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Indiana Area to host teachers from India
The Indiana Area Schools are planning a second teacher’s exchange program on the lines of ILEP. Under the program this year, a contingent of teachers from Bengaluru will get to spend a week observing and teaching classes of Indiana School area.
The Indiana Area School District is all set to participate in the second international teacher exchange program much like last year where it invited more than a dozen educators from around the globe to the Indiana schools.
According to the program approved by the Indiana school board, the school district will host a contingent of teachers from Bengaluru, India, from 9 to 19 October. Teachers from Sri Vani Education Centre Trust, a private school based in India’s equivalent of “Silicon Valley,” will be placed at the Indiana Area Senior High School to observe and teach classes.
The program, which will cost nothing, is similar to the International Leaders in Education Program (ILEP) that partnered 16 visiting teachers with Indiana classes for 6 weeks last winter.
Prashanth Bharadwaj, an associate dean and professor in the Department of Management at Eberly said just as India is strongly represented in the international student enrolment at the IUP Business College, the university is represented with satellite programs in Bengaluru.
“We have programs all over the world, and a big one in India — an MBA program and an undergraduate program,” Bharadwaj said. “We have about 800 students who come here and over a hundred American students have gone to India as part of this program.
“Every time I go to India … I get approached by many high schools also about the possibility of having an opportunity for them to come here and the teachers from here to go there.”
Bharadwaj said that the district Superintendent Dale Kirsch and senior high Principal Wade McElheny have been open to the idea right from the start and have in fact, circulated the proposal among the faculty. Already, 12 senior high school teachers have volunteered to take the Indian teachers into their classrooms.
“The contingent will be here for 7 days and spend 5 days in Indiana Area Senior High School,” Bharadwaj said. The Indiana teachers “will take them into their classes and they can observe them. At the end of the sessions they will be able to teach a class. They also said they would be able to host the teachers who are willing to come to India.”
Completing the teachers’ itinerary he said the remaining 2 days would be spent at the IUP campus.
Bharadwaj said the Bangalore teachers would be able to learn about teaching techniques, education training methods and leadership, intercultural sensitivity, use of technology in Indiana classrooms and assessment and evaluation of teachers during their visit.
“I think it’s a great opportunity, not only for the visiting teachers but for our students to have exposure to international faculty,” Kirsch said.
“Just like with ILEP, this will benefit students in our district,” board President Doug Steve said. “They will get to see and hear firsthand about various cultures. ILEP was a tremendous experience not only for the school district but for IUP and the educators that came over from other countries.”