Just found this web site by a group of families working for immersion near Silicon Valley.

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About Multilingual Kids
Bienvenidos! Ni Hao! Welcome!  We’re a group of San Carlos, Belmont, and Redwood Shores families who are interested in increasing the language learning opportunities for our school-aged children.  We are advocating for Spanish and/or Mandarin language immersion elementary school classes and high-quality after school language enrichment programs.

You can find their site here.

What we don’t understand is why, if there’s clearly so much interest in Mandarin in this part of NJ, the school district’s don’t simply launch Mandarin immersion programs. Generally speaking, MI programs don’t cost that much more as bilingual teachers aren’t paid more.

From Maplewood Patch

Cerf’s Comments Spur Questions About Support for ‘Boutique’ Charters in Suburbia

Acting Education Commissioner says there’s room to debate special-interest charter schools.

By Marilyn Joyce Lehren | Email the author | May 15, 2011

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Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf acknowledged that what he called “boutique” charter schools, such as those offering language immersion programs, might not be needed in suburban districts that are “humming along.”

At a forum sponsored by NJ Spotlight last week in Newark, Cerf cited a proposed Mandarin-immersion charter in Princeton in questioning whether the harm such charters could cause to their districts outweighs their potential to enhance a “portfolio” of educational offerings.

“I think you really can have a very serious debate, the outcome of which is unclear, as to whether that rounds out the portfolio or impairs the success of the overall district,” Cerf said.

What Cerf’s statement means for the future of applications to open two Mandarin-immersion charters in some Essex County districts — including one in Maplewood — is unclear, but it could signal a change in the acting commissioner’s thinking about the role on charters in high-performing suburban districts.

Charter schools are public schools that use tax dollars but operate independently of the school district. Nationally, charter schools do about as well as regular public schools, though the best charters in the country are credited in raising the achievement of low-income children.

More here.

From the Center for Advance Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota

CARLA Summer Institutes 2011

(To see on the web, go here.)

Hurry and register!

The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota has sponsored a summer institute program for second language teachers since 1996. This internationally known program reflects CARLA’s commitment to link research and theory with practical applications for the classroom. Each institute is highly interactive and includes discussion, theory-building, hands-on activities, and plenty of networking opportunities.

CARLA summer institute participants—more than 3,400 to date—have come from all over the world. They have included foreign language and ESL teachers at all levels of instruction, as well as program administrators, curriculum specialists, and language teacher educators. The institutes that will be offered during summer 2011 are:

Using Social Networking Technology: Collaborative Language Learning
June 20-August 19, 2011
Presenters: Marlene Johnshoy, Alyssa Ruesch and Dan Soneson
In this new 8-week online course, participants will work together to learn ways to use social networking and Web 2.0 application to promote student language learning.

Immersion 101: An Introduction to Immersion Teaching for Character-Based Languages
June 20–24, 2011
Presenters: Tara Fortune and Molly Wieland
This institute provides novice immersion teachers in character-based languages with the tools and information they need to survive and thrive in the immersion classroom. The institute also includes a two-day session for administrators of immersion education programs for character-based languages.

Content-Based Language Instruction and Curriculum Development
July 11-15, 2011
Presenter: Laurent Cammarata
This institute will provide foreign language teachers with the background and tools needed to implement content-based instruction in their second language classroom.

Culture as the Core in the Second Language Classroom
July 11-15, 2011
Presenters: Francine Klein and Wendy Allen
Weaving together theory and practice, this interactive institute will help teachers develop instructional strategies and practical tools for integrating language learning with a systematic culture curriculum.

Focusing on Learner Language: 
Second Language Acquisition Basics for Teachers
July 11-15, 2011
Presenters: Elaine Tarone and Maggie Broner
Participants will learn to analyze learner language in light of research on second language acquisition and will then consider implications for language teaching.

Meeting the Challenges of Immersion Education: Counterbalanced Instruction in the Immersion Classroom
July 11-15, 2011
Presenter: Roy Lyster
This new institute will provide a fresh perspective on integrating language and content in the immersion classroom.

Immersion 101: An Introduction to Immersion Teaching
July 18-22, 2011
Presenters: Tara Fortune, Maureen Curran Dorsano and Ursina Swanson
This institute provides novice immersion teachers with the tools and information they need to survive and thrive in the immersion classroom. The institute has been reconfigured to offer two teacher sessions simultaneously and a newly expanded 3-day session for administrators of immersion education programs.

Developing Assessments for the Second Language Classroom
July 18-22, 2011
Presenters: Ursula Lentz and Donna Clementi
Focusing on the alignment of standards-based curriculum and assessment, this institute includes an overview of the wide range of purposes in assessment, and step-by-step guidance in creating integrated performance assessments for classroom use.

Improving Language Learning: 
Styles- and Strategies-Based Instruction
July 18-22, 2011
Presenter: Martha Nyikos
This summer institute is designed to help language teachers maximize students’ ability to learn a foreign/second language through styles- and strategies-based instruction.

Language and Culture in Sync: Developing Learners’ Sociocultural Competence
July 25-29, 2011
Presenter: Noriko Ishihara
Participants will gain both theoretical and practical insights on teaching students how to use functional language appropriately in different socio-cultural contexts.

Using Technology: Digital Storytelling for Communication
July 25-29, 2011
Presenters: Marlene Johnshoy, Beth Kautz, Alyssa Ruesch, Dan Soneson, Rick Treece, Pablo Viedma and Zhen Zou
Participants in this institute will learn how to use technology to facilitate storytelling and get “hands on” practice in using computers to promote students’ skills in interpretation, presentation, and interaction.

Developing Materials for Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs)
July 25-29, 2011
Presenters: Bill Johnston and Louis Janus
This summer institute will provide LCTL teachers with practical tools and hands-on experience in designing a wide range of materials that will improve their students’ abilities to use the language for communicative purposes. A special rebate of $150 will be available to teachers who submit satisfactory curricular material to the LCTL website.

Registration Information—Note: Many of the institutes fill up very quickly. Register now!
The cost of each of the CARLA summer institutes is $350 if registration is received by May 31, 2011 and $400 after that date. More information is available on the CARLA  website at: http://www.carla.umn.edu/institutes. To request a copy of a print brochure you can email the CARLA office at: carla@umn.edu.

The institutes have been developed and are offered with the support, in part, of the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI Language Resource Center program. The summer institutes are co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development and College of Liberal Arts.

Advanced Practices in Second Language Teaching Certificate
This certificate offered by the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development provides an exciting opportunity for teachers of foreign languages and English as a second/foreign language to showcase their professional development work through the CARLA summer institute program by taking the institutes for graduate level credit.

More information about the courses needed to obtain the certificate, admission criteria, and application materials can be found on the web at: http://www.cehd.umn.edu/CI/Programs/college/Certificates/Advanced-SLT.html

“Things I Wish I’d Known:  Current Mandarin immersion parents offer up
what they’ve learned to incoming MI families”

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
6:00-7:30 PM
Jose Ortega Elementary School (in the library)
400 Sargent Street
San Francisco

At this meeting of the Mandarin Immersion Parents Council, current MI parents from Jose Ortega and Starr King will answer questions and generally offer advice to families who have just gotten into Mandarin immersion.  Bring your questions!  Topics can include where to buy uniforms, how lunches work, and what to expect when your child comes home that first week exhausted from a new school and new friends.  If your family speaks Mandarin at home, perhaps you have questions about what your child will be learning and what kind of support is available for English language learners.

We’ll also have copies of the MI FAQ: Everything you always wanted to know about Mandarin immersion in the San Francisco Public Schools but didn’t know who to ask.  We look forward to meeting our new families.  (And if you’re wait listing for either Jose Ortega or Starr King, you’d be most welcome too!)

Childcare will be available at $10/child.  Dinner will be provided for kids.

Millburn Hosts Panel Discussion on Charter Schools

Princeton school officials among those talking about the cost of charter schools to school districts.

By Marilyn Joyce Lehren and Laura Griffin |  May 9, 2011

   

School leaders from four neighboring school districts gathered in Millburn on Monday night to learn more about charter schools – a divisive issue in New Jersey that now concerns even high-performing districts like Millburn, which is faced with two Mandarin-immersion charters seeking approval.

“It’s a storm and it’s a big storm now,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools. “And it’s not a perfect storm.”

Strickland was part of a panel brought together at Millburn High School to provide school boards from Millburn, Livingston, Union and South Orange-Maplewood with information to take back to their communities.

Millburn will follow up this meeting an agenda item for discussion by board members and the public at its May 23 meeting, said Superintendent Dr. James Crisfield.

School districts have until the end of May to respond to the New Jersey Department of Education with concerns and questions about applications filed by two Mandarin charters – Hanyu International Academy Charter School and Hua Mei Charter School.

Read more here.

Getty Images

Four teachers at a special magnet school in Point Loma will have their pink slips rescinded.

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By Rory Devine

A reprieve this afternoon for a Mandarin Chinese immersion program in Point Loma, after 80 percent of their mandarin teachers were given pink slips.

When pink slips were first handed out to teachers, there was much concern about the future of this five-year-old magnet program. Concern, after four of the five teachers who teach Mandarin Chinese there were issued pink slips.

Now, it looks like those lay off notices will be rescinded.

Sally Lowe was one of those told she could be laid off from her job at the Barnard Mandarin Chinese Magnet School. Despite 15 years of teaching experience, she has only four years with San Diego Unified, so she has less seniority than other teachers in the District.

Source: Teachers’ Pink Slips Rescinded | NBC San Diego