How does it work? Well from what I know so far.....

I was one of the first people to question the accountability of such a program. And of course, family members and friends are skeptical to the idea. I had to educate my husband on the matter to get him on board. I hear it all...How will it affect his ability to learn? Will he learn as much as traditional track kids?  Will he fall behind in his studies? I've gotten all the questions. I have done my homework. Short answer, No learning another languages opens a part of your brain you don't use everyday. Statistically, the kids don't fall behind .  Yeah, it's different but when I read about how the US is the only country that doesn't learn another language it disturbs me. I'm patriotic. I love America, my country. My father fought for our freedom. I understand the melting pot and what this nation was built on and I understand that a long time ago people who migrated here were required to learn English. Well times they are a'changing. It doesn't matter how I or you feel about that. But I would rather grow with my America if I can or at least give my child the opportunity I was never given.  This program is becoming so popular that faculty members are taking their kids there. If it's good enough for the faculty it's good enough for me.  There are approx.. 1165 schools in GA and only 9 of them are Dual Language.


The school offers both traditional and Dual Language Option. Some terms seem to be used interchangeably...Dual Language, Dual Immersion, Bi-lingual immersion. Take you pick. If you are an expert in this area feel free to correct me. I am learning too so as I catch my mistakes I will correct them.  I think the term used depends on how the program is formatted. First of all, you have to know they are NOT teaching my son Spanish. Nor are they teaching the native Spanish speakers English. The language is acquired out of necessity. The brains natural survival kicks in and these kids supposedly just pick up on the language. Very much the same way we learn to speak our native language. The only difference really is at the end of the day they go home to speak their native language. They are still learning so much about their own language it is the perfect to insert a foreign language. All stuff I have read about. His class is divided into half native English Speakers and half native Spanish speakers. This way no one group had advantage over the other. The children are taught the same material as any other Kindergarten class. The first half of the day the teacher speaks English while teaching Reading, Writing, and Phonics. She will also teach Spanish alphabet and sounds during this time The other half of the day the teacher speaks in Spanish while teaching Math, Social Studies, and Science. From what I understand the teacher switches with the other class so they are in a Spanish classroom. I have told Mason to listen and use his other senses to understand. Watch what the other kids do when given commands. I spent a lot of time preparing him for Kindergarten but not this. I read that there isn't anything you need to do to prepare them for a DL program. Only support them once in it. I mostly just try to inform him what to expect. And that seems to work for him. The kids are not restricted to speak English and ask questions during the Spanish half of the day. From what I understand they still have to say things in English till the English speakers get the hang of things and vice versa. All of the standardized state test are given in English. So what happens after Elementary school? Well the first group of kids to participate in the DL program just finished the 5th grade and are moving on to middle school. Just for them, the county has decided to dedicate one of the near by middle schools as a continuation. I read in the news paper that due to the nature of middle school and how they have to change classes so much that they are unable to implement a full DL program but they will offer advanced Spanish instruction to them at a Sophomore level. The point is to keep it going. I believe the old saying is, "If you don't use it you loose it". 

So far Mason's teacher is new this year. However, she was a student teacher at his school, in the DL program, so she is familiar with it. She is a native English Speaker with a degree in education and a minor in Spanish. Which amazes me that she picked up on it so fast. Of course I don't know all of her history so I'm just speculating. The other DL teacher for Kindergarten is of Latina decent so I speculate that she is fully bi-lingual. All of her emails to the parents have been in English and Spanish. Any flyers or forms the school gives out is in both languages. From what we were told in a recent newsletter, Homework will involve writing letters in both languages. The family doesn't have to know any Spanish. The children will know how to do their homework. And parents will be told what the children need to do in their native language. When I get better at this blogging thing I will post brochures and newsletters so you guys can see examples of the stuff we receive. I'm trying to avoid naming the school for privacy purposes and will block out that info on anything I upload. I'm still learning how to use this Blogger site.

School stared August 6th. So they have been learning a lot of procedures this week and routine. Tomorrow August 18th they begin their immersion. I will keep you updated on Mason's progress. And things I learn. How I feel. How he feels. I will post what I can. Feel free to ask me questions about anything. I am trying to stay on subject. Please, do not comment on my religious or political views it's not what's important about this blog. Any glimpse of personal information I reveal is to help support my perception on the experience. If there is anything I am not covering about this topic or you would like me to include let me know and I will do my best. Some of you may want to know about Kindergarten in general without the Spanish information. I'm hoping to update this about every two weeks or at least monthly.

How did we get here? It's long!

First want to get the boring stuff out of the way. I'm a new blogger so bare with me. I'm not extremely articulate and I don't consider myself a writer. I'm just gonna give it to you they way I get it. Blah, blah, blah.

I grew up in GA. I have an associate degree in Applied Science for Radiologic Technologies. I have additional certification in Computed Tomography. I currently work as a PRN for a small, local hospital. My husband is a Commercial Truck Driver. Therefore, he is only home a couple of days per week. My mother lives with us in our mother-n-law suite. In 2009, my one and only child was born. And we named him "Mason". I named him this because my dad was in construction. Particularly Masonry work so that inspired the name. We currently have no plans to have anymore children. I am 35 yrs old and my husband is 44. We devote a lot of time and energy to one son.


We live outside of Atlanta. I grew up in the country. And over the years things have developed around me a lot. Like most areas, our home has gone down in value. The area we live in has many foreclosures. Most of the schools in our county are Title 1 schools. A Title 1 school is a school that has a high percentage of kids on free or reduced lunches. We had always hoped to move to the other side of town by the time Mason was school age but moving is a big deal. We have room for our 3 dogs, my mom, and all of our stuff. Plus, owing more than the value of home means that we would have to pay out of pocket to move. We refinanced recently which has dramatically reduced our monthly payment. There is no way we would find a comparable amount of space for what we pay now. So like any parent I started exploring and researching all of our options. What I have learned from that is that there a lot of options. Not like when I was in school. Back then, you either go to school or get a spanking. I feel fortunate to be living in a day and age that allows us to have options for our children. We just have to open our minds to it. Every child is special and will thrive in different atmospheres.

When Mason turned two years old I decided to enroll him a 2yr old preschool program at Methodist Church around the corner. I've never regret this decision. He learned to talk, play, and be part of a class. It was only a half day program. We watched him learn, grow, and thrive. I immediately learned that Mason would always thrive in a classroom. He needed that structure and routine. We kept in this program for age 3. We switched him to a different church at age 4. Just to change it up a bit for him. I started to feel pressure to move. When the time came to register Mason for Kindergarten. I had already educated myself on homeschool, GA cyber academy, Montessori Education, Christian School (we aren't religious), and Public Schools in our area. I did that through the personal testimonies of other parents, friends that are teachers, online blogs, YouTube videos; anything I could watch or read that would help be find the best learning environment for my child. Moving would be so drastic and burdening.

I asked myself what I wanted for my kid. I wanted him to learn and thrive. I wanted him to experience people and independence. I wanted him to be safe. I wanted him to be happy. And in all that I had to consider what was best for us as a family. Because you have to take into consideration, all families are different and know what is best for them. So, I wasn't going to let the opinions of others affect my ability to make the best decision though all advice was welcomed when I solicited it.
Most of all I wanted to be the parent that was fueled by the vibes of my child because I believe a mother's instinct is strong.

Well you are probably asking yourself, "Don't you have a public school in your district?". Well yes, we do. But I don't think I should be limited to that. If I'm willing to drive my son to school everyday then I should get to take him where I want. There is another school just as close to us but we are over the district line. It's a better school. So why wouldn't I want that one? It's just as close and I'm driving him anyway. I don't care for the neighborhood I live in. Lots of break in's. I see a lot of things in this neighborhood I disapprove of. I only live here because my husband owned this home as a bachelor. It's not an area I would've moved to with the intent to start a family. My child would be going to school with the children of these families. I know that that's not the children's fault but it's not my son's fault either. I hate to be that person but it's just how it is. And I'm not using my son to start a movement or a revolution. There are smarter ways to do that. In my daily life with my child I promote diversity, equality, and culture. I teach him we are the same people, we deserve love and respect and must give that to others even when they don't reciprocate. Being this open also opens us to vulnerability and there are people who will take advantage of that. So the protective mother part of me decided to that our district school wasn't even up for debate. Unless we could find the right fit for Mason I was preparing myself to homeschool until we could move. Besides, it's just Kindergarten it's not rocket science. None the less, I had spent 3 yrs of preschool preparing him for this and I didn't want to stop now because he was ready! He is a young  5 yr old so even the option of holding him back crossed my mind. That didn't feel right to me. He's not a genius but the kid can keep up, so why hold him back? 

Fortunately, our community offers a Charter school. Charter schools have no limits on where you live as long as you are county resident. They are free, and part of the public school system. They are different in how they are funded and have the flexibility to teach how they want. This school in particular was implanting a new method of teaching called Expeditionary Learning that appealed to me. It's a more project based type of learning that isn't taught in many schools in the US but has a great reputation.  This was perfect! Something different and new that he could be a part of. A school full of diversity and parents that were required to volunteer their time. So that gave some quality to the student base. Unfortunately, they are on a lottery system due the high application rate. The charter school was relocating this year allowing them to take a larger number of students this upcoming school year. I was so excited, I could feel it all happening for us. It was meant to be, the year we apply to the lottery is the same year that they happen to be taking more students. Our problems solved! This lottery took place in the month of March so we would know early on if he got in. Because in May they opened the House Bill 251 to allow people to apply for transfers in the public school system. Which was going to be our Plan B. Mason got number 69 on the waiting list. By April I was stressed I got a flood of Migraines (which I'm diagnosed with and it's not fun) and I also got a flare up of Rosacea and Seborriheic Dermititis. This waiting period was awful. Waiting for the House Bill 251 Transfer in May to come along and in the mean time having to hear about all these parents talking about their kids starting Kindergarten because they live in a good area and their kid can ride a bus, etc.


Being the proactive parent that I am I had been talking to the director of the Dual Language Program at the other nearby public school I mentioned earlier. I had heard about the school's program and my neighbors, who are Hispanic, have children that go there. One of the teacher aides at Mason's preschool had a Kindergartener there in the program. I was primarily interested because I had taken 3 yrs of Spanish in highschool and did pretty well at it. Over the years I had Mexican friends that I had spent Christmas with and gone to their Quinceanera's, learned to Bachata, and witness first hand how the culture celebrated birthdays and other life events. I had jobs where I practiced Spanish speaking with Hispanic co-workers. I loved the language. My eyes were already open to how much GA's Latin groups were growing. Something like this would be amazing to be a part of. So I researched Dual Language Immersion programs and spoke with other mother's who had children at the school. However, I couldn't find a whole lot of the information I was looking for. Yes, I found on the internet that DL programs promote better test scores and allow children to develop cultural sensitivity but I couldn't find a lot of experiences out there about what happens in the program and how parents liked it. So that's why I wanted to start this blog. So that I could tell you why I chose this school and how it is going so far. I want to tell you how Mason likes it and how material is presented.

In May of 2013 I applied for a transfer within our school district. This came with another flood of stress. For whatever reason, budget cuts, I don't know I heard lots of excuses, transfers are frowned upon it seems unless you have an emergency that requires a transfer and then they call it a permissive transfer. I learned that the transfer process was going to be a lottery. The schools posted how many spots they had in what grades and that was how they were going to fill them. It didn't matter that I was nearly first inline and had done all this communicating. I was at the mercy of a lottery system that had already failed me once this year. I was getting nervous. I had to wait 3 weeks after applying for that transfer. And then I got the phone call that brought me to tears. Tears of relief. All my perseverance had paid off. My son got a spot in the program. All the things I wanted for my son was awaiting him. This school is still a Title 1 school. But like I said before it wasn't about that. I looked at several schools that offered the perfect poster child of what you want. I didn't want those. They weren't real to me. My son has the chance to participate in something unique and special. It's going to require a lot of my support and involvement. He's going to have bad days. I talk to him all Summer about what to expect when he started Kindergarten at his new school. "The Spanish School" so he calls it. School already started August 6th. We are one week and half into it. The first week has been policies and procedures and routine. This upcoming week of August 18th they start the actual immersion process.  I can't wait to hear how his first day goes! I will share it with you if you come back.

Week 1 of dual language class schedule

If you haven't yet, I recommend you go back and see my first post to this blog to give you more background. Long story short. I wasn't interested in our districted public school so I transferred my upcoming Kindergartener to the next closest school that has an optional dual immersion Spanish program. I found there was little or repetitive information about this experience on the net so I'm attempting to blog about my personal experience. I repeat that I am not a native Spanish speaker nor am I an educator. I will have typos and misspelled words, lol.  I am a parent who is optimistic about this unique opportunity for my son, Mason.

Anyhoo, Monday August 18, 2014 the second half of Mason's day was taught in Spanish. I was anxious to ask him how his day was after picking him up. As with any 5yr old I didn't get the detailed response I was looking for. Me: "Mason did you hear Spanish today?" Mason: "Yes". Me: "Did you like it?" , Mason: "Yes".  There you have it. His first set of homework was brought home. Homework is sent home on Monday and due Friday. So I still had to get home and open his backpack where I was hoping to find out more details of his day. So far his homework has consisted of Spanish alphabet sounds and counting to 30 in Spanish, tracing numbers 1-20, tracing his name and lunch number. The newsletter stated that starting next month they would start site words and we could go ahead and get a head start. The English site words are: am, an, at, has, had, can, and, and said. His Spanish site words are: rojo (red), verde (green), morado (purple), blanco (white), Rosado (pink).


My thoughts on this...well, those are an odd combination. But I guess Spanish site words are different. I thought these were hard words for site words. I was expecting more like: gato (cat), casa (house), eres (are). I don't know...just shorter words. For the English site words these seem normal to me. Our other homework was/is to read 20 minutes every night. This is an easy one for us. We have read to Mason nearly every night since he was 4 months old.   His binder he brought home also has a colorful sheet of months, season, time, days of week, colors, etc. that are in English and Spanish. I think the one thing that hasn't been made clear is what homework to do. Are we supposed to be doing the English and Spanish? What if you have a parent that knows NO Spanish?  Luckily, I had 3 yrs of Spanish in high school, 1 semester in college and have easily retained much of it due to practicing all the time with Hispanic coworkers. So I'm comfortable with this level of Spanish. When I first started inquiring about the program I was told by the director that we didn't need to know any Spanish to enter this program. I wonder if the Spanish parents who don't speak English are a little confused to. I haven't emailed the teacher about this because I figure it can't hurt to do both as long as I feel like I can supply him with the correct Spanish translation. Youtube is very helpful. Some of the videos we watched at home for the Spanish Alphabet and numbers they had watched in class. Smart boards! I'm so jealous we didn't have that in school. Oh, not to mention they have an app that you can download that the teacher records behavior on throughout the day called ClassDojo. Sorry that was off subject a little.

On Tuesday Mason came home and said, "Si means yes in Spanish". This excited me even though it was just "yes".

Wednesday, Mason randomly chanted children's songs in Spanish during his playtime and bath time. I am huge fan of putting music to anything you need to remember. It made a big difference in my Spanish learning. In the 10th grade we had to memorize the preamble to the constitution. That old School Rock version was horrible. I used the Brady Bunch theme song and it worked great! I still remember it today at age 35. I need to Youtube myself doing that. In my Spanish class we did head, shoulder, knees, and toes in Spanish. Loved it!

Thursday, the same. Lot's of singing the songs he learned in class. We spent all Summer talking about Spanish and what it was. Watching Dora the Explorer which had already taught him some words. Our neighbors are at the same school and they are from Mexico and he got to hit a piñata before school started back.  I love the piñata song...."Dale, Dale, Dale..." 

So as far as regular Kindergarten stuff. Picture day was today. He chose his Lego Batman T-shirt. I turned in his form for Road Runners. It's a short season and it's exercise. Plus it's an opportunity for me to volunteer my time. My Hispanic neighbor, Betty, told me that a lot of Mexican parents just don't care. I hope that the language barrier made her say that wrong. She shouldn't say that. Lot's of American parents don't care either!  So I'm glad that she is an involved parent as well. Unfortunately there are a lot of parents who don't care about their child's day or their education. Or maybe they just don't know to be involved because that's not how they grew up. I didn't have involved parents. I was told to bother them and graduate. I was on my own. When I had an extra curricular activity I was on my own. I never had the right clothes on field trips or picture days. I was the only kid who didn't know it was red shirt day. I needed help with homework and couldn't get it. My mom could barely read and write and my father had PTSD from Vietnam War. I could have deeply benefited from an involved parent. My mom didn't even work. But I know that they did the best they could with what they knew so I forgive them. So I learned independence and accountably the hard way, maybe the only way you can learn it. I've learned what not to do with my son. His education is my number one priority. I will be there for him as much as I can. I will always make sure he is engaged. And if he is not, then I will find out how to get him there.

Overall, I would say week one went well. Just glad it's over. I was actually worried that my son might act out in class if he couldn't understand anything. I guess they have all that figured out. From this point on it's just getting into a groove I think. Getting used to getting up early and having to do homework will take a little while longer. So far it hasn't been too bad. My job demands go up and down. One week I might work everyday and another week I may have off. I'm trying balance myself. I want this enthusiasm to last.

I'm going to try to update this every week if there is something interesting to me. If not I will try to update my post bi-weekly or monthly. Below I added the homework the teacher sent home and schedule.

 

 

 Thank you for reading! Feel free to ask questions about anything.
Mandy