SOMA school district - what foreign language study is offered

dave23 said:

susan1014 said:

dave23 said:

kizavar said:

algebra2 said:

You said "yikes".

I think you're right. Seems I've rattled the chicken coop with my question. Interesting bunch I'll say.

You need to work on your trolling skills.

I'd lay off treating kizavar as a troll. S/he is a newish poster, but has come on here in the past to look for information and to participate in civil discussions, and has made it clear that s/he has a young child.

The attacks on kizavar for even asking a factual question don't reflect well on a couple of the posters here. It can be astoundingly hard to find things on the District website, even for some of us with years of practice.

Yes, that website is very poor. Perhaps I mistook the "yikes" for a meaningful response like max's, but it came across as bait. In other words, the problem wasn't the question.

You sound paranoid and insecure. Seek treatment.

kizavar said:

Bee

If the school district is reflective of some of the nastiest on here, I'd be reluctant to even send an anonymous email. My God such evil disgusting human beings on this board

why assume the worst? Do you honestly think every other person in town is an a-hole based on this board? Based on the handful of people commenting? Based on that assumption, then you are part of that group too, no?

If you want something, how does it hurt to talk to the people that might be able to help and try to attain that goal?

Bee

Wasn't referring to you. My apologies if I offended you or some of the other posters with meaningful responses. Just very angry right now. Logging off.

kizavar, you clearly haven't been in Mapso long enough to know that nothing incites more foaming at the mouth than education, except possibly property revals. There are huge budget restrictions which have significant impact on how many foreign languages we can offer. I'm sure there are options including online classes, reaching out to local colleges and collaborating with other school districts to offer more choices which could be explored and iimplemented. Reach out to the foreign language advisor for the district and they can probably tell you what options are available.

kizavar said:

You sound paranoid and insecure. Seek treatment.

kizavar said:

If the school district is reflective of some of the nastiest on here, I'd be reluctant to even send an anonymous email. My God such evil disgusting human beings on this board

The district has some real communication issues, but there are great individuals who can help tremendously. It can take a bit of work, but they are there. (I don't know why you would correlate them with MOL posters, myself included. That makes no sense whatsoever.)

I think we have different definitions of "evil."

If you have young kids and are exploring school options, you might consider that it is possible that the high school will offer Mandarin by the time your kids are there. Whether that's probable, who's to say? But a lot can happen in the course of 5-10 years (if that is in fact a timeframe relevant to you).

(Personally I'm a fan of taking Latin as a base -- its benefits go beyond foreign language skills. But I acknowledge that may be a bit anachronistic...)

kizavar said:

SuzanneNg said:

World language dept website.

http://www.somsd.k12.nj.us/Domain/36

Curriculum guide/list of course offerings for HS
http://www.somsd.k12.nj.us/cms/lib7/NJ01001050/Centricity/Domain/94/Course%20Offering%20Guide%20201402015.pdf

Thanks the .pdf is helpful. Not easy to find that's for sure.

The somsd website is the worst. My kids have been in the district for over 10 years and I still struggle to find things, and if I do happen to find them, they're a year or more out of date.

My wish list is Arabic, but I think the only public schools in NJ that offer it are in Paterson.

Bee said:

The district really should offer mandarin.

I believe that at least one BOE member had been working on trying to get the high school to offer Mandarin and had made significant progress. However, I do not know if the looming budget crisis has put that on the back burner.

@pageturn, I am curious about the German independent study. Could you give me some details? Is there a faculty member who can supervise German study? Or is it an internet based study option? What about testing?

BaseballMom said:

My wish list is Arabic, but I think the only public schools in NJ that offer it are in Paterson.

Besides Mandarin which should really be introduced much earlier than high school, my wish list would include Hindi/Urdu and Arabic.

Our district has been cutting world language resources for so long that it took IB to get Spanish beefed up in middle school last year. Sections are limited of what languages are offered in HS that sometimes to make schedules work students are asked to drop a level or even drop language. Our district does not do a great job of teaching the languages they do teach IMHO. Mandarin should be offered earlier than HS and even if Mandarin is not offered we should have more than one language offering at the Middle Schools. I think an immersion language elementary magnet should be offered in the district.

Ideally our students should be learning languages at the elementary level and we should offer Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu and more.
Besides budget constraints there is the practical challenge of finding qualified teachers. My friend is a language supervisor in another district. Hiring people who have the language skills AND can teach is difficult enough for Spanish, French, and all the other languages that have traditional certification programs in our colleges. She managed to certify a Mandarin teacher through the alternate route, but the person is not a strong teacher. Unfortunately people with those skills can find more lucrative jobs in industry.

Oh sure, we should have all those languages. But what we need more (or just the same?) to be in the 21st century is to convert that library with all those dust-collecting books and make it truly a 21st century "shop" that's a digital meeting place wehre kids can work collaboratively, do robotics, design 3-D projects and do what is truly valuable toward allowing our students a path into the new world's job market.

I had no idea there would be such an outcry for Mandarin (or several other languages listed above) and I am genuinely shocked.

oakland2 said:

I had no idea there would be such an outcry for Mandarin (or several other languages listed above) and I am genuinely shocked.

There are a lot of folks who really want to see our district offering Mandarin. In general, foreign language instruction is a serious weakness in our district. I hope it will be a priority for the new superintendent. I think we may need a real organized effort which is what it took to get IB into the middle schools...

I would say that IB came into middle schools not because of a concerted effort (yes there was a parent group pushing for it) but because it was dangled as a plum to mollify those upset about deleveling as a way to supposedly insure rigor. Language is indeed a weakness and I would love to see a push to enhance our offerings as we are seeing now with STEM.

ffof said:

Oh sure, we should have all those languages. But what we need more (or just the same?) to be in the 21st century is to convert that library with all those dust-collecting books and make it truly a 21st century "shop" that's a digital meeting place wehre kids can work collaboratively, do robotics, design 3-D projects and do what is truly valuable toward allowing our students a path into the new world's job market.

Some peoples' kids really, really get a lot out of reading those "dust-collecting books." We shouldn't have to get rid of books in order to create meeting places and maker spaces. Can't we have BOTH? We shouldn't be trying to get every child into a STEM career from kindergarten onward.

meganlibrarian said:

ffof said:

Oh sure, we should have all those languages. But what we need more (or just the same?) to be in the 21st century is to convert that library with all those dust-collecting books and make it truly a 21st century "shop" that's a digital meeting place wehre kids can work collaboratively, do robotics, design 3-D projects and do what is truly valuable toward allowing our students a path into the new world's job market.

Some peoples' kids really, really get a lot out of reading those "dust-collecting books." We shouldn't have to get rid of books in order to create meeting places and maker spaces. Can't we have BOTH? We shouldn't be trying to get every child into a STEM career from kindergarten onward.

+1

ffof said:

Oh sure, we should have all those languages. But what we need more (or just the same?) to be in the 21st century is to convert that library with all those dust-collecting books and make it truly a 21st century "shop" that's a digital meeting place wehre kids can work collaboratively, do robotics, design 3-D projects and do what is truly valuable toward allowing our students a path into the new world's job market.

That is in the master plan presented this week, although the "dust-collecting books" will also have a place, as it is not yet clear that they are entirely obsolete.

Oh, and the district is piloting an e-book lending system at SOMS right now.

If you ask a question, you better be ready for the answer. You got the answer and then asked if it was serious. So you don't respect a school district that doesn't offer Mandarin, I guess.

I'm still looking for the foam.

ctrzaska said:

I'm still looking for the foam.

Pithy!

ctrzaska said:

I'm still looking for the foam.

It's me. I have rabies.

max_weisenfeld said:

Oh, and the district is piloting an e-book lending system at SOMS right now.

It started last year ( or perhaps 2012-2013) under Mrs Malespina. Glad to see it is continuing under the new librarian.

SuzanneNg said:

max_weisenfeld said:

Oh, and the district is piloting an e-book lending system at SOMS right now.

It started last year ( or perhaps 2012-2013) under Mrs Malespina. Glad to see it is continuing under the new librarian.

Or the website is so out of date that I pulled a notice from last year....

mjh said:

meganlibrarian said:

ffof said:

Oh sure, we should have all those languages. But what we need more (or just the same?) to be in the 21st century is to convert that library with all those dust-collecting books and make it truly a 21st century "shop" that's a digital meeting place wehre kids can work collaboratively, do robotics, design 3-D projects and do what is truly valuable toward allowing our students a path into the new world's job market.

Some peoples' kids really, really get a lot out of reading those "dust-collecting books." We shouldn't have to get rid of books in order to create meeting places and maker spaces. Can't we have BOTH? We shouldn't be trying to get every child into a STEM career from kindergarten onward.

+1

okay, well seriously, we cant get rid of all books. But ebooks are here and the internet is here. Go into the CHS library and randomly pick a book off a shelf. Look at the date it was last checked out. usually something like Mar 1999. or Feb 1987. No joke.

I wonder about that, since my kids seem to accrue plenty of library fines. And I don't mind at all. They read books from the CHS library.

hamandeggs said:

I wonder about that, since my kids seem to accrue plenty of library fines. And I don't mind at all. They read books from the CHS library.

Mine too. I'd guess that non-fiction has very limited circulation, and that research is heading toward online sources. But fantasy and science fiction seem to circulate quite well!

susan1014 said:

kizavar said:

SuzanneNg said:

Spanish language instruction begins on grade 3. HS language offerings include Latin, French, Spanish and Italian. I believe French, and Spanish offer AP language and literature courses as well. When I'm at a computer (vs my phone) I will post the link to the world language web page.

Do they offer Mandarin?

For better or worse, the language offerings at Columbia seem frozen in a mid-20th century model (but are missing the German that was usually part of that model). As far as I can tell, some of this may be driven by the abilities of teachers to cross-teach multiple Romance languages.

I'm more surprised to have Italian on the list than Latin, to be honest. The lack of any non-Romance languages seems oddly lacking in the diversity that we prize.

If you want Mandarin, the best that I can offer is that West Orange has a well regarded program. I've heard no talk of changing Columbia's offerings in the near future, so am not overly optimistic.

Livingston also has a Mandarin program going back many years. It begins in the 7th grade and includes AP and Honors offerings in High School.

FYI @ffof. You cannot tell last check out by looking at our books as those records are on the computer.