This awesome post was written by Cecilia Quan, a 10th grader at Oakland High School (center, front). Cecilia really blossomed this semester and became a strong public speaker! Yay Cecilia! ~Melanie

這篇超酷的文章是由我們屋倫高中十年級的Cecilia Quen寫的哦!(前面中間). Cecilia在這個學期成長了很多,她已經是一個很厲害的公眾演講者了!耶Cecilia!!-Melanie

Hello everybody my name is Cecilia this is my first time writing a blog for AIWA. I am in the English Learner Development (ELD) Presentation group in AIWA, which means we were responsible for surveying and talking about our campaign to two ELD classrooms. On April 19 my partner, Angelina Li, and me, did a presentation about AIWA at Oakland High School to the ELD students about what a Seal of Biliteracy is and how will it help them in school and in the future. During our presentation the ELD students focued on our presentation and asked many questions. Angelina and me also passed out a survey to the ELD students to let them fill out to see how much they wanted a Seal of Biliteracy. At the end of our presentation we asked the students do they know what an A-G requirement was. The ELD students said no. Angelina and I were surprise so we told them that it is the requirements to apply to a University of California school, typically if you fulfill these requirement you also fulfill most college/universities eligibility to apply, along with SAT/ACT scores, with some schools. We also told them the requirement of classes like four years English, Three years- Math, Two years-Science, Two year- foreign language, Two year-social science, One years- fine art, and 1 year elective. I guess some of the ELD student now understand what is the requirement and they now know what a seal of biliteracy is. In the presentation I think it was really interesting and fun, it was like we were teaching the ELD students things that they didn’t know before and it also helped the ELD student build their confidence in school. It also helped us with our campaign and felt like our campaign is really successful. Fighting AIWA.=)

大家好我是Cecilia,這次是我第一次為AIWA寫博客呢. 我是在Aiwa的ELD學生演講組的,意味著我們要複雜跟兩個ELD班房的學生做問卷調查和演講. 在四月十九日的時候我和我的拍檔Angelina Li在屋倫高中為ELD學生做了一個關於Aiwa的雙語認可計畫的演講. 在演講的時候ELD學生非常的留意我們的講話同時也問了我們好多問題. 我和Angelina派發了很多問卷調查給他們做,同時問他們知不知道什麼是A-G requirement. 有些學生不知道,我們都感到非常的驚訝.於是我們就告訴他們這個是上大學的一個重要要求,就好像很多學校都要SAT/ACT分數一樣. 我們告訴他們A-G Requirment就是意味著學生要在高中期間需要完成4年英文,3年數學,2年科學,2年外語和一年選修科目. 現在我想很多學生都知道什麼是A-G requirement和雙語認可計畫了. 我認為這次的演講蠻有趣的,因為好像我們在教大家一些新知識一樣同時也幫助ELD學生變在學校得更加有自信. 同時也幫助了我們的運動的進展, 我想我們的運動一定會很成功的!AIWA加油! =)

四月16日, 我們跟Oakland High和Encinal High做了焦點小組調查. 在焦點小組裏面我們可以跟ELD學生會面同時學習他們作為ELD學生的經歷和感受. 除了簡單的問答外,我們還討論了一些話題. 每組有7個人,這樣分開小組來問我們就可以得到關於他們對學校,老師和學生等對ELD學生的不同的意見. 焦點小組使我們收集了很多可以幫助我們雙語認可的重要信息和資料. 因為我們可以跟ELD學生交流,所以我們都很明白雙語認可對ELD學生來說是如何重要的. 透過帶領焦點小組,這種方法來收集信息使我覺得這次的經驗是新鮮的因為比以往的方法有點不一樣. 能夠如此接近的跟ELD學生交流,我可以感覺到我們的運動是非常接近成功了,我們的努力是沒有白費的!

Our Campaign Committee has been working hard to raise student voice for our Seal of Biliteracy campaign! Read this post by Winnie Vien (far left), a 10th grader from Encinal High School. She wrote about our awesome focus groups, which brought in about 30 ELD students from Oakland and Alameda! WOOT! ~Melanie

On April 16, we had our focus groups with ELD students from both Oakland High and Encinal High. In our focus groups we were able to meet up with the students and learn more about their feelings as ELD students. Besides merely asking questions and then getting an answer, we were also able to have a discussion. With around 7 people in each group, we could see how there were different opinions on school and how each person had his/her own ideas on how other students and teachers saw ELD students. During our focus groups, we gathered a lot of information that would help us on our campaign for the Seal of Biliteracy. Since we were able to interact with the ELD students, we also better understood how the Seal of Biliteracy would affect the students’ experiences in ELD. Holding these focus groups, and being able to gather information this way, I felt that this was a different kind of research than what we usually would do. Having the ability to actually talk to the students who would be affected by our campaign, it made me feel like our campaign would really succeed and become a reality. Once we held our focus groups, I think our hard work really paid off!

三月19號到21號期間, 我們去了南三藩市的Pigeon Point Lighthouse. 因為這次的旅遊我們可以更加的認識大家,同時有我們一起玩的時間.Pigeon Point Lighthouse真是一個度假的好地方呢. 在我們會議的時間我們討論我們的新運動”雙語認可”.這個認可可以幫助ELD學生考上更好的大學. 因為這個簡簡單單的圖章代表了ELD學生可以閱讀,書寫和說出兩種或以上的語言.同時這個認可使ELD學生更加受到雇主或大學的重視和尊重. 我們希望更加多的ELD學生可以考上大學,這就是我們做這個運動的主要原因.我們分開了5-6個人的小組.我們的工作就是鼓勵ELD學生如果走向下一步. 在現時的環境可以用兩種以上語言溝通真的很重要. 我們會讓ELD填寫我們的問卷調查,與他們個人面談從而知道他們的經歷,然後會在ELD班做演講.AIWA正在準備在2011年之前可以贏取這個運動,這樣大家都可以上大學咯~!

Hi Everyone! This wonderful post was written by Kimmy Chen, a 10th grader at Oakland High (bottom row, far left). She was a big help during the retreat, helping to clean up and actively participating in our workshops. Thanks Kimmy! ~Melanie

On March 19^th-21^st, we went to Pigeon Point Lighthouse in South San Francisco. In this trip we get to know one and another, spending our free time playing together. Pigeon Point Lighthouse was a beautiful place to go on a vacation. In the meeting we talked about a new campaign called the “Seal of Biliteracy”. This seal would help ELD students go to better colleges and universities, because this stamp represents the skill of being able to read, write, speak, and listen in two or more languages. The seal also increases the respect and visible among employers and colleges. We want more and more ELD students go to college. This is the reason why we are running this campaign. We were separated into small groups of 5 to 6 people. Our job is to help ELD students taking another step towards their future. Being able to communicate in two or more language in our environment are very useful. We are planning to have ELD students fill out the survey, and interviewing them about how they felt as a ELD student. We also have presentations in ELD classrooms. Aiwa is trying to make sure this will happen in 2011, so more students can apply to a 4 year college/university.   By: Kimmy

我們運動委員會,核心領袖,TI和Melanie一起去了Pigeon Point Lighthouse郊遊. 期間我們明白了更多關於我們這次運動的目標.我們不單只學會了我們的目標,同時也學會了如何去達到我們的目標.除了學習這次運動的目標外,我們同時學習了聆聽技巧和回應技巧. 當然除了學習新東西之外,我們同時也有機會可以跟核心領袖一起玩(在AYU的Retreat很少機會可以這樣呢..),這樣我們就更加和諧了!除此之外,遊戲和食物都非常好.還有那雄偉的無敵海景和周圍的風景更是讓人陶醉呢..最後來講,我認為這次retreat使我們運動委員會和核心領袖更加和諧了,同時我們大家都學到了新的經驗和得以訓練我們的領袖才能.

Hey Everyone! Last month we went on a retreat to prepare for our Seal of Biliteracy campaign. Here is a blog post by Kathy Yu, a 10th grader from Encinal High School in Alameda (far left in the picture). What do you think about what she had to say? -Melanie

We the campaign committee, with Cores, TI’s and Melanie had a retreat at Pigeon Point Lighthouse. During our stay at Pigeon Point, we were able to understand more about our goals for this campaign. Not only did we learn about our goals, we also learned how to reach our goals. Besides learning about goals, we also learned about some great listening skills and also responding techniques. During our stay at Piegon Point, not only were we able to learn new things, we were able to have fun and also have more interaction with Core Leaders (which we didn’t have much during the AYU retreat) which allowed us to be much closer than before. Futhermore, the games and food were good not to mention the great views of the ocean and its surroundings. Overall, I thought this retreat really helped us (campaign committee) become more closer with Core Leaders and also with each other. It also helped us with great learning experiences and leadership skills as well.

Seal of Biliteracy is a stamp on your high school diploma, this recognition shows you that you can speak another language other than English. The Seal of Biliteracy represents a skill or an accomplishment. It provides us confidence and motivates us to become more positive and pursue more. The Seal of Biliteracy only provides in five high schools in California, and they are very famous. So that YBIP plans to run run a campaign and fight for Seal of Biliteracy to be happen in the Oakland school district and Encinal High School. I will talk about our vision of the Seal of Biliteracy. First, in Oakland, we want school faculties, Community service committee, teachers, city representatives, DLAC and students to run this program. Students can request to take a test in school, the languages provided are Spanish, Mandarin, French and Cantonese. If you pass these tests and you want a stamp on your diploma, you will need to meet the following requirements: for AP testing there are two ways, you need a 4 for your language if you were not born in here, if not you only need a 3; and you need to take 4 years of that foreign language. You will also need at least a 2.0 GPA. Passing the CST test with the “standard” result. If you pass all these, you will have a stamp on your high school dilpoma. On the Senior Awards Night you will be awarded with a gold medal. In Encinal high school, we want the Seal of Biliteracy run by teachers and ELD students. Student can request to take a test in school. Languages provided are Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog and Vietnamese. But if you want a stamp on your diploma, you will need to meet the following requirement: you will need to take 4 years of the foreign language you want to be tested on, passing the AP test with 3 points or more and pass the district test. Other requirements are having a GPA of at least 2.5. And pass the CST test with the “standard” result. If you pass everything, you will have the stamp on your diploma. And on the Senior Awards Nigh you will be given the award and the gold medal.

還有你知道我們新移民在學校裡面有受到一些不平等的待遇嗎？？

你也知道我們的希望和未來是要做什麼嗎？？

目前學校裡或許有許許多多新移民學生被其他會英文的同學排斥甚至被拋離到另一個安靜的角落，也許你可能感覺不到但我們也希望你能深深的和慢慢安靜的去想想看，我們在學校裡許多新移民正在面對所謂的語言溝通的困難還有學習英文字母的課程。我們希望能夠為新移民開出一到光芒能夠給新移民學生得到完美的學習空間使他們更有自信讓他們去上完美個四年大學。AIWA在這個學期之中我們正在做一個Campain叫做Seal of Bilitacy，在這個運動裡我們希望能夠讓其他人知道我們新移民不是許多人想像中的沒有能力或著沒有任何價值等等。而是可以說第二種語言。在以後找工作或著去面試去其他公司中做的話這個證明呢也可讓他們知道你也可以說出多兩種語言。除了英文之外你甚至還會說廣東話、國語、越南話、西班牙、法語等等甚至許多語言可以幫助社會更多更完美。我們希望我們在這個運動裡能夠發表出新移民在學校裡的聲音和盼望以後的生活和將來，為新移民的生活改變一切。

Do you know how will the Seal of Biliteracy affect us in the future?
Do you know that new immigrants are facing inequality in their schools?
Do you know what are we going to do in our future?

Many new immigrant students are isolated in school. Maybe you don’t know about this but I hope you can understand it and think about it. In our school, immigrant students are facing language oppression in our school. We hope that we can create a new route for the students so that they can go to 4-year universities. In this semester, Aiwa is running a campaign named the Seal of Biliteracy. By running this campaign, we want to show people a different perspective of ELD and immigrant students, that ELD students are valuable and should be proud of themselves that they know another language other than English. And they should be visible to employers and colleges. Because knowing languages such as Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Spanish, French and other languages are useful in the society. We hope that this campaign can give ELD and immigrant students a new hope so that they can be confident for the future, and change their lives.

這次的旅遊真的非常好玩。同時也非常有工作效率。大家都很努力呢。我們很快就準備開始我們的研究調查了。四月的時候運動委員會會開始做面談，問卷調查和焦點小組，祝你們好運咯！我們會在五月的時候向學校委員會提交我們的運動，六月的時候會做評估。這兩個月開始會越來越忙呢！加油啊大家！

Hey everyone YBIp is back in action again!!>.< YEAH! Some of you may have heard about this already but if Not here it is…The SEAl Of Biliteracy. YBIP’s core, TIs, and the campaign committee are working together this semester toget the Seal of Biliteracy program running in the Oakland district and also at Encinal High School. TIs and Core have been developing this campaign for the past 2 month and got the Campaign Committee invovled with it in March with our 1st Campaign Committe general meeting. We had a retreat in March that built a stronger bond between us and got us more motivated to work on this campaign. The retreat was UBER UBER fun!!  and at the same time very productive. EVERYONE work hard so good JOB. we plan to conduct our research through interviews, surveys, and focus groups in April which will all be lead by the campaign committee so good luckk everyone!! We will be presenting our campaign to the school board in May and  do our evaluation in June. This is going to be a busy 2 month@.@ so everyone ADD OIL!!

有些學生因為這樣被迫要放棄自己的本土語言，從而可以和其他講英語的學生混熟。因為這些欺壓，有些學生甚至放棄自己不去上學，放棄考大學和得到更好的生活的機會。
但是這些不是他們移民來美國的目的嗎？得到免費的教育，上好的大學和得到好的工作。如果他們放棄上學，那他們的夢想會怎樣呢？
有些ELD學生被人取笑，說他們英語差應該回去自己的國家。有時候他們在班裏，他們因為英語不好沒有自信而不敢發言提問和回答問題，他們不想被取笑
他們覺得自己沒有力量和缺乏支持，所以他們沒有辦法只好保持安靜在班裏不做聲。

這樣對他們來說根本沒有好處，他們不會戰勝挑戰。如果他們在班裏沒有互動的話，就更加不能學到新知識
他們的信心會更加少。
你們難道不想看見ELD學生為自己站起來因為他們有雙語的技能嗎？

能夠說兩種語言是一種很特別的技能，它可以幫助你在學校有更加多的自信心。這樣學生可以學更多東西，同時學到自己語言的文化和背景。同時你可以得到更好的機會進去好的大學，得到好的工作，好的生活，等等。

ELD學生通常在學校都得不到獎狀。要得到獎狀，我們一定要實行雙語認可。有了這個認可學生就會更加有信心。

我希望讀這篇文章的人明白你的支持對ELD學生會有多麼重要。
woo~~~~~

long time no post =D

itz TAMI again!!!!! XD

today im not goin to talk about something fun, but something that concerns our fellow ELD Students

*dun dun dun* O.O

Ladies and Gentlemen behold~~~~~*drum roll*

ELD students face Oppression everyday

What kind of Oppression you may ask o.O

That’s right!!! LANGUAGE OPPRESSION People!!!

Do you know what happens if people make fun of your language or don’t even care about it? >=/

in some schools the classrooms of ELD students are usually at the corner of the school, even worse some are in portables outside of school. =/

Don’t you feel left out if you were a ELD student?

Some students will be forced to give up their own culture/language in order to “fit in” with the other English speakers. Some students will literally give up entirely and not care about going to school, getting good grades or even getting to go to a good college and live a better life, due to the oppressions they face.

Wasn’t this their purpose of coming to America?

Getting free education, getting into a good college, living a good life.

What will happen to this dream they had!!!????? O.O

Some ELD students get picked on, about how their English is bad or they should go back to their country because they don’t belong here. (no offense English Speakers!!)

When they are in class, some students feel like they don’t want to answer a question asked from the teacher, because they don’t have enough confidence, they don’t want to be laughed at. They feel like they are powerless and are afraid to express themselves, so they had no choice but to stay quiet.

That’s not really good for them, what if they always stay like that, they won’t be able to catch up and will have some challenges in studying. Students usually learn more by interacting or participating in class, but when they stay this way they won’t learn, and now that’s not good >=[

Their confidence will drop from the top all the way to their feet!!!! O.O

Won’t you guys want to see ELD students standing up for themselves and be proud that they know how to speak their own language besides English?

Being Biliterate is a special skill, with this special skill they will gain more confidence in school, also they would want to challenge themselves into wanting to learn more in school, that will lead them into not thinking that their culture/language is bad, but to help them get into a good college and finding a better job, even a better life =D

ELD students don’t usually get awarded by their academic grades in school, In order to get awards, the SEAL OF BILITERACY has to happen, with this seal they will be encouraged and will boost up their confidence from their feet all the way back to their head >=)

And i hope the people who read this will understand how much the ELD students need this seal, you guys better support them or else i will go to your house at midnight and wake you up and tell you to pee =D lol jkjk but seriously O.O u better watch out…….

and~~~~this is your daily news for SAT Mar 27, 2010

Im Tami your daily reporter from AIWA

Feb 27th was the Fun thing day for Core and TI. We went to karaoke at 5:30pm. During the karaoke, we decided to give Wo a surprise, which was to celebrate his birthday early. We brought in the birthday cake while Wo was still singing a song. Wo was surprised that he couldn’t even say a word. So that we celebrated his birthday there. Then, we went to a Korean restaurant and we had dinner together. The food they had was so great. But I was sick and I had some food already before I went to Aiwa, so I did not eat any food but only a drink. In conclusion, everyone was very happy that day, yeah!

To  2010 Campaign Committee members: I’m telling YOU 2010 Campaign Committee will be a BLAST! We are going to run a campaign dealing with Seal of Language Biliteracy. A campaign helping our immigrant students, global students, or any other students who know how to read and write in another language! We are talking about something BIG this semester! It will directly affect us who are the global students with two culture backgrounds. If you are confuse about what’s the difference between AYU and Campaign Committee, let’s explain it using the relationship between a science lecture and a science lab. Let’s just say that you are in a science class. During the lecture, this is the time when you are gaining knowledge and information just like in our program AYU. The science lab is the time when you’ll use the knowledge gained during the lecture (AYU) and use it during those exciting Hands on Experience! and that’s the general info on our Campaign Committee! This is the chance and hope y’all have fun and enjoy it!