National Summer Mandarin Immersion Language Program for High School Students has Openings

(Located on the UW-Madison Campus)

Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth

Please inform interested students and parents. No previous Chinese classes required. Rising eighth graders may also participate.  Students choose to be residential or commuter.

For more information about the Accelerated learning program (ALP):

http://alp.wcatyweb.com/

Session:                                     June 19-July 9, 2011

Application Deadline:                        Extended, Please inquire about openings

Contact:                                    Carole Trone, Director

cjtrone@wisc.edu

Lisa Li Urbonya                                    Instructor, Curriculum Developer for Chinese

actionlanguagelearning@gmail.com

608-332-6132

Residential Tuition:                        $2400

Commuter Tuition:                        $1750

Dear Friends,
The Mandarin Institute in conjunction with STARTALK will offer a K-12 Chinese Teacher Preparation Program to teachers from the U.S. and the Greater China area. It is an unparalleled opportunity for new Chinese language teachers and teachers who are new to teaching in US classrooms, to gain concrete classroom experience teaching American students. For qualifying teachers, the tuition fee ($1600) will be waived. Please help us spreading the word.
Teachers will learn the critical skills they need to be innovative and successful in the classroom and to facilitate high quality Chinese language programming in their schools. This training enables participants to practice what they have learned in authentic American classrooms with real students at the same level as they are going to teach. This program emphasizes “hands-on” training, ensuring that theory is presented in collaboration with the application for a comprehensive training experience. Critical communication skills will be learned through interacting with real school administrators, teacher peers and parents.

Dates: August 1 – August 5, 2011
Location: Chinese American International School
150 Oak Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

Application Deadline: June 3, 2011

Register at http://www.mandarininstitute.org/STARTALK2011_Teacher today!
Contact Benson Zhao bzhao@MandarinInstitute.org (415)861-0966 for more information.

Benson Zhao
Program Manager, Mandarin Institute
44 Page Street, Suite 403
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel: 415-861-0966
Fax: 415-861-0266
http://www.MandarinInstitute.org
http://www.TheMandarinCenter.org

By Andrea Hughes

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of The Item

Millburn Board of Education members stated their opposition loud and clear regarding the applications for two charter schools that could draw students from the district.

Applications for two Mandarin-themed elementary level charter schools, Hanyu International Academy and Hua Mei Charter School, have been submitted to the Department of Education. The public school districts in the schools’ catchment area, including Millburn, have until May 30 to send comments to the state.

At the May 23 board meeting, members passed a resolution allowing Superintendent of Schools James Crisfield to comment to the state in opposition to the schools. They also passed a resolution supporting a New Jersey School Boards Association resolution which states that local voters should have control over the approval for charter schools.

More here.

From Patch

The Board of Education will urge New Jersey school leaders to deny applications for two Mandarin-immersion charter schools in Livingston.

Voting unanimously, the board members hope a letter – now in draft form – will persuade Acting Education Commission Christopher Cerf to deny charters for Hanyu International Academy Charter School and Hua Mei Charter School.

“When charter schools were started, even then I wasn’t a fan of them,” said Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex), who joined the nearly full house in the auditorium at Livingston High School for public discussion on charter schools. “I think the jury’s still out if the vision was urban as oppose to suburban.”

Acting separately at their meeting at town hall, the Township Council voted 4-1 to oppose the charter applications as well. Councilwoman Deborah Shapiro, who is a founder of Hanyu International, did not abstain and voted against the resolution.

Read more here.

A production crew  from China Central Television was filming at Starr King Elementary school in San Francisco on Friday. The focus of her story was on “the rise in Mandarin immersion programs in the United States,” says Rachel Silverman of CCTV. The story should air in the coming weeks. We’ll post a link to it when it does.

The Columbia Anthology of Chinese Folk and Popular Literature

Edited by Victor H. Mair and Mark Bender

Paper, 800 pages, 1 map
ISBN: 978-0-231-15313-3
$37.50

May, 2011
Cloth, 800 pages, 1 map
ISBN: 978-0-231-15312-6
$105.00 / £72.50

In The Columbia Anthology of Chinese Folk and Popular Literature, two of the world’s leading sinologists, Victor H. Mair and Mark Bender, capture the breadth of China’s oral-based literary heritage. This collection presents works drawn from the large body of oral literature of many of China’s recognized ethnic groups—including the Han, Yi, Miao, Tu, Daur, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Kazak—and the selections include a variety of genres. Chapters cover folk stories, songs, rituals, and drama, as well as epic traditions and professional storytelling, and feature both familiar and little-known texts, from the story of the woman warrior Hua Mulan to the love stories of urban storytellers in the Yangtze delta, the shaman rituals of the Manchu, and a trickster tale of the Daur people from the forests of the northeast. The Cannibal Grandmother of the Yi and other strange creatures and characters unsettle accepted notions of Chinese fable and literary form. Readers are introduced to antiphonal songs of the Zhuang and the Dong, who live among the fantastic limestone hills of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; work and matchmaking songs of the mountain-dwelling She of Fujian province; and saltwater songs of the Cantonese-speaking boat people of Hong Kong. The editors feature the Mongolian epic poems of Geser Khan and Jangar; the sad tale of the Qeo family girl, from the Tu people of Gansu and Qinghai provinces; and local plays known as “rice sprouts” from Hebei province. These fascinating juxtapositions invite comparisons among cultures, styles, and genres, and expert translations preserve the individual character of each thrillingly imaginative work.

More here.

From the Lake Oswego Review

Board should vote ‘si’ or ‘shide’ for Spanish, Chinese immersion program

By Sarah Howell

, May 19, 2011

SUBMITTED FILE PHOTO

The Lake Oswego School District’s Mandarin PreK immersion program, shown here during a special program earlier this year at Palisades Elementary School, is providing valuable language experience to students at a young age.

The demand for these programs has never been greater. LOSD now offers Spanish immersion classrooms for PreK and Kindergarten, and Mandarin immersion classrooms for preschool/PreK. Classrooms have wait lists heading into fall 2011.

More here.

Another editorial on the same topic in the same paper:

Keep school language immersion programs

By Cindi Moyle

, May 19, 2011

Our community is at an exciting crossroads for the next generation of learners. We have succesfully experienced Mandarin and Spanish Language Immersion programs in our local schools with extrodinary demand to keep the programs going through fifth grade and beyond!

I am the Mother of a 5-year-old girl in the Chinese program. The benefits have been astounding. Shown as early as the first week of school through her increased creativity of playing and building things, to her wall art, and caring for others. It was clear to us that a new side of her brain was awakening.

As we near the end of the first year, our 5 year old can count into her 30s in Chinese, and into her 60s in English. She can name most basic colors and shapes in Chinese, and, of course, English. She can name several objects, fruits, vegetables and animals in Chinese and sing Chinese songs. The final icing on the cake though was a couple weeks ago when she asked me, “Mom, do you know what 7 plus 4 equals?” Then she gives me the answer! She has recently started reading in English as well.

More here