Third Wave of Chinese Guest Teachers Arrives in US
|
Guest teachers attend class during the Chinese Guest Teacher Summer Institute at Stanford University,
July 28- Aug. 6 |
In July, the Chinese Guest Teacher Program welcomed its third group of teachers from China to the United States. During the 2008-09 school year, 130 schools and districts will host 193 teachers. The program, which began in January 2007, places Chinese teachers in elementary and secondary schools across the country for one to three years to promote the teaching of Chinese language and culture in U.S. schools.
The program is a collaboration between the College Board, the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages and China’s Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban). The program began with 37 teachers in its first year, and its popularity boosted the number of teachers to 64 by August 2007 and almost 200 for this school year. More than half of the current teachers have opted to continue teaching in the United States for another year.
When the new teachers arrived, they participated in the STARTALK Guest Teacher Summer Institute at Stanford University, which prepared them for their assignment in one
of 32 participating states. The institute — which offered
instruction on communication strategies, classroom management and K-12 foreign language teaching standards — was supported by a grant from STARTALK, which is one the of the projects
of the National Security Language Initiative, a multiagency effort to expand foreign language education in critical but seldom-taught languages.
“Our College Board guest teachers are making an investment in the future — ours and theirs,” said Jim Montoya, vice president for relationship development, who was on hand to greet the teachers. “They are clearly as excited about sharing their language and culture with American students as they are about eventually taking back to their students in China their firsthand experiences with American culture. These trailblazing teachers are true cultural bridge builders.”
