Short-Term Students, Teachers and Cultural Exchange Programs

Henan province

Joint China-U.S.-Hong Kong-Cross Straits Symposium on Inclusive Education FOC worked closely with conference planners to recruit and introduce two special education experts from the US (one with a PhD in Special Education and another with an M.A. in Early Childhood Education) to make keynote presentations at this three-day international symposium on inclusive education, which was held at Rebecca Hotel, Zhengzhou, Henan, 1-3 December 2007.

Deaf and Blind Student Project FOC introduced one foreign volunteer English teacher for deaf students at Zhengzhou University and for deaf and blind students at the Zhengzhou School for the Deaf and Blind during the first half of 2007.

Kids English Camp a team of 10 FOC volunteers from Europe, New Zealand and North America conducted a week-long English camp in July for 20+ primary students, arranged in conjunction with Zhengzhou #47 Middle School and held at a mountain resort at Jigongshan in southern Henan.

English Teacher Training A team of 5 FOC volunteers from the United States conducted a three-week teacher training program in conversational English for 20+ primary school teachers at Zhengzhou #47 Middle School Affiliated Primary School in July.

Special Education Staff Training A team of 2 special education professionals (a speech pathologist and an early childhood education consultant) from the United States provided two weeks of in-service training in June for staff at Zhengzhou Qisehua Welfare Kindergarten.

Speech Pathology/Occupational Therapy Staff Training a team of 3 special education professionals (a speech pathologist, an occupational therapist, and a certified occupational therapy assistant) provided assessments special needs assessments and aided staff in developing individual education programs for special needs children at Zhengzhou Qisehua Welfare Kindergarten.

Conversational English Instruction a team of 8 volunteers from New Zealand made special presentations on Western culture for three weeks in December within various Conversational English classes taught by FOC associates at Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Henan University of Finance and Economics, Zhengzhou Electric Power College, and Zhengzhou #47 Middle School.

Qinghai province

Jianzha Summer English Teaching Program This project offered a three-week training program to selected students using visiting foreign volunteer teachers from overseas.

Lianxin Cultural Exchange Centre Located in Jianzha county, this cultural exchange center houses a small library of approximately 2,500 books in Chinese, Tibetan and English, from which the community can borrow without charge. The exchange center also offers English language classes, crafts, and hosts frequent cross-cultural events. It hopes to offer further training courses in the future.

Karang Village Literacy Project This project targets Karang village in Hualong County. It aims to help the people of Karang to attain a practical level of literacy in order to help them with common activities in towns and cities. Through teaching literacy and numeracy, the project aims to improve the villagers' standard of living through education. The most important contribution to Qinghai was the mobilization of local partners to teach the program as volunteers. We hope this has far-reaching impact on Qinghai to begin to develop a spirit of volunteerism for the benefit of the larger community.

English Summer Camp at Number 3 Middle School in Adai, Hualong County

English Summer Camp Project This project offered an English language training program to more than 90 students at Number 3 Middle School in Adai, Hualong County.

Eight volunteer foreign teachers from overseas participated in this program. The school was very supportive and the program was very well received.

Crossroads Training Center Project This project aims to provide high-quality training in a variety of areas according to the felt needs of the people in Hualong county. Work during 2007 has been prelimenary in order to establish the center.

Global Nomad IT Project This project targets training and employing Tibetans in Zeku County to use information technology as a means of generating micro-enterprise. By training individuals in how to increase their economic productivity through information technology, the rural community is benefited.

Shaanxi province

Xianyang English Training Programs A three-week English training program at Xianyang Teachers College in cooperation with the Xianyang Education Bureau, training school teachers from rural middle schools. At the same school we also ran a separate 10-day cultural exchange and English teaching program for students of the college.

Shaanxi Normal University English and Cultural Exchange Program A 10-day cultural exchange and English teaching program for 80 students and teachers at Shaanxi Normal University.

Northwest Agriculture University English Program two-week English training program at Northwest Agriculture University in Yangling, training over 100 students and university teachers in oral English and American and Canadian culture.

Other Cultural Exchange Programs A four-week cultural exchange program in Xi’an for 10 young people from Australia, and a three-week cultural exchange program for a group of women from Sydney, Australia.

Chinese Study Programs We organized two short-term Chinese language programs for 20 young people from the USA, Great Britain and Germany at Shaanxi Normal University.

Lecture Visits by Foreign Experts In 2007 we introduced short-term lecturers from the US, UK, and Canada in the following specialized subjects:

Agriculture (2 weeks, Northwest Agriculture University, Yangling)
Biology (1 week, Northwest Agriculture University, Yangling)
Cryogenics (1 week, Northwest Polytechnic University)

Sichuan province

English Language Training Program, Chengdu University, Sichuan in co-operation with the Chengdu University, FOC arranged for a team of more than ten English teachers from the UK to come for three weeks in July to deliver an English language course for high school

Two school principals have a cultural exchange meeting in Sanshengxiang

Primary School Cultural Exchange Visit In April, in partnership with SIFA, FOC Associates at the YiHua Center arranged a cultural exchange activity between SanShengXiang Primary School (Chengdu) and a primary school in Portsmouth. Representatives of SIFA and YiHua were present as the Principals of the two schools spent a day exchanging ideas about the use of music, art and sport in teaching, as well as sharing experience about teaching in general. The two Principals exchanged gifts on behalf of their schools, and agreed to develop their relationship further.