Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • VIDEO: Chinese immersion programs could be among federal cuts for Beaufort County schools

     

    By RACHEL HEATON
    rheaton@beaufortgazette.com
    843-706-8177
    Published Monday, January 23, 2012
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    When a visitor enters one classroom at Hilton Head Island Elementary School, 26 first-graders turn toward the door and shout their welcome.”Ni Hao!”

    That’s “hello” in Mandarin.

    The students solve math problems in the language and follow basic classroom commands. They’ve learned about Chinese culture and dutifully work to write the language’s intricate characters.

    The class learns mostly in Mandarin as part of an immersion program the Beaufort County School District began in 2010. More than 80 first- and second-graders at Hilton Head Elementary and Broad River Elementary schools participate.

    But the grant that funds them — the Foreign Language Assistance Program, which provided $1.3 million over five years — could be cut from the federal budget this year. Those grants would have run through 2015, but funding for the program has been eliminated by the House of Representatives. The legislation has not passed the Senate.That means the district would have to find the money for its programs elsewhere, reduce their scope or end them altogether.

  • More parents demand immersion programs to help children thrive in a global society

    Learning in multiple languages

    More parents demand immersion programs to help children thrive in a global society

    Teaching assistant Jiao Yang directs Leo Edward Martinez to the whiteboard during an assignment in Mandarin immersion at Riverview Elementary School in Lakeside.
    Teaching assistant Jiao Yang directs Leo Edward Martinez to the whiteboard during an assignment in Mandarin immersion at Riverview Elementary School in Lakeside. — John Gastaldo
    Photo of

    Written by
    Maureen Magee
     A kindergartner at Nestor Language Academy, Violet Jaime, is taught just about everything in Spanish — reading, writing, math, music and what’s on the menu in the cafeteria. So are her classmates, a combination of English and Spanish speakers.
    English instruction will gradually increase to 50 percent by fifth grade, when most Nestor students typically achieve bilingual status.

    At Lakeside’s Riverview Elementary School, second-grader Leah Markworth’s education is delivered in equal parts Mandarin and English, with regular supplements of Spanish.

    Read more here.

  • Venice, Calif. MI students celebrate the Spring Festival

    Broadway Elementary in Venice Celebrates Chinese New Year

    Students in the Mandarin Immersion Program at Broadway Elementary in Venice celebrate the Year of the Dragon.

    (A tip o’ the pen to Patch, AOL’s local news organization. They’re doing some of the best local coverage of immersion programs nationwide. If there is a Patch blog in your area, I encourage you to reach out to them about your Mandarin immersion school. They seem to be the only ones who realize this is a true national trend. -Beth)

    • January 24, 2012
    First-grade Broadway Mandarin Immersion students celebrate the Year of the Dragon on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Credit Courtesy of Erika Beck

    Students enrolled in the Mandarin Immersion Program at Broadway Elementary School in Venice celebrated Chinese New Year on Tuesday. An assembly was held on the playground and featured students enrolled in the largest Los Angeles Unified School District Mandarin Immersion Program on the Westside.

    Please read more here.

  • The Growing Alternative To English-Only Education

    Immersion Programs Offered In English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, French

    By Alyse Shorland

    POSTED: 1:35 pm PST January 25, 2012
UPDATED: 5:34 am PST January 26, 2012

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    At Monday’s debate in Florida, Newt Gingrich said this week he supports English as an official language of the United States: “I think it is essential to have a central language that we expect people to learn and to be able to communicate with each other in,” he said.(CNN) — Republicans vying for the GOP presidential nomination are debating and disagreeing about the economy and foreign policy, but they backed each other on one issue this week: the English language.

    Mitt Romney said everyone in school should be learning in English: “English is the language of this nation,” he said. “People need to learn English to be able to be successful, to get great jobs.”

    Romney, in his 2010 book, “No Apologies: the Case for American Greatness,” highlighted his support for English-only immersion in Massachusetts public schools. As governor, he led the state to pass a law against bilingual education, mandating one year of English-only transitional language instruction for anyone learning the language before moving to mainstream classrooms. California and Arizona have similar laws.

    Read more: http://www.kcra.com/education/30299068/detail.html#ixzz1kaAN7Pt4

  • Vancouver Wash. Mandarin immersion program celebrates its first Chinese New Year

    Fired up for year of the dragon at Vancouver elementary

    Portland Lee’s Association Lion Dance Team performs during a program to celebrate the Chinese New Year at Ben Franklin Elementary School on Friday.

    Photo by Zachary Kaufman

    Portland Lee’s Association Lion Dance Team performs during a program to celebrate the Chinese New Year at Ben Franklin Elementary School on Friday.

    By Jacques Von Lunen, Columbian staff writer

    Friday, January 20, 2012

    photo

    By Zachary Kaufman

    First-graders in Ben Franklin Elementary School’s Mandarin Chinese immersion program, from left, Sydney Stahl, 6, and Julia Schweppe, 7, perform in a program to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

    PHOTO GALLERY

    Chinese New Year

    Ben Franklin Elementary School celebrates the Chinese New Year.

    Parents smiled politely while their kids performed a dance at Ben Franklin Elementary School’s assembly Friday morning. The first- and second-graders looked adorable, slapping their partners’ palms while singing jolly rhymes.

    But most of the parents had no idea what their kids were saying.

    The Vancouver students were joining hundreds of millions of people around the world in celebrating the most important holiday on the Chinese lunar calendar — the arrival of the new year.

    And although very few of the students appeared to be of Chinese heritage, most of their songs, rhymes and announcements were performed in Mandarin Chinese.

    Please read more here.

  • San Francisco’s Starr King Elementary prepares for New Year’s parade

     

    BEIJING, Jan. 20 (Xinhuanet) — San Francisco’s Chinese New Year’s parade has been called the largest celebration of Asian culture outside of Asia. This year, as many as a million spectators will watch thousands of people marching in the parade including 100 people who will carry a giant golden dragon. The parade is the culmination of the three-week Spring Festival in San Francisco.

    For these San Francisco fifth graders saying happy New Year in Mandarin is no big deal. They’re in a Mandarin Immersion Class at a school that also offers a bilingual Spanish program and a more conventional English program.

    After school this time of year students from all three programs race to the playground to get ready to march in San Francisco’s famous Chinese New Year Parade. School Principal Greg John says the parade helps bring this diverse community together.

    Greg John said, “We do things to celebrate Latino heritage, we do things to celebrate African American heritage, and this is one of the things we do to unify us around something that’s really big in the Chinese culture.”

    For the drummers, it’s a big day. The straps that let them march with their drums on have arrived. They’re learning a traditional kind of drumming from Northern China, called Xian-Xi.

    Please read more here.

  • Denver Mandarin immersion students prepare for New Year

    Chinese New Year: Ring in the Year of the Dragon with dances, art, food and kung fu

    POSTED: 01/19/2012 04:39:05 PM MST
    UPDATED: 01/19/2012 04:39:10 PM MST

    By The Denver Post

    Kindergartners from the Denver Language School rehearsed a play they will peform at Hamilton Middle School celebrating the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon. The celebration will include traditional Chinese dances and songs performed by the students in their second language, Mandarin. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

    The Chinese New Year begins on Monday, but the time to celebrate is now: New Year’s parties will be happening all over the city in the coming days, with a few big ones banging the gong this weekend.

    Tonight, the Denver Language School welcomes the Year of the Dragon with a performance by students in its kindergarten through third-grade classes. The kids have been learning Mandarin through immersion, and will use their skills in presenting lion dances, handkerchief twirling and traditional Chinese songs. Pro groups from the Chinese Cultural Academy and Wah Lum Kung Fu will take the stage, too.6 p.m. today, Hamilton Middle School, 8600 E. Dartmouth Ave. Tickets: $10 for adults, $5 for kids 5-18, free for 4 and younger. Tickets can be purchased at DLS (451 Newport St.) before 3 p.m. today.

    Read more:Chinese New Year: Ring in the Year of the Dragon with dances, art, food and kung fu – The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_19770053#ixzz1k1DZBdN1
    Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse