 of just three years ago. The increase comes from school districts building out from grade school in to middle and high school, a small but growing…

  • Fremont, California is a northern suburb of San Jose with a population of about 240,000, many of whom work in Silicon Valley. The city is 57% Asian. All of which made it a natural for a Mandarin immersion program in its public schools. In 2008 a group of extremely determined parents made that happen. Today…

  • As schools look at a new and as yet unclear future, here’s a nice example from an immersion charter school in Ohio of how to do online fundraising. The GALA gala each year always sounded like a lot of fun (from seeing their emails). It’s impressive how they managed to capture some of their excitement…

  • Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual National Chinese Language Conference is happening online this year, Wednesday through Friday June 24-26, and it’s free. Of course the online version will be much diminished from the usual rich mix of interactions, school visits and presentations that bring educators up to date on the latest in Chinese…

  • An example of how a principal with a vision and totally transform a school — and create the only Mandarin immersion program in Hawai’i. Which, thankfully, will continue on. Aloha, President Perry Martin 05/13/2020 BY HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD The outgoing Maryknoll president’s vision for the school parallels the founding sisters’ mission and charism By the Maryknoll Sisters…