Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • Local educators weigh in on both sides of charter schools bills including Mandarin

    PRINCETON AREA: Local educators weigh in on both sides of charter schools bills
    DATE POSTED: Monday, February 13, 2012 4:37 PM EST
    By Charley Falkenburg, Staff Writer

    Two controversial charter school reform bills are working their way to the full Assembly after the Assembly Education Committee approved them at a Feb. 2 hearing.

    The first bill would require a public referendum before the establishment or expansion of new charter schools.

    The other would increase charter school educational and financial accountability. It would address the fact that New Jersey charter school students do not represent the demographics of their sending districts and would include a provision that would sign up all district students in a charter school’s admission lottery.

    Many public school districts support these bills, particularly the law requiring local approval for a new charter school. Under the current law, local communities have no say in the charter school approval process even though the schools are funded from public school budgets.

       Princeton schools spend almost $5 million annually on the Princeton Charter School. They would have to pay an additional $250,000 if a proposed Princeton International Academy Charter School, a Mandarin immersion school, is permitted to open in South Brunswick.

    Princeton Board of Education president Rebecca Cox disagreed with making Princeton taxpayers fund these schools and said such schools should need the approval of the public they are affecting.

    Please read more here.

  • San Diego Mandarin immersion school welcomes Chinese visitors

    Keira Idumi, a kindergartner at Barnard Mandarin Chinese Magnet School in Point Loma, claps during the Barnard Chinese New Year, Year of the Dragon celebration. The new year celebration began on Jamuary 23, and continues for 15 days.

    POINT LOMA HEIGHTS —

    It isn’t every day that an official from a major Chinese metropolis pulls up with a busload of children to see a performance at what just a few years ago was a struggling San Diego school.

    Nor is it common to find Superintendent Bill Kowba taking time out from dealing with yet another daunting budget deficit to watch a dance routine by a group of kindergartners in a crowded multipurpose room.

    But Barnard Elementary, also known as Barnard Mandarin Chinese Magnet School, isn’t just any campus. And when it celebrated the Chinese New Year, it drew a crowd that not only included Kowba and the city councilman from Chongqing, but also several leaders from San Diego County’s Chinese community.

    Please read more here.

  • College Park, MD Mandarin immersion going strong

    Prince George’s adds Chinese immersion at elementary school

    View Photo Gallery —  Paint Branch Elementary School in Prince George’s County is the latest school in the Washington region to join the trend of a Chinese immersion program to its curriculum.

     

     

    By Ovetta Wiggins, Thursday, February 9, 6:48 AM

    The Prince George’s County teacher lifted a foam object from an orange bucket in her lap and waited for someone in the kindergarten class to identify its shape. Not in English. Not even in Spanish. Instead, the answer came in another language gaining popularity in American classrooms.

    “Yuan xing!” shouted a little girl in a blue-and-white uniform who wears tiny cornrows in her hair. “Yuan xing!” the others, sitting on the floor in front of the teacher, echoed in unison.

    Please read more here.

  • New location for Mandarin immersion school in Houston

    Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School

    Gordon Elementary School

    6300 Avenue B
Bellaire, TX 77401

    Houston Independent School District is currently accepting applications for Pre-K to second grade for the 2012-2013 school year. 
Please visit www.houstonisd.org/magnet for more details and to apply the Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School.

    Texas
Holden Elementary School, Houston
HISD’s first ever Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School will open in time for the 2012-2013 school year, the Board of Education decided unanimously at its December 2011 monthly meeting. The school will be located at the site of the former Holden Elementary School, 812 W. 28th St., and will initially serve students in the early elementary school grades, with additional grades to be added in subsequent years. The school will serve youngsters from throughout the district, and transportation will be provided.

     

  • Thinking of going to the Chinese Language Conference?

    I’m giving a workshop at the conference on why parents chose Mandarin immersion for their children. If you’re planning on coming to the conference, drop a line and we can have a parent meet-up while we’re there.

    Beth

  • National Chinese Language Conference April 12-14, 2012 DC

     

     

     
    State of the Field:
    Proficiency, Sustainability, and Beyond
    April 12–14, 2012 | Washington Marriott Wardman Park

    Extended Early-bird Registration!

    We’ve extended the early-bird deadline, so you have until February 15 to get the most savings on your NCLC registration.

    Program Lineup Now Available

    This year’s exciting conference program lineup is now online. Take a look at the 60 sessions on offer. (The full program, including times, locations, and session descriptions, will be available soon.)

    5 Reasons to Be in Washington, DC this April

    1. Fifth Annual National Chinese Language Conference: Join us to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the NCLC and reflect on the state of the field – the accomplishments of the past, and the challenges and opportunities of the future.
    2. Rich Preconference Offerings: Sign up for school visits to see Chinese classrooms in action and find out how others teach Chinese language and culture. Register for workshops and learn from experts on assessment, standards, instructional strategies, calligraphy, and music.
    3. Exciting Conference Program: Hear from visionary plenary speakers and enjoy an exceptional musical performance. For the first time in the U.S., I SING BEIJINGwill perform for NCLC participants.
    4. Springtime in Washington, DC: Explore our nation’s capital and enjoy the beauty of the blooming cherry blossoms.
    5. Proximity to Capitol Hill: Be an advocate for world language learning. Make an appointment with your congressional representative and let them know why funding for Chinese language programs is a high priority.
    Photo credit: flickr/shagyshoo
    Learn more on the conference website:www.AsiaSociety.org/NCLC
    Spread the word: print and share theconference flyer
    Network with more than a thousand educators, plus publishers, service providers, and policymakers.
    See what it’s all about! The video page features keynotes and performances from years past.
    Experience Washington, DC and the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Explore the city’s cultural treasures.
    Copyright © 2012 Asia Society. All rights reserved.
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    New York, New York 10021

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  • 2012: The Year Mandarin Chinese Becomes a ‘Commonly Taught Language’?

    December 22nd, 2011 by Chris Livaccari

    A student at Aiton Elementary School in Washington, D.C., practices Chinese. (Grace Norman)

    This is part of a series of year-end posts on Asia Blog written by Asia Society experts and Associate Fellows looking back on noteworthy events in 2011. You can read the entire series here.

    In the 1980s and 1990s, in an effort to define the territory of our field, language educators created the idea of the “less commonly taught languages,” or LCTL . What is peculiar about this notion is that it includes just about every single one of the more than 5,000 languages spoken on Planet Earth, with the exception of English and just three other languages: Spanish, French, and German. For many years, these “big three” languages were just about the only choices available to language learners in the U.S., especially at the K-12 level.

    What is perhaps most puzzling is that these “commonly taught languages” represent a mere drop in the linguistic bucket in terms of number of speakers worldwide. Combined, they comprise about 500 million speakers, roughly half that of Mandarin Chinese alone, and not much more than Hindi or Arabic. In fact, Spanish is the only one of the Big Three that has significantly more than 100 million speakers — other languages in this range include the aforementioned Hindi and Arabic, Bengali, Japanese, Punjabi, Russian and Portuguese (mostly representing Brazil).

    In the early ’90s, when I began my studies of Chinese and Japanese, the world looked very different than it does today. I can look back to a time when Japan was “number one” and Japanese was the language of technology and industry, the language of the future. If you had looked at less commonly taught languages in 1990 or 1991, the smart money would have been on Japanese to supplant German or French as a “commonly taught” language. But in 2011 or 2012, that distinction clearly belongs to Chinese.

    Read more here.