041: Spanish Language Immersion with Lindsey Barnes and David Hernández of The Dahlia School

Studies have shown that children who are in language immersion programs through the elementary years end up becoming more proficient in their home language as they get older, and they also experience the benefits of cultural awareness. In today’s episode, I’m chatting with Lindsey Barnes, Executive Director, and David Hernández, Elementary Teacher Leader, of The Dahlia School in San Francisco. We dive into language immersion and why they prefer that method versus bilingual education, as well as why they encourage their students to speak Spanish to each other in the classroom. We also discuss why diversity is a priority for Lindsey, the challenges and successes of starting and running a micro school, and her vision for The Dahlia School going forward.   What’s in this episode:Why Lindsey was inspired to start The Dahlia School, offer a Spanish immersion curriculum, and why diversity was a big priority for her as a Black momThe benefits of exposing children to a multilingual curriculum and integrating languages into curriculum at the elementary levelWhy The Dahlia School is 100% language immersion instead of a bilingual classroomWhy Lindsey and David encourage their students to speak Spanish to each other and set up natural environments for the language education to flourishThe challenges and successes of starting and running a micro schoolLindsey’s vision for the future of The Dahlia SchoolLindsey’s advice for starting a Wildflower schoolFor full show notes, resources, links and to download the transcript, visit:https://www.trilliummontessori.org/podcast/ Resources Mentioned in This Episode:The Dahlia School of San FranciscoConnect With UsVisit our websiteFollow us on InstagramConnect with us on FacebookThe Montessori Classroom Bootcamps will be open for enrollment July 21-29. Classes begin August 1.Elementary Classroom Planning Bootcamp for 6-12 with Letty RisingClassroom Setup Bootcamp for 3-6 with Seemi Abdullah