Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education
DECEMBER 3, 2015
And that’s not Wanxiang’s only connection to the First State. In 2014, the company purchased a shuttered auto plant in New Castle County.
“I am grateful to Wanxiang and [China General Chamber of Commerce] for their partnership and for their commitment to Delaware’s efforts to increase innovative language learning opportunities and make ours the most bilingual state,” Gov. Jack Markell said in a statement.
Please read more here.
POSTED BY LUCYJAVA ON DEC 9, 2015 | 0 COMMENTS
December 9, 2015
Hayward – Trustees of the Alameda County Board of Education voted unanimously to renew the charter for Yu Ming Charter School Tuesday night, drawing cheers from the roomful of parents, teachers and staff members in attendance.
The renewal decision comes fives years after Yu Ming received unanimous approval from Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) for the school’s original charter submission, setting in motion the establishment of the first public Mandarin immersion K-8 school in the East Bay.
Representing Yu Ming at the Dec. 8 meeting were Rodrigo Prudencio, Yu Ming board chair; Gloria Lee, a Yu Ming founder and lead author of the school’s charter petition; Sue Park, head of school; and Jamila Dugan, assistant principal.
As is the usual practice, the charter approval is subject to finalizing a new Memorandum of Understanding between Yu Ming and Alameda County. One key focus will be to demonstrate progress on Yu Ming’s efforts to increase the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the students served. School representatives detailed past and current efforts in this area, including targeted outreach at Head Start preschools and weighted lottery preferences for residents living near Yu Ming.
Please read more here.
Image by: Becky Wright
Mona Andrus pauses before voting to approve the first reading of proposed school boundary changes, during a Davis School Board meeting held on Dec. 1, in the district offices in Farmington. Board President Gordon Eckersley, right, voted against approval.
FARMINGTON — Davis School Board President Gordon Eckersley said no matter what decision is made on proposed school boundary changes, some people will be disappointed.
“We hope that once it’s determined, and you can see that most people will benefit from what we choose to do, we do hope that you will support us in that,” he said in a public hearing Tuesday, Dec. 1.
Eckersley ended the meeting admitting he was concerned enough not to support the current proposal on its first reading. In spite of his “nay” vote, the motion did carry, but things are far from settled.
“In the next few weeks ahead there will still be room for discussion and change,” Eckersley said, stressing that boundary decisions are not set in stone by accepting a proposal on its first reading.
Please read more here.
December 1, 2015 Updated: December 1, 2015 2:25pm
The holiday season is fast approaching, and that means another, perhaps more stressful, deadline looms. The first round of applications is due Dec. 18 for parents who want to send their children to magnet programs in the Houston Independent School District.
HISD has more than 100 magnet programs with various specialties, including fine arts; science, technology, engineering and math; gifted education; and language immersion. Mark Shenker, the district’s assistant superintendent of school choice, spoke with Houston Chronicle education reporter Ericka Mellon on Tuesday about some changes this year.
Please read more here.
It is not just local parents. Expatriate parents recognise the value of mastering Mandarin, too.
The emphasis on Mandarin is one of the reasons why Dulwich College, a renowned British Independent school, which started with 800 students in Singapore last year, has grown its intake to 1,300 now. It expects to add another 200 students by next August.
In the college’s dual-language approach, children from the ages of two to seven are taught by two teachers, in English and Mandarin. The idea is to expose children to both from a young age, enabling them to move seamlessly between languages. In the junior school, until age 11, they have daily Mandarin classes.
Please read more here.
Non-Asian students are increasingly spending their Saturdays immersed in China’s language and culture.
AUDREY CLEO YAP
NOV 30, 2015
From the mid- to late 90s, I endured Saturday morning Chinese school the way many of my fellow children of immigrants did: with a healthy a mix of indifference and resentment. While my non-Chinese friends spent their mornings at youth soccer games, I was stuck inside a heritage school classroom for at least two hours, practicing traditional characters and reading texts about buying bai tsai at the supermarket.
Chinese-heritage school, or “Saturday school,” is a dedicated space for ABCs (“Americans Born Chinese”) like myself to learn Mandarin and Chinese culture. In my own experience, it was simultaneously a hub of exclusion and inclusion. Days spent at heritage school were weekly reminders of my otherness in Thousand Oaks, the mostly white suburb of Los Angeles where I grew up.
Please read more here.
November 17th, 2015 by Monrovia Weekly
By Terry Miller
Plymouth School in Monrovia has implemented a first of its kind in the district – a dual immersion program for students to learn Mandarin. In fact the school is on the cusp of what will, perhaps, become a trend in all public schools in California with the general uptick in Asian-American population in Los Angeles County.
The program is taught by Mrs. Miki Boyle (Mandarin Teacher) and Mr. Steve Cook (Mandarin/English teacher.)
Dual immersion programs include native English-speaking students and native speakers of a foreign language. The goals of dual immersion programs are to develop bilingualism/biliteracy, academic achievement, and cross-cultural competencies for all students. Dr. Katheryn Lindholm-Leary, one of the country’s leading experts on dual immersion programs defines them said: “[In dual immersion programs] English-dominant and target-language-dominant students are purposefully integrated with the goals of developing bilingual skills, academic excellence, and positive cross-cultural and personal competency attitudes for both groups of students.”
Please read more here.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 