Blog Supports Creation of New Immersion School in St. Louis

The ACIE Newsletter, November 2008, Vol. 12, No. 1

by Kimerly Miller, Editor, The ACIE Newsletter

Political pundits do it. Students studying abroad do it. Now the St. Louis Language Immersion Schools (SLLIS) is doing it, too. They have started a blog to create support for the city’s first immersion school. Launched in May, the writers, at http://sllis.wordpress.com, are using the format to introduce prospective parents to board members, to lay out an action plan, to broadcast meeting times and places, to engage people in dialogue about the new school, and to celebrate important advances made toward achieving the goal of opening the school in September 2009.

Because the school will be operating as a public, tuition-free charter school and anticipates using an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program curriculum, the blog writers have devoted a good deal of space in the first months to explaining how these educational models will dovetail with the characteristics and objectives of language immersion education. Readers can search entries by keyword or browse the archives by category or date. There are links to other blogs, those of parents raising bilingual children and professional organizations such as CARLA that can extend readers’ understanding of immersion education or the charter school movement.

You can explore the idea of using blogs to communicate with your immersion community by logging on to one of these sites: www.wordpress.com or www.blogspot.com. Theme templates are available to help you create your blog and you can then add features, like photos, that will help your group stay in touch. An added bonus for immersion schools is that both sites allow bloggers to use languages other than English.