Theodore Roosevelt

IT was colder than normal for D.C. in April, and after riding up & down the Potomac River staring at bare branched cherry trees, my daughter, Ashley, decided to take me to the Theodore Roosevelt Island. It's just a small island in the middle of the Potomac River, that was dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt in memory of his conservationist actions. As we crossed the footbridge, and climbed the slope to the memorial, the looming statue of our former president stood squarely between many other monuments that were inscribed with some of President Roosevelt's famous quotes. As we read the many quotes on conservationism, statesmanship, liberty, etc. I was struck by one quote in particular:

"A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy."

I immediately reworded the quote in to read in my world,

"A great Immersion program has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to  be great or Immersion."

Whoa! What a thought! While most of us work in Districts that offer many opportunities for professional development, it is the rarer District that understands how important it is for the immersion teachers to continue to look for more training, trading of ideas, observations, conferences and grad classes specifically dedicated to immersion classrooms. I LOVE the immersion classroom! I LOVE the teachers I work with! We are all working hard to make the immersion experience the best educational experience our students will ever have. But love alone is not enough. We need to be always striving to be on the cutting edge of immersion education.

While every school is in different stages of their growth, we all need to be looking toward the next step to make our immersion programs even more successful. What are your current challenges? What lessons are you getting bored with? How are you addressing the grammatical errors that are occurring? How are you deciding if the program is not right for some students? Where are you finding your new teachers? What are the most important qualities in an Immersion administrator? When are we going to start seeing bilingual educators in the Resource Room, Speech Path, Social Worker, Psychologist & Reading Specialist positions? How are our local colleges responding to the needs of the Immersion education programs?

"A great Immersion program has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or Immersion."

Keep asking the questions. Keep pushing the envelope. Keep on rethinking how we "do" Immersion!

Your Immersion colleague,

Sheryl René