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MAIN is a non-profit membership organization of Minnesota immersion educators and programs that was established to:
- Pool resources and create opportunities for professional development that specifically address the needs of immersion practitioners;
- Bring immersion administrators and teachers from all Minnesota immersion programs together to share experiences and learn from each other;
- Support discussion and collaborative problem-solving of issues and challenges that are unique to immersion programming, e.g., teacher recruitment, professional development, public relations related to second language learning;
- Serve as advocates and as an information resource for immersion education at the district and state levels.
Membership
Individuals who work in immersion education and language immersion programs that fit the following criteria are eligible to become MAIN members:
- Use a language other than English to teach subject matter content;
- Integrate language teaching with content teaching;
- Offer instruction through the immersion language for at least 50% of the school day during the pre-school and elementary years; offer a minimum of two content areas taught through the immersion language in secondary continuation programs;
- Promote additive bi- or multilingualism, i.e., enriched instruction in the immersion language sustained through the elementary years, including maintenance English;
- Are held accountable for evaluating academic achievement in the content areas;
- Employ teachers who are highly proficient in the language(s) of instruction andclearly separate teacher use of one language versus another for sustained periods of time.
Membership dues
- $200 for Twin Cities metro area schools of 200 students or more
- $100 for Twin Cities metro area schools under 200 students
- $50 for schools outside the Twin Cities metro area and individuals
Board of directors
2010-11 MAIN Board of Directors
Executive committee
Kimerly Miller, Senior chair
Editor, American Council on Immersion Education Newsletter, Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota
Mark Quinn, Vice-chair
Principal, Emerson Spanish Immersion Learning Center, Minneapolis, MN
Aaron Arredondo, Treasurer
Building Instructional Leader, Lakes International Language Academy, Forest Lake, MN
Claudia Baldwin, Co-secretary
Assistant Principal, Adams Spanish Immersion School, St. Paul, MN
Annika Fjelstad, Co-secretary
Director, Twin Cities German Immersion School, St. Paul, MN
Members
Kelly Carolan
MAIN Parents
Fatima Lawson
Principal, L’Etoile du Nord French Immersion School, St. Paul, MN
Gerry Lukaska
Interim Principal, Pierre Bottineau French Immersion, Minneapolis, MN
Diane Tedick
Associate Professor, Second Languages and Cultures, University of Minnesota
Megan Unger
Teacher, Emerson Spanish Immersion Learning Center, Minneapolis, MN
Luis Versalles
Assistant Principal, Richfield Dual Immersion Program, Richfield, MN
Funding partners
MAIN has received an Education Minnesota Affinity Grant for the 2010-2011 academic year. The $4963 grant will fund a professional development event for Minnesota immersion teachers. An internationally known educator and researcher will present the results of her research and conduct a half-day workshop with an opportunity for local teachers to try out new activities in their classrooms following the professional development day.
History
The Minnesota Advocates for Immersion Network (MAIN) was formed in 1998 to provide a structure for ongoing collaboration among representatives of Minnesota’s language immersion programs and immersion experts at the University of Minnesota’s (UMN) Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), one of 15 national language resource centers in the U.S.
Initially, MAIN included educators from six immersion programs and the University of Minnesota. The number of programs in Minnesota has grown rapidly in recent years. Now, there are more than fifty immersion programs across the state representing preK-12 contexts. As the number of immersion programs grew over time, participants felt that MAIN would benefit from having a more formal organizational structure and non-profit status. In the fall of 2006, individuals from eleven organizations, including immersion programs, UMN and a parent support group, formed a temporary Board of Directors that was appointed to write the articles of incorporation and bylaws and complete the 501(c) (3) application. MAIN became incorporated as a legal non-profit organization under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code on December 13, 2007. Because MAIN currently has no physical location devoted to the organization, a residential address (from one of the MAIN Board members) is used as the organization’s official address.
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