Why Barnard Mandarin Magnet Elementary School?
Barnard Mandarin Magnet Elementary offers students the
unique opportunity to learn the Mandarin Chinese language, the fastest
growing language in the world. Barnard is located in the Pacific Beach
area, and is part of the Mission Bay Cluster of San Diego Unified School
District. Our students in Universal Transitional Kindergarten through
grade 5 come to us from all over San Diego County.
Our teaching staff are highly qualified and trained in teaching Mandarin as a second language.
Our
highly qualified, and trained, teaching staff, immerse all students in
Mandarin Chinese instruction. Our UTK classroom experiences the Mandarin
language through songs and movement activities throughout the year.
Kindergarten classrooms follow a 80/20 immersion model, in which
students spend 80 percent of their day learning Mandarin and English
instruction is 20 percent of the day. Grades 1 – 5 follow the 50/50
model. Students spend half of their instructional day in Mandarin and
the other half in English. Students successfully develop the ability to
use the Mandarin language in a natural context, which accelerates the
acquisition of the Mandarin language.
Each
classroom is equipped with an i21 suite (document camera, Smartboard,
and computer devices for each student), which enables students to
utilize technology as a tool to demonstrate learning through various
multimedia presentations.
The
blending of a world language program with a challenging English
curriculum enables Barnard students to use their knowledge of diverse
cultures to think critically, act globally, and become thoughtful,
responsible, and successful global citizens.
Barnard
also integrates the Six (6) Ancient Chinese Arts, to complete our
students’ learning of the Mandarin Language. These cultural arts classes
include abacus, Kuiban, calligraphy, tai-chi, arts, music, dance, and
literature.