Let me know when information sessions are arranged in the fall.

____________________________

Presidio Knolls Kindergarten class

Five-year-old Eli is perhaps the face of America’s future.

He looks a little nervous going in front of his 15 fellow pupils in his kindergarten class in a San Francisco school and reading out the children’s duties for the day.

His nerves are understandable. He’s speaking in a difficult, foreign language – Mandarin Chinese.

Behind him, an elegantly drawn poster of the sea, the sun, clouds and a ship, their names spelt out in Chinese characters.

This is Presidio Knolls School, where they practise what they call “total immersion” learning, speaking Chinese from day one.

Here, on the Pacific Ocean, where a third of the population are ethnic Chinese, President Barack Obama’s pivot to Asia seems only natural.

Eli’s mother, Mikhal Bouganim, says: “As an economic and cultural force in our world, it feels like an appropriate language to learn.

“And we have this little Jewish kid running around talking Chinese, and we thought it was important for him to realise not everyone looks like him or sounds like him.”

Read the rest of the article, or listen to the story.

We are seeking a part-time after school teacher for our preschool and Kindergarten classes for February through June 2013.

After School Teacher
This position reports to the Director of Auxiliary Programs, and must be available Monday through Friday from 3:30pm to 6pm. Age range of students varies from 2.5 to 6 years old.

Responsibilities include:
- Interact with and provide instruction to children ages 2.5 to 6 years old.
- Maintain a safe, healthy and inspiring learning environment for children of all ages.
- Supervise students on the playground.
- Develop and lead semi-structured fun and engaging art, math or science projects for the children.

Qualifications:
Must be eligible to work in the United States and be able to pass a criminal background check.
Degree in Education; at least 2 years of teaching experience with school-age children in the US in lieu of degree.
Fluent in English, fluency in Mandarin strongly preferred.
Strong classroom management skills, ECE credits a plus.

Experience teaching theater, music, Mandarin literacy, sciences or art a plus.

Salary range for positions: $15 -$20 / hour depending on experience.

To Apply:

Please send a cover letter and resume to employment@presidioknolls.org.  No phone calls, please.

Or visit KQED for a transcript of the piece.

Dr. Alfonso Orsini, Head of School at Presidio Knolls School, a progressive, mandarin immersion school in San Francisco, shares how Presidio Knolls’ progressive approach to learning and acquiring a language leads to the children developing cultural fluency. Dr. Orsini shows how by enhancing and nurturing a child’s curiosity it is possible to create learning that is joyful and exciting, yet deep and challenging.

Our program delivers academic excellence using progressive educational best practices. We value the unique attributes of each child and support their intellectual, social and emotional development. The PKS mission is to educate and inspire our students to become confident, creative and responsible individuals engaged in the global community through an innovative Mandarin immersion program that combines academic excellence with social and emotional development to foster a lifelong passion for learning.

Presidio Knolls School is expanding to an elementary school in Fall 2012, starting with an inaugural Kindergarten class of 16 students. We are seeking a part-time after school teacher for our preschool classes for January through June 2013.

After School Teacher
This position reports to the Director of Auxiliary Programs, and must be available Monday through Friday from 3:30pm to 6pm. Age range of students varies from 2.5 to 5 years old.

Responsibilities include:

• Interact and provide instruction and homework assistance to children in grades Kindergarten through 3^rd grade
• Maintain a safe, healthy and inspiring learning environment for children of all ages
• Supervise toddler and preschool students on the playground
• Develop and lead semi-structured fun and creative art, math or science projects for the children

Qualifications:

• Must be eligible to work in the United States immediately and be able to pass a criminal background check
• Degree in Education; at least 2 years of teaching experience with school-age children in the US in lieu of degree
• Fluent in English, fluency in Mandarin strongly preferred
• Strong classroom management skills, ECE credits a plus
• Experience teaching theater, music, Mandarin literacy, sciences or art a plus

Salary range for positions: $17 -$20 depending on experience.

To Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should submit a cover letter and résumé to employment@presidioknolls.org.

Presidio Knolls School offers equal opportunity to all and is non-discriminatory.

SAN FRANCISCO — When kindergartners arrive at the Presidio Knolls School next week for their first day of class, they will be allowed to speak English only on the playground and at a few other times. Most classes will be taught in Chinese.

“There’s a real demand for this kind of learning,” says Alfonso Orsini, the head of the school, which is adding a kindergarten after several years as a Chinese-language preschool. Construction crews are working to finish the school’s campus, a former run-down church on 10th Street. The plan calls for eventually enrolling students through eighth grade.

The Bay Area is now home to 23 such Mandarin Chinese-immersion schools, according to one count, many of which have opened in the last few years. Some of the schools are private—Presidio Knolls among them—while others are public. Still others are charter schools, which are privately operated but receive public funding.

There are approximately 125 Mandarin-Chinese immersion schools in the country, according to Beth Weise, who runs a website for parents of Mandarin-immersion students. Five are in San Francisco, including Presidio Knolls and Aptos Middle School, which also begins a Mandarin-immersion program this fall, as well as a Cantonese-immersion school.

Proponents of language-immersion education say the students learn more about all subjects and are better prepared to learn in the future. There’s little testing to substantiate the claim, but what exists shows that students may not perform as well in English early on but tend to perform better than their English-only peers in all subjects later.

Parents cite other benefits. “Everybody gets that China is going to be hugely important in this century,” says Ms. Weise, who has a daughter at Starr King Elementary, a public school in San Francisco with a Mandarin-immersion program. “If your kid grows up speaking English and Chinese, they will have an advantage.”

Chrissy Schwinn, a parent and board member at Yu Ming Charter School in Oakland, says she chose to send her daughter to the school because she and her husband “both traveled extensively and had noneffective language skills to participate in that culture.”

Yu Ming opened last year. This year, it received four times as many applications as there were openings.

The Mandarin-immersion schools in the Bay Area have different styles and approaches. Some split the day between teaching in English and Chinese, while others teach exclusively in Chinese.

At Presidio Knolls, the goal is to combine language immersion with a teaching style that designs lessons around subjects the students choose to study. If students are interested in fishing, the class might travel to a pier and a fish market in Chinatown before dissecting a fish back at the school. On the first day of kindergarten, the plan is for the children to decorate the classroom.

“A lot of Chinese immersion takes a traditional approach to which there is a lot of merit but also a lot of problems for kids who want to live in this century,” says Mr. Orsini.

As at many Chinese-immersion schools, the students at Presidio Knolls don’t necessarily come from families of Chinese backgrounds.

About 20% of the students are children of native Mandarin speakers. About 10% are kids who were born in China but adopted by American parents. Others either have parents of Chinese heritage, but who may not speak the language themselves, or come from families with no connection to China.

Finding teachers fluent in Mandarin and interested in the educational techniques Presidio Knolls wants to use has been a challenge. Those who will teach the kindergartners this fall include a Ph.D. student in Chinese literature and a teacher from a Chinese-language school in Singapore.

Presidio Knolls opened as a Chinese-immersion preschool in 2008 with six children. Today, it has 150 preschoolers and will enroll 16 later this month in its first kindergarten class. It moved from the Presidio to its new home on the former church campus to accommodate the growth. Kindergarten will cost $21,500 a year and run from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Getting the kindergarten open is largely the work of Wendy Xa, whose daughter will be one of the first students. Born in the U.S. and fluent in Mandarin, Ms. Xa a former financial services executive, quit her job four years ago to dedicate herself to opening the school.

The renovations to build the first classrooms cost about $630,000, most of which was donated by members of the school’s board of directors, Ms. Xa says. She anticipates turning two other buildings on the campus into classrooms and other school space eventually, as well.

She hired Mr. Orsini, who was once her teacher at a New Jersey prep school, to run the place. He started in July. He says he speaks only rudimentary Chinese, but he doesn’t expect that to be a handicap.

This month, crews were busy gutting one old building on the campus, hurrying to convert it into classrooms. They also are building a large deck outside the building that overlooks the school’s courtyard and can serve a stage for plays and other gatherings.

Ms. Xa looks proudly at the transformation underway. “We’re going to focus on the development of the children as well as the language,” she says.

View the original WSJ story and photo slideshow about Presidio Knolls.

SCHOOL OVERVIEW
Presidio Knolls School (PKS) was founded in 2008 as San Francisco’s first Reggio Emilia-inspired Mandarin immersion preschool and has grown to more than 100 students today. Our mission is to educate and inspire our students to become creative, confident and engaged global citizens.
Because demand for our unique combination of innovative educational practices within a Mandarin immersion framework has been strong, PKS launched a K-8 elementary school in the fall of 2012 with our first Kindergarten class.

PKS takes great pride in its highly talented and dedicated teaching staff and its unique teaching environment, which is distinguished by:
• Hands-on, collaborative learning using progressive educational best practices
• Small class sizes
• Large 1.5 acre campus, an urban oasis in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood
• Robust professional development and career growth opportunities
• Passionate and supportive school community

MANDARIN IMMERSION HOMEROOM TEACHER POSITIONS 2013-2014 SCHOOL YEAR
PKS is seeking exceptional elementary homeroom teachers with native level fluency in mandarin and expertise in teaching simplified Chinese to help launch and build our elementary school program. We are looking for passionate, committed educators with experience in teaching self-contained classrooms, including math science and social studies within an inquiry based mandarin immersion context. We seek teachers who have an entrepreneurial spirit, employ modern instructional strategies in the classroom, and have aspirations to grow professionally with the long-term vision of the school. Teachers will assume a founding role and be responsible for Mandarin immersion curriculum development using research-based best practices. We are currently hiring teachers for Kindergarten and first grade for the 2013-2014 school year.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
• Joy in working with children and assisting their progress
• Minimum of 2 years experience teaching in respective grade level, preferably in an immersion program
• Bilingual and bi-literate in Mandarin Chinese and English with native Mandarin Chinese proficiency, including ability to teach simplified and pinyin writing systems.
• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree desirable, CSET, CBEST, BCLAD or home country certification a plus: (http://www.ctc.ca.gov)
• Proven track record in achieving strong academic results using progressive educational best practices, specifically guided inquiry or project approach
• Contagious enthusiasm and charisma; the ability to engage and inspire students, parents and colleagues
• Creativity, excellent multitasking skills, and ability to thrive in an entrepreneurial start-up environment
• Outstanding verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills
• Must have or be able to attain authorization to work in the US
• Must be able to pass a Live scan background check permitting employment in a school / childcare facility

EMPLOYMENT DETAILS
• Competitive compensation package commensurate with experience
• Comprehensive benefits
• Generous relocation assistance for teachers outside the Bay Area
• H-1B visa sponsorship for international teachers

TO APPLY
Interested and qualified candidates should submit a cover letter and résumé to employment@presidioknolls.org.

Presidio Knolls School offers equal opportunity to all and is non-discriminatory.

Last Sunday we welcomed over 100 people to our first pre-school and elementary info sessions of the season. Because of the high numbers of visitors interested in our school we had to run three separate sessions! Many thanks to the parent volunteers who helped host the event.

Gillian Wilson takes over as Business/Operations Manager this week. So for all matters related to billing, facilities, and basic school operations, please contact Gillian,as Anu will now be concentrating on Admissions.

For those of you who have generously signed up for committees you will soon be contacted. Volunteers are crucial in our community and we so appreciate all of your help.

Last Sunday night, gazing at the moon, I thought I saw Houyi visiting Chang’e and the jade hare pounding out herbs to help her return to earth.

Have a peaceful week and see you at the gate.

Alfonso

April 25, 2012, San Francisco, CA — Presidio Knolls School (PKS), a progressive Mandarin immersion independent school in San Francisco, today announced the appointment of Dr. Alfonso Orsini as new Head of School. He will join PKS on July 15th, 2012, bringing with him over thirty years experience in education, including more than ten years in various international posts.

He is the author, with Prof. Pearl Kane of Teachers College, Columbia University, of The Colors of Excellence: Recruiting and Retaining Teachers of Color in Independent Schools, and has published numerous articles including “Big Tests, Big Sticks: High Stakes Testing in China and America” (Commentary in Education Week, 13 July, 2005).

Dr. Alfonso Orsini said, “I am excited to join Presidio Knolls and help play a role in building a school with a such a clear mission and raison d’etre. I admire the spirit and vision of this community, and wholeheartedly support the focus on creating a culture of innovation and fostering a sense of wonder and possibility in our students, all through the medium of a second language.”

Wendy Xa, Founder of Presidio Knolls School, added, “We are extremely pleased that Dr. Orsini is joining PKS at this exciting time in our history. With the launch of our elementary school this fall, and an ambitious plan of integrating educational best practices within a Mandarin immersion framework, having a noted educator with such relevant and significant expertise is an incredible validation of our vision.”

PKS was founded in 2008 as a Reggio-Emilia inspired Mandarin immersion preschool, and since that time has grown from six students to over 100 today. In 2011 PKS announced an expansion into a full K-8 program, with kindergarten and first grade classes to launch in the fall of 2012.

Left to Right: Alfonso Orsini (Head of School), Lui Jing (Alfonso’s wife) and Wendy Xa (Founder)