Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • Costa Mesa, Calif. to get Mandarin Immersion program

    Mandarin, Spanish, arts, sciences: Schools showcase special programs

    Costa Mesa, CA, United States

    By Nicole Knight Shine
    April 2, 2015 | 7:04 p.m.
    Although her son is only 5, Sherrie Papa already sees a bilingual education as key to the boy’s future.

    “You need more than one language,” said Papa, 39, as she looked over bilingual program brochures Wednesday night at an informational event hosted by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

    The event was meant to let Newport-Mesa parents know about a raft of new academic programs for district students entering kindergarten and high school. Some of the programs emphasize bilingual education, while others focus on specific subjects, such as the arts, engineering and science.

    In booths scattered around in the Costa Mesa High School quad, school principals and teachers fielded parents’ questions. More than 200 people turned out, organizers said.

    Please read more here.

  • Summer Mandarin immersion camp list updated

    I added some camps in China to the list, which might be of interest to folks planning their summer vacations.

    Beth

     

    List is here.

  • Seattle-area school district makes language immersion a priority

    Language immersion a priority for Bellevue School District

    BY JILLIAN RAFTERY, KIRO Radio Editor | April 9, 2015 @ 2:24 pm

    Puesta Del Sol Elementary is the region’s only language immersion program in a public school system where students start learning Spanish in kindergarten. (KIRO Radio/Jillian Raftery)

    Right away, visitors will notice that Nicole Perriella’s second grade classroom in Bellevue is a little different.

    At Puesta Del Sol Elementary, instead of reading, writing, and arithmetic, it’s “leyendo, escribiendo, y las matemáticas.”

    It’s the region’s only language immersion program in a public school system where students start learning Spanish in kindergarten. They’re fluent by the fifth grade, and go on to take college courses while in high school.

    The program has become so popular, the district recently added a Mandarin Chinese dual language program at Jing Mei Elementary in Bellevue.

    Heidi Lamar, English Language Learners Curriculum Supervisor for the Bellevue School District, said administrators and parents have seen first-hand the results of bilingual learning: better test scores, cognitive aptitude, and high confidence in later years.

    Please read more here.

  • Sydney, Australia suburb gets Mandarin immersion school

    Screen Shot 2015-04-02 at 4.12.51 PMInternational Chinese School, Chatswood, celebrates official opening with registrations to 2020
    CARYN METCALFE NORTH SHORE TIMES APRIL 01, 2015 3:00PM SHARE

    WITH registrations all the way to 2020, the establishment of the International Chinese School in Chatswood has been a great ­success.

    The school was officially opened recently with a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Anglican Church.

    Primary co-ordinator Wendy Yu said the school’s 10 enrolled students, all in kindergarten, sang bilingually at the service.

    Please read more here.

    School site is here.

  • Los Angeles neighborhood doesn’t want Mandarin immersion school

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    Westside group outraged over proposed immersion school

    Posted on March 31, 2015 2:12 pm by 

    Steve Zimmer

    A group of Mar Vista community members and parents is mounting a protest againt LA Unified school board member Steve Zimmer over his support for a Mandarin immersion elementary school slated to be built in their Westside neighborhood.

    The $30 million school, currently dubbed the Mandarin and English Dual-Language Immersion Elementary School project, was approved by the LA Unified school board in April 2014 with Zimmer’s support, and an environmental impact report (EIR) on the project entered the public comment phase on March 26.

    The school would be located in Zimmer’s District 4 on a few acres of open green space that now exists at Mark Twain Middle School. It would would have 15 classrooms and move students currently from nearby Broadway Elementary School’s Mandarin and English Dual- Language Immersion Program to the new site. The district says that Broadway no longer has space to allow the program to grow.

    Please read more here.

  • Who says you have to be in a big city to win Mandarin awards? Not Naselle!

    Naselle students win in Washington state Chinese language competition

    By NICK NIKKILA

    Observer correspondent

    Published:March 31, 2015 1:02PM

    NASELLE — Seven students from the Mandarin Immersion Program at the Naselle-Grays River School District participated in the Fifth Annual Washington State Chinese Language and Talent Competition, with all seven receiving awards.

    The competition, held on Sunday, March 22, at the Chief Sealth International High School in Seattle, was divided into various individual and group performances among different levels of Chinese-as-a-second-language students. Students in grades K-2 had the opportunity to compete in: Team Poetry Recitation, Individual Poetry Recitation, Individual or Team Talent Show, Individual or Team Chinese Singing, Individual or Team Chinese Language Arts, Drawing, and Chinese Chess.

    When the competition ended and awards were posted, the names of Naselle students Anderson, Lanz, Lebovitz, Lindstrom, Popkin, Tichenor and Weston stood out in stark contrast to those of Qiang, Huang, Han, Zhu and others of more decidedly Chinese ancestry. The team consisting of William Anderson, Kinsley Lanz, Alia Lebovitz, Jacob Lindstrom, Hannelie Popkin, Dash Tichenor and Aaliyah Weston won the second place award in group singing.

    Please read more here.

  • Union City, Oregon to get Mandarin immersion school

    UNION, Ore. (AP) — The Union Hotel, which opened in 1921, is a local icon, owning the distinction of being one of the oldest hotels in Eastern Oregon.

    Soon the hotel will own another distinction. The building will be the site of one of the few bilingual elementary schools in Oregon.

    Charlie Morden and partner Ruth Rush, owners and operators of the Union Hotel, plan to open a Chinese language immersion school at the Union Hotel as early as September 2016. Children will be taught in both Mandarin Chinese and English on the expansive and now vacant third floor of the Union Hotel plus other portions of the building.

    “Math, for example, will be taught in Chinese one day and English the next,” Morden said.

    Please read more here.