Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education
Saturday Mandarin Learn and Play Spring 10-1
(click for pdf of the flyer)
Mandarin Learn and Play
Saturday Classes
A program for children from 2 and half to 6 years old
Spring Session 2010
March 6, 10 ‐May, 22, 2010
We found a few new schools we didn’t know about in Michigan.
If you know of more that we don’t list here, please drop us a line.
Thanks and 谢谢！
Rehearsal photos courtesy of Erin Spector and Yinghua Academy
While most schools might have ended their week celebrating Valentine’s Day or President’s Day, the students at Yinghua Academy were busy putting on a dazzling Chinese New Year’s performance for their families. The Chinese immersion charter public school welcomed the Year of the Tiger on Friday with dances, skits, and musical performances involving all 300-plus students.
Every seat of the gym-turned-auditorium was filled, and many parents were left crowded in the back against the wall. Big red paper banners hung from the ceiling and a large painting of a dragon served as a stage backdrop, while loud chants of “gōng xǐ fā cái!”, the traditional Chinese New Year greeting of congratulations and prosperity, rang out all through the show.
Yinghua Academy Executive Director Betsy Lueth said this was the school’s fourth annual Chinese New Year celebration and their biggest event of the year. She says the school focuses a lot of energy and resources on this celebration because the lunar new year is considered the most important holiday in Chinese culture.
Read more here.
Here’s an article from Duval, Florida…
School program will let Chinese kids learn in their native tongue
Duval County Public Schools’ first Chinese immersion program is scheduled to open this fall at an existing charter school that focuses on foreign languages.
Global Outreach Charter School, a K-8 school in its first year of operation, agreed to add the Mandarin language program after a group of parents with adopted children from China approached Duval schools seeking an immersion experience.
Carol Mackoul, whose 5-year-old daughter is Chinese, helped spearhead the program and intends to enroll her daughter next school year.
“Having that language, the first language that she heard, I think is going to be a gift for her, whether she uses it just for herself or for the business world 20 years from now,” Mackoul said.
Mackoul is among about 250 members of First Coast Families with Children from China. About 150 of those members are adopted children.
Global Principal Ralph Della Crosse said the Mandarin program fits the school’s mission.
Read more here.
This is real dedication, doing Mandarin via video conferencing.
From a projector screen in a classroom at Ruch School in rural Jackson County, Mandarin teacher Zhagang Frisbee, who moved here from China, instructs a group of 20 seventh- and eighth-graders to ask her how old she is.
“Ni duo dá?” the students respond.
“Wo sanshiqi sui,” Frisbee replies. That translates to “I’m 37 years old.”
Frisbee explains that in China, it’s not considered impolite to ask someone their age.
“I know in America some old people don’t like to be asked how old they are,” she says.
A Mandarin Chinese program for grades 3 through 8 offered by the Southern Oregon Education Service District began late last month in 15 public school classrooms in Jackson, Josephine and Klamath counties, most of which are in remote locations, including Ruch, Prospect and Pinehurst. In Jackson County, two classes also are held at the Talent Elementary Outdoor Discovery Program.
Read the rest of the story here.
By Elizabeth Weise
Being from Washington state, I’m embarrassed to say that when I went looking for the Vancouver, British Columbia school district to ask about Mandarin immersion there, I mistakenly found the Vancouver, Washington web site and called them without realizing I was in the wrong country.
But it just goes to show that Mandarin is everywhere. The Vancouver Public Schools, it turns out, just launched a Mandarin immersion Kindergarten this year, says Howard Yank, their curriculum resource coordinator. Yank, who’s originally from San Francisco and went to Sloat Elementary, helped put together Vancouver’s program.
They began this year with 24 students in a Kindergarten class at Ben Franklin Elementary School. Washington state has half- and full-day Kindergarten, so there are an additional 9 students who are in Franklin’s half-day program who then go on for a 90 minute Mandarin immersion class in the afternoon. The hope is that next year they’ll all be together in a Mandarin first grade.
They’ve also got a great video up on their site here.
The program’s been going well thus far and the district hopes to have two Kindergartens start in the Fall of 2010 as word spreads of its success, says Yank. They’ve been lucky to have teachers in the district who are native Mandarin speakers and already have teachers lined up for next year.
The program has only a few native Mandarin speaking students, but about 35% of the students come from Mandarin heritage families.
Vancouver also has a six-year-old 50/50 Spanish immersion program and began a 90/10 Spanish immersion program last year, Yank says.
Lafayette, Louisiana’s World Languages Academy, at Alice Coucher Elementary school, added Mandarin this year. There are 14 students in the first Mandarin Kindergarten class. Here’s an AP article about the program…
Apple for teacher is manzana, pomme or ping guo
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — In some classrooms at Alice Boucher Elementary, students who bring their favorite teacher a red, shiny apple have to call it a manzana, pomme or ping guo.
The school’s World Languages Academy offers immersion programs in Spanish, French or Mandarin Chinese. About 150 students are enrolled in the academy, one of the schools of choice in the Lafayette Parish School System. Parents must apply to enroll their child in the program, which begins at PreK for Spanish immersion and kindergarten for the French and Mandarin Chinese. A computerized lottery decides which children get open spots. Students learn their core subjects — all except English language arts — in their chosen foreign language. Some enrichment activities — physical education, music, art — may also be taught in English.
Read more here.
