Learning exchange

Fifteen Chinese educators arrived in Jay County Monday for a one-month training project that will bring them in contact with American educational methods and practices.
Led by Li Tao, deputy director of the personnel department of the Anshan City Bureau of Education, the teachers are the first from China’s Liaoming Province to travel abroad for training.
Working with Ball State University and Region 8, a consortium of 26 schools in Northeast Indiana, the project will focus on the effective teaching of English as a second language and will allow the Chinese teachers to shadow Jay County teachers in the classroom.
In addition to school visits in Jay County, the project also will include two days of visits to the Adams Central School Corporation.
It is fully funded by the government of Anshan.
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Jay Schools have had a relationship with those in Anshan for five years, during which there have been exchanges of teachers and students.
The school corporation has also been involved internationally with Taiwan, Italy, Germany, and Japan.
“If you do not have a global component to what you do, you are cheating the next generation,” said superintendent Tim Long, who has championed the international exchanges.
“Dr. Long is our old friend,” said Li Tao, speaking through an interpreter. “It is our great honor … to meet such wonderful people.”
The visiting teachers will be staying with host families while they are in Indiana.
Former mayor Bruce Hosier signed an agreement of cooperation between the city of Portland and the city of Anshan in 2011, and current mayor Randy Geesaman was on hand Monday to welcome the group.
While here, the group will be assisted by Li Jing, a visiting Chinese teacher who is here for the school year.
Anshan is a city of 3 million people. It has 20,000 teachers serving in its school system.
The Ball State component of the project is being directed by Professor Elizabeth Riddle, who is director of the Intensive English Language Institute at BSU.[[In-content Ad]]