District Caters to Chinese Educator
By Nancy Bowman Staff Writer
TIPP CITY– School district residents answered the call to involve a visiting Chinese educator more in the community, the Board of Education was told last week.
Getting in on the act, students are helping to raise money to send Wang Zhannan home for a visit with his wife and son during the schools’ holiday break. Students at the middle school and high school will have a Wii game station to raffle at each school with proceeds going toward the educator’s trip.
Superintendent John Kronour and Assistant Superintendent Gretta Kumpf said Nov. 26 that Wang has been invited each Monday evening to dinner by the parent of a Broadway school student and was to travel last week with a group of high school students visiting the Civil War sites at Gettysburg.
Tipp City resident Ellen Cotterman said at the board’s October meeting that she felt the district had not prepared enough for the educator’s arrival.
She opened her home to him with five days notice, Cotterman said. She claimed that Wang was not given adequate orientation or equipment to do his work and was not being invited by district employees or the community to experience American life.
Kronour said the educator has moved to another Tipp City residence and Cotterman was thanked for her help with hosting the district’s guest.
“We are still working on it. We want it to be good situation,” Kronour said.
Kumpf said she thinks that “things are going rather well” now. The district has provided the educator a computer with software with Chinese characters and he has a system set up for voice communication with his family via the Internet.
In addition to language classes at the middle and high schools, Wang will be doing more cultural teaching in the district’s elementary schools.
The district is in its second year participating in the visiting educator program through the Ohio Department of Education.
Ryan Wertz, a world language consultant and international education coordinator for the department, said he matched the teacher and the district.
He visited the school recently, observing Wang teaching and reviewing arrangement made for him in the community. He said the district far exceeds the program’s requirements for the host school such as ensuring the educator has a good teaching assignment, food and transportation, a good place to stay and is given the same mentoring and professional development opportunities as other instructors.
“I give the community credit for bending over backward in welcoming him,” Wertz said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 335-4357 or nbowman@DaytonDailyNews.com.
Information
Tipp City library holding
informational sessions
with Wang.
Brief on Page 11
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