TCLP alumni have worked diligently to foster sister school relationships between their host schools in the U.S. and their home schools in China and Egypt. Below, we profile the work of two such alumni.
Arizona and Chinese Sister Schools Begin Student Exchanges
The two schools started reciprocal student exchanges this summer, beginning with a group of Sonoran Trails students, who made the trip from Cave Creek, Arizona to the No. 6 Middle School of Yichang in Hubei province. TCLP alum Li Qiong (2011-2012), who teaches at No. 6 Middle School and was hosted at Sonoran Trails during her one-year exchange program in the U.S., will make a return visit to Arizona in August with a group of Chinese middle school students, her home school principal, and an administrator. The sister school partnership emerged from a 2012 Critical Languages Project grant Li Qiong was awarded through TCLP, in which she accompanied Sonoran Trails principal Bill Dolezal to China as a first-time visitor. Ms. Li developed an itinerary that allowed Principal Dolezal to sign sister school documents with the principal at her home school, creating a framework for future collaboration.
Sonoran Trails Middle School was one of the first public schools in Arizona to offer daily language classes required by all students. During the 2011-2012 school year, they enrolled more than 300 seventh and eighth grade students in daily classes with Li Qiong and another locally hired Chinese teacher. Within a year, Cave Creek school district had planned out a streamlined sequence all the way to the university level. The school hosted a second TCLP teacher, Liu Xi, in 2012, by which time Mandarin had spread to a district high school, where the goal is to create an Advanced Placement class for Mandarin Chinese. The district has also partnered with Arizona State University’s Confucius Institute where students can enter the Flagship Program and graduate from university fully proficient in the language.
Sharing Egypt through Film
What started with an Egyptian movie on the Facebook page of TCLP alum Mohamed El-Dwiny (2011-2012) has turned into an international language learning project. When TCLP alum Mohamed El-Dwiny (2011-2012) finished his TCLP exchange at Safford Engineering and Technology Magnet School in Tucson, Arizona, he was excited to continue contributing to Arabic language learning at his U.S. host school. And even though he is now half a world away, back in his hometown of Damietta, Egypt, Mr. El-Dwiny has continued to stay in touch. When his former mentor teacher in Tucson, Nour Jandali, saw a short Egyptian video titled I Dream on his Facebook page, she saw an opportunity for collaboration. Mr. El-Dwiny is currently working to translate the film into English. Once translated, he will share it with Ms. Jandali, who will show it to her Arabic classes at Safford and at nearby Cholla High School. Through upcoming virtual Skype meetings with teachers in Egypt and the U.S., Mohamed and Nour hope to continue to build on their current relationship and to exchange ideas about teaching Arabic in the U.S. and English in Egypt.
As an English teacher at Saad Al-Asmar No. 2 Primary School in Damietta, Egypt, Mohamed has continued to incorporate English language and modern teaching methodologies into the lives of the school's 500 students in grades first through six. In addition to teaching, he is responsible for morning school assemblies and plays an important role in staff development. He facilitates meetings and workshops geared to improve the quality of education, including discussions about English teaching and issues that teachers encounter.