From our friends at the Asia Society’s China Learning Initiatives. A Road Map for Planning a Successful “DIY” Two-Way School-to-School Partnership Exchange Program: Part I Timeline, Key Components and Other Tips BY HEIDI STEELE This article is intended for people who are running a “DIY” two-way exchange in which a school’s language teacher/coordinator is handling all…

    This is a popular site at schools, but I think it’s not widely known among parents. The cool thing about SnapLingo is that it’s real interaction with real Chinese kids, but it’s curated so you know your child is chatting safely. Kids will work a lot harder when they’re a real person, especially another kids, on…

Those great Shanghai guys at The Mandarin Companion, Jared Turner & John Pasden, have taken their e-book* translation of The Secret Garden (a classic kids’ book) into Mandarin and turned it into a print book. While I really like the e-book version because you can click on words you don’t know and jump directly back to the vocabulary list, for…

I can’t imagine letting my kids leave home early, I’m already dreading college and it’s years  away. I’ve told them the only boarding school they’re allowed to get in is Hogwarts–but they have to take me with them! Still, a surprising number of families I know and love are considering boarding schools, for all sorts of reasons.…

MARCH 4, 2015 Chinese naming ceremony for Cave Creek kindergarteners Bookmark and Share ccusd chinese naming Chinese Immersion students at Horseshoe Trails Elementary School (HTES) received their official Chinese name during the bilingual naming ceremony. These kinder students were able to learn the special meaning of their new name and leave with their name written…

A nice example of a smaller program starting a parents’ group to support its Mandarin immersion program. I especially like the link between the name of the group and the broader school’s mascot. And *this* is the Vancouver that’s just across the Columbia river from Portland, Oregon. Naselle parents group creates the Rising Star Fund Share on…

Avenues makes a big deal about being an immersion school, offering both Spanish and Mandarin immersion. However when I visited last year I did not get the impression that in Chinese, students got 50% of their academic instruction in Chinese, which is the definition of immersion.   Education Entrepreneur Chris Whittle Resigns From Avenues School…