Summer is officially over and school kicked off Monday for students in DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton and Clayton counties, among others.
Although it was the first day of the 2018-2019 school year for all students in those systems, some of the littlest had even more firsts.
VIDEO: More on back to school
Kindergartners in the Dual Language Immersion program at Level Creek Elementary School got their first experience with Spanish. And for the next 13 years, math, science and reading reading will be taught to these students in both languages.
Although this is the first year for the program at his school, Principal Daniel Skelton began preparing for this day two years ago.
“The county asked if we’d be interested in trying the program and we volunteered for it,” he said. “We spent the last year getting trained and observing the process in other schools.”
There were 56 student slots open, and first choice went to students who live in the attendance district. They took up 53 of the spots, leaving three for the district-wide lottery. Those who didn’t make it in are on a waiting list.
Read about Fulton’s first day of classes here.
After the first semester of first grade, the waiting list goes away. By then the student will have fallen too far behind others in the class to catch up, he added.
Emily Constine has been teaching for 10 years, but welcomed the training on how to teach letters and sounds in Spanish.
“We’re starting off with demonstrating the language,” she said.
The first morning, students didn’t understand that the needed to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance so it took a lot of gesturing to get the point across. English isn’t to be spoken in the Spanish portion of the class.
“They’re adapting very well already,” said Constine.
Her co-teacher, Kerri Griffin, has 15 years of experience teaching kindergarten, but she still had to undergo training.
To make sure the students understand the lessons, she’ll do a short recap in English of the math and science lessons they learned in Spanish, she said.
At drop-off, parents were all smiles.
“There are so many benefits of being bilingual,” said Jennifer Coffin after she kissed daughter Alexis good-bye.
“It enhances creativity ... and there’s a big cultural aspect,” she said. “Children develop empathy and learn more about the world.”
Although Chinese is her native language, Grace Li is looking forward to her daughter Claire learning a language that is so prevalent in the United States.
“It’s a great program,” she said. “It’s great for kids.”
As they progress, the students should be ready to pass the AP exam in 10th grade.
“The oldest DLI students are in fourth grade now and the research is showing that they are doing just as well if not better than their peers who aren’t in this program,” said Skelton. “Gwinnett wants to offer variety and while this is pretty special, all the schools have different opportunities. This is just one of them.”
Clayton also returned to school. Read it here.
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