This summer, sixteen Northern California middle and high school teachers participated in the Committee’s fourth Summer Teachers Institute, a five-week immersion in Chinese culture, history and language. Described by program evaluator Nancy Sato as “a life-changing event that improved their understanding and interest in China, which will continue the rest of their lives,” the Institute has had a positive impact on hundreds of students and is already reflected in Bay Area classrooms. One teacher, Manuel Lopez, from Everett Alvarez High School in Salinas, told C-100 Senior Associate for Education Karen Leong Clancy: “I am currently in the process of changing my approach to teaching economics because of the study tour. In essence, I have become a China junkie. I will forever be in debt to the many people that invested in how I think about China.”
C-100 Summer Institute participants with one of their many Chinese hosts, officials of the Jingzhou Municipal Government.
Thanks to a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant, the China trip was extended from 19 to 30 days. The teachers benefited from many unusual learning opportunities as a result of the extra grant funding and the Institute’s established relationships with the San Mateo County Office of Education, the Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley and Huazhong Normal University in Wuhan as well as key introductions from C-100 members. These opportunities included participation in archeological digs, meetings at the American Embassy and Microsoft China, and visits to a variety of Chinese schools, from Wuhan’s elite #1 Middle School to Beijing’s Dandelion School for the children of migrant workers. Indeed, after Michael Sandberg of Seven Hills School showed photos of the migrant school to his students, they raised $700 for reconstruction of the Dandelion School kitchen, which feeds 800 people every day.
Field trip to Jingzhou, 2,400 year-old capital of the State of Chu, Hubei province.
Teachers Justin Moodie and Devin Ozdogu in the Fengxiang archeological pits.
The teachers shared their experiences with C-100 Chairman Dominic Ng and Executive Director Angie Tang on November 15 at a meeting hosted by Pehong Chen. Leslie Tang Schilling spearheaded the Institute’s creation in 2007 and explained the value of the Institute to the nearly 80 teachers who have completed the program. This year’s Institute was especially effective, said Sato, because teachers presented sample lesson plans at the end of their China visit, which stimulated “a rich dialogue among the teachers during the trip” about what they were seeing and how it could be incorporated into the curriculum. Teachers were not only learning firsthand about China but also from each other.
Berkeley High School social studies teacher Peter Rodrigues, who teaches about the Cold War, described the great change in his perspective on China after the Summer Institute: “I had [been] conflating modern Chinese Communism with Communism as expressed in Eastern Europe following World War II. I had the pre-conception of a dour, repressed, and depressed people [under Communism], which I found to be untrue in China. The people seemed proud of China’s accomplishments and mindful of future challenges.”
Events like this are why Nor-Cal's teachers are so amazing!
Posted by: college admissions | January 23, 2012 at 12:06 AM