Mandarin Immersion Archives - Page 4 of 4

9th Annual PKS Chinese New Year Celebration

It’s 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 4. Dozens of parent volunteers are buzzing around campus, rushing to put up the final decorations for the daylong celebration. Photo booth props are laid out to the sound of the band tuning their instruments, a string of flags is pinned up under the main tent, and Master Leo’s lion costumes sit waiting to be brought to life.

Elementary

Teacher Profile (Xi Song)

When I was little, I was a very active kid. I always wondered about things and was always asking “what if” and “why.” I remember I would just go out and play in nature since we lived very close to a stream and a big hill, and I was so fascinated by those living plants and creatures. I kept asking questions about them. Later, when I could read more, I found answers to many of my questions. I think that was my first inquiry-based learning, and although it was not a full experience, it still has helped me shape my learning habits.

Mandarin Immersion

Trusting Children to Have an Opinion

As we begin the new year, and as we take a moment to look back and reflect on last year, I want to highlight one unifying thread from our children's experiences in the preschool over the first few months of the school year.

Mandarin Immersion

Teacher Profile (Shihpei Chen)

This year, we are presenting a series of posts profiling PKS teachers. The first installment features Mandarin-immersion preschool teacher Shihpei Chen.

Elementary

Fourth Grade Migration Presentation

There's presentation fever at Presidio Knolls School as the different classes wrap up their units of exploration.

Elementary

Second Graders Celebrate San Francisco

One important aspect of a "progressive" approach to education is giving students the opportunity to showcase their work. Today, PKS second graders had such an opportunity.

Elementary

Building Our Classroom

Fourth grade students found a surprise on the first day of school this year: the walls of their classroom were bare, and furniture stood in the middle of the space along with some classroom technology equipment. An accidental oversight? Not at Presidio Knolls. As one student put it, “The teachers are trusting us to figure out how to design the classroom – this is awesome!”

Elementary

Mandarin Immersion at PKS

In the progressive environment, teachers describe what they see in the classroom instead of praising. This has at least two powerful effects: primarily, it allows students to make self-evaluations. For example, teachers might say, "I notice that you used green to draw the leaves and pink to draw the flowers," instead of "that's beautiful, good job." Students are free to evaluate their own work because we have not evaluated it for them, and we provide further encouragement to do so. Adding to the above example, a teacher might then ask, "what colors do you think you will use to show difference between the ripe fruits and the fruits that are not yet ripe?" This kind of question encourages a student to take stock of where they are in their process.

Elementary

Progressive Learning at PKS

Without a doubt a school can be a progressive school and a language immersion school. There’s nothing about language immersion that limits our ability to implement progressive or vice versa. One specific example: repetition and daily practice of characters is an important part of learning Chinese. A progressive approach would be to consider: what is the appropriate amount of time for a 3rd grader to engage in this practice, and how do we make it as engaging and enjoyable as possible? There is no one strategy that is cancelled out by progressive – it’s about weighing kids’ developmental needs to create a well-rounded approach.