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…

Vancouver, British Columbia has just one Mandarin immersion school, despite the city being 17% Chinese-Canadian. And yes, I didn’t read carefully and initially conflated it with the much smaller (and non-Canadian) city of Vancouver, Wash., which also has one Mandarin immersion program–but no French immersion! Clearly Vancouver’s choice programs are very popular, as are neighborhood schools. It’s always…

This is from the Asia Society’s Chinese Language Matters newsletter, which is chock-full of useful information for teachers, administrators and parents of kids studying Chinese. I highly recommend signing up for it here; Simple Machine Flipping the Classroom Propels Learning Launching a flipped classroom demands creativity and initiative. The payoff is cumulative. (Flickr/rowanbank) By Heather Clydesdale…

February 24 2015, 6.10pm EST If you speak Mandarin, your brain is different AUTHOR Larry Taylor Senior lecturer, Department of Psychology at Northumbria University, Newcastle DISCLOSURE STATEMENT Larry Taylor does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant…