ABSTRACT
Producing short-term wins and locating more schools adopting dual language programs provided momentum, but reaching our goals took relentless focus and honed leadership skills. The dual language model expanded the concept of collaborative teaching as we knew it and forced decisions by consensus on almost every topic for discussion. Since we had promised that our dual language program implementation would not incur additional costs for the district, we had to be creative with our current teacher allocations and school budget. It is typical for parents of kindergarten students to be tentative about the first day of school, but this year their concerns were exacerbated with inquiries about their students beginning their first day immersed in a second language learning environment. This concern from parents, who also wanted to learn Spanish, resulted in our World Language teacher offering Spanish classes in her living room after school in the evening.
