• [This is from the Broadway Elementary School Social Media/PR coordinator, which just shows you what a powerhouse school it is that they even have a parent volunteer who does that. Here’s the page for their parent group, Dragon Sprouts.–Beth]

    Screen Shot 2014-02-08 at 9.50.46 AM

    ENROLLMENT OPENS AT BROADWAY

    Enrollment applications for the Mandarin Immersion 2014–15 Kindergarten cohort are now available in the Main Office at Broadway Elementary School. The one-page application can be picked up Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

    Although we are not encouraging anyone to line-up at 1:30 in the morning like they did last year – we are prepared for some parents to do just that and expect to have some local media coverage of the enrollment process on 3/3.
    Parents will fill out the LAUSD enrollment packet AFTER they are accepted into the program. This is the application procedure, not the enrollment procedure which is a bit of change from previous years.
    The World Journal (Chinese Daily News) ran an article on the Chinese New Year celebrations taking place at Broadway this week
    The Sing Tao Daily also ran a detailed profile of the BMI program, including the program’s history and its quick expansion and popularity this week. The online paper only lets your read part of the story (because they want you to buy the paper).
    Here is the link – I also have some images of the paper if you would like to use them. We are in the process of getting a readable PDF version of the articles in their entirety to be distributed to our MI community via our Facebook page.
  • It’s a conundrum all Chinese immersion programs face. An upcoming conference will help teachers with tools to do just that.

    The website is here. The agenda is here.

    CDC

  • Horses, 3/4 body pose, facing forward.The new Mandarin show Fun Fun Elmo got over 5 million views on its Youtube channel.
    Sesame Street has  uploaded 13 brand new episodes to its site just in time for Chinese New Year. They’re here.
    ====

    For the first time, hosts from China’s CCTV children’s channel will mingle with Sesame Street Muppets thanks to a collaboration with Sesame Workshop on a Spring Festival-themed special.

    The one-hour special series, entitled Happy New Year, is airing every night this week with various themes designed to encourage kids to learn more about the Chinese Spring Festival. During the special, there is a segment called Chinese New Year, where Elmo, Cookie Monster and Lily chat with CCTV hosts about special traditions and customs. The Chinese New Year segments will be re-broadcast from January 31-February 6 on CCTV Children’s Channel.

    The 10 segments feature CCTV children’s hosts Ju Ping, Dong Hao, Jin Guizi, Huang Wei, Xiao Lu, Red Apple and Green Bubble, Mr. Sesame, Sister Moon, Du Yue and Zhou Zhou. The themes include monster year, bid farewell to the old and usher in the new, dinner on the eve of New Year, the Year of the Horse, lion dance and Lantern Festival.

    Read more: http://kidscreen.com/2014/01/29/sesame-street-gets-into-the-chinese-new-year-spirit-with-cctv/#ixzz2sTW4mYmf

  • STL Language Immersion Schools recognized internationally

    St. Louis Language ImmersionPhoto by Bill Zurheide

    St. Louis Language Immersion

     

    French School students Daphne Bishop and Deangelo Robinson, who are now first graders, play together in kindergarten. The St. Louis Language Immersion school district now has three campuses – the French, Spanish and Chinese schools – and a fourth one is on the way.

     

    Posted: Thursday, January 9, 2014 12:05 am

    By Rebecca Rivas

    A group of second graders at the French School, a local language-immersion charter school, recently fought for the right to use school lockers – and won.

    Speaking in French, the students presented their arguments to Head of School Conrad Wildsmith.

    Leading an issue-oriented campaign was part of their class curriculum, but the second graders took it a step further to fundraise for the cost to pay for new locker keys – an expense that kept the school from allowing students to use the lockers previously, said Rhonda Broussard, president and founder of the St. Louis Language Immersion Schools.

    The second graders’ campaign is one example of what sets the immersion schools’ curriculum apart from other schools, she said.

    “Students are expected to be actors,” she said. “They are expected to recognize needs and take actions – not wait for someone else to do it for them.”

    In December, Broussard learned that its French School and Spanish School have joined the ranks of 1,100 elementary schools worldwide, 400 in the U.S., and only three others in Missouri to offer the International Baccalaureate Organization’s Primary Years Programme (PYP) curriculum.

    Please read more here.

  • Growth prompts school’s planned move

    By Flori Meeks | February 4, 2014

    When Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School gets the new building promised to it, the new campus will be at the corner of West Alabama and Yorktown, not at the school’s current location in Bellaire.

    “That decision has been finalized; we will move,” Principal ChaoLin Chang said. “Now we’re in the process of working with our architect and project advisory team on the building’s plans.”

    Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School opened in August 2012 at Gordon Elementary School, 6300 Ave. B, for pupils in pre-kindergarten through second grade.

    Please read more here.

  • Forest Hills Elementary to offer Chinese language immersion program

    Published: Tuesday, February 4, 2014 at 12:05 p.m.
    Last Modified: Tuesday, February 4, 2014 at 12:05 p.m.

    Ni hao, Forest Hills Elementary School: You’re going to learn to speak Mandarin Chinese.

    Starting this fall, Forest Hills Elementary plans to offer a language immersion program that would let incoming kindergarten students study Mandarin Chinese. The program would be similar to the school’s Spanish language immersion program, which parents and school officials say gives the students a “full brain experience.”

    Forest Hills Elementary decided to try to offer a Mandarin Chinese immersion program earlier this school year. Principal Deb Greenwood said she wanted to offer Mandarin Chinese because of the increasing number of people across the world who speak the language. About 20 percent of the world’s population speaks Mandarin.

    Please read more here.

  • Capistrano Unified School District’s
    Mandarin Immersion Program
    2014/15 Kindergarten Enrollment

    School of Choice Enrollment  •  February 3-28, 2014

    Bergeson Elementary School and Capistrano Unified School District are proud to provide the first publicly offered (no cost) Mandarin Chinese Immersion Program in Orange County.  It is a well-proven educational model that provides academic instruction in English and Mandarin Chinese during the 6-year elementary period. The specific goals of this language immersion program after the 6th year are for students to develop high levels of language proficiency and literacy in both program languages, to demonstrate high levels of academic achievement, and to develop an appreciation for and an understanding of diverse cultures.Children must be 5 years old by September 1, 2014, in order to apply for the 2014-15 school year.

    School of Choice Enrollment will be done on a Lottery System. Notification of acceptance into the program will begin in early March.

    For Out of District Families:
    1.  Obtain Home district approval and get released FIRST
    2.  Complete Inter-District application through CUSD

    Tours and Information: This is a very popular program and space is limited. For more information please attend one of the required informational meetings. For more information contact Bergeson Elementary School at 949/643-1540 orCapistrano Unified School District


    Tour Dates

    • Friday, February 7, 2014  •  8:00 – 9:00am
    • Friday, February 21, 2014  •  8:00 – 9:00am
    • Monday, February 24, 2014  •  8:00 – 9:00am

    All meetings will be held in the Multi-Purpose Room at Bergeson Elementary, 25302 Rancho Niguel Road, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

    For more information, please send your inquires to info@friendsofmip.com.