Pre-Order Disney’s Frozen in Chinese!!

If you don’t know that Disney is set to release the Frozen DVD on Tuesday then I think you have done an amazing job as a parent keeping your child far removed from all things Disney and detached from mainstream America. But if your child is like mine and the Frozen soundtrack is permalooped as the primary sound coming from your child’s mouth then you already know.

I’m excited to announce that I ran to Yesasia.com (I purchased Brave from them in the past) and they have the Mandarin version of Frozen ready to be released. The girls didn’t absolutely love Brave in Mandarin but I am hoping that their vocabulary has increased enough for them to give Frozen a shot. Check out Yesasia.com if you would like to purchase Frozen in Mandarin/Cantonese/Thai/Korean.

Is Writer’s Workshop an Activity for Parents

Saying there is a lot of buzz around the strengths of Writer’s Workshop is an understatement. And if you are not familiar with it your school has either kept you out of the loop or they are “behind the times” so to speak. This is the next new thing! Writer’s Workshop practically guarantees that if done correctly your child will gain the confidence and skills to become a proficient writer.

What I enjoyed was learning opportunities for parents to become involved in the process. We all intuitively know the benefits of our children writing thank you cards (which we write but I always forget to mail), notes to distant relatives, etc. This incorporates some of the tools and techniques of writer’s workshop. Our Head of School stated the best part is to allow your child with ample opportunity to write outside of the classroom. Luckily, our children only receive limited amounts of homework prior to third grade. Therefore, we have the time to include fun “family worksheets” into the mix.

I found this great website with journal prompts for each day of the month. The Teachers Corner has a great list of prompts for all ages. The prompts are tied to the day of the month. Today’s prompt stated “March 8th is Working Women’s Day. Do you feel that being a stay at home mom is a full time job. Do you agree or disagree?” Some might question whether this is an age appropriate question for kinders and first graders but I was pleased with their responses.

Most importantly I enjoyed the benefits of working together in a fun and engaging way that helps them to further develop their reading, writing and critical thinking skills.

What does this have to do with my children learning Chinese. Well, being that my children only spend half of their day learning, talking and thinking in their native language I look forward to any opportunities to support their continued growth at a rate that is somewhat comparable to their peers at non-immersion school sites. Also, research indicates that it is easier to learn a second language when a student is proficient in their native language. Moreover, I hear many native Mandarin speaking parents critiquing the number of Chinese words that students are learning. I realize that I know too little to have any direct control over the level of fluency my child will obtain in Chinese. I only know that they both enjoy it. They are scoring well and they continue to say that they love learning Chinese.

The extra time spent using the tools of Writer’s Workshop is similar to that of Math Workshop and Science Workshop, etc. It’s getting out there and doing fun and engaging things with your kids.

Something we all could probably do a little more of.

Free Trial of eGlobalreader

Dear Parents,

eGlobalReader would like to invite you to participate in the trial of a new bilingual reading application that is designed to help young students read more books in multiple languages – all by themselves.

We are excited to release the preview version of eGlobalReader. Take a look at our first set of eight bilingual books in Mandarin/English! Please note that there are a couple of corrections that we are working on, but we are eager to get your feedback. The application is free to download to your iPad or you can access it from the web browser on your tablet or computer.

Here’s how to get started:

Set up your free account online at http://www.eglobalreader.com/?CID=TryIt

Download the app to your iPad. Go to iTunes and search for “eGlobalReader”. The app is free. Or use eGlobalReader from your computer or tablet through the web.

For a brief overview of the product, please see our 40 sec video on how your child can start reading independently today at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCxBrej6M0k.

Everyone who contacts us through this special link will be able to sample our first library free of charge until the end of the year. Because this product is in early development, eGlobal Reader will be asking you to complete a survey to provide valuable feedback so that we can make this the best bi-lingual learning product possible for our children. Please feel free to forward the information to others who might be interested in trying out this new offering.

Please contact us at info@eGlobalReader.com with any feedback or questions.

Happy reading!

The team at eGlobalReader

www.eGlobalReader.com

Support Black Male Achievement – View American Promise!!

What can you do to support Black Male Achievement?

Request that your school administrator include this video in their Professional Development trainings!

Schedule a time to watch this video with parents, friends and colleagues.

There are also great resources available on the American Promise website.
Great resources available below.

We continue to encourage school administrators to utilize American Promise as a Professional Development tool. PBS is now offering free streaming video of this incredible film until March 6, 2014.
Teaching Tolerance designed the accompanying professional development series to help school faculty become more aware of the ways schools do and don’t work well for African-American male students. Each module uses selections from the film to facilitate discussion among instructors about the kinds of practices and pedagogical approaches that are effective.
Farmers Insurance is also making a number of great tools available to teachers for free or at a reduced rate.

My Black Girls Code!!

We hired a Mandarin speaking tutor to teach our girls code. Today was their first day and it was an incredible experience. The girls were giggling, engaged and really enjoyed the curriculum offered by code.org. The tutor also seemed to really enjoy the girls’ enthusiasm. She even stayed over her time to help my little one with her final project.

Some people ask – “What’s code?”

Last month I posted about the youngest person ever to develop code. Reading about young Zora Ball re-energized me around the importance of STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math) activities for my children. In my push to encourage more Black families to aggressively pursue a STEM filled summer I became aware of several obstacles for my family – cost, expense and price. I found a robotics class and IDTech Camps that started at $839/week. Even when I thought that maybe I could justify the expense I had to remember that I have two children. Plus there was the added concern of paying so much for them to learn robotics or programming one week during the summer without any follow up until I tried it again next summer. That seemed absurd.

I went on line and remained committed on finding the RIGHT STEM program for my girls. There are a ton of resources out there with after school, weekend and summer programs. The bulk of the programs are geared towards middle and high school students. Some programs provide free or low-cost services to low-income families and some week long summer programs cost approximately $850/week. I decided that I definitely needed to think outside the box.

Stepping out of the box I first noticed that while there are very few classes and workshops for kids as young as my daughters there are a lot of great software programs out there designed to get kids as young as 5 years old interested in code. With everything on my plate right now I know that teaching my kids code is NOT a task that I am up for. So I decided to hire a tutor. Then it just seemed to make sense that I search for a Mandarin speaking tutor. My children have never learned code so if they start in Mandarin their ability to code will progress right along with their Mandarin language learning.

I decided that this might be a great opportunity to link with a Mandarin tutor. I searched Instaedu.org for a tutor and found eight possible matches for Mandarin speaking tutors majoring in computer science. I selected a Mandarin speaking tutor that is pre-med because the beginning software available on code.org is so simple it practically runs itself and she was just more engaged and excited about spending time with my children than the other available tutors.

This morning they had their first lesson.

My youngest daughter is less likely to maintain a non-school-led conversation in Chinese. But after watching her sister she seemed to understand right away – code is a Mandarin activity. She laughed and coded in Mandarin while making “explosion” sounds when her bird hit the dynamite. Even I had to giggle watching her (as I folded four loads of laundry).

I was surprised how much they enjoyed it! Our instructor will meet the girls at our home Sunday mornings before church (giving me time to clean up around the house and prepare to get out the door). It’s a great way to spread the cost of $850 over an extended period of time so that my girls are actually able to enjoy and process what they are learning. This is a very exciting adventure for us!

Youngest Person to Develop Mobile Game App!!!

At 7 years old, Zora Ball has become the youngest person to create a mobile video game.

The app was unveiled at the FATE Bootstrap Expo, held at the University of Pennsylvania last month.

Ball developed the game using programming language Bootstrap, which is usually taught to students between the ages of 12 and 16, to help them learn concepts of algebra via video game development.

According to Mashable, Ball also successfully reconfigured the app when asked to do so at the Expo, silencing anyone who may have thought that her older brother — a STEM scholar of the year — helped her program the game.

Staff at Harambee Institute of Science and Technology, where Ball attends first grade and an after-school program, anticipate she’ll do great things, the Philadelphia Tribune reported.

“I am proud of all my students,” Tariq Al-Nasir, who heads the STEMnasium Learning Academy, told the told the Tribune’s Damon Williams. “Their dedication to this program is phenomenal, and they come to class every Saturday, including holiday breaks.”

Last year, the Huffington Post wrote about Kelvin Doe, a 13-year-old from Sierra Leone who created batteries and generators using materials he picked up around the house. Three years later, he became the youngest person to be invited to MIT’s Visiting Practitioner’s Program.

Education