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The Seattle faculties have a new’guest’ teacher.  Zhu Dan arrived in the Seattle schools in January and will stay for an 18-month guest teacher program.  Dan, who teaches college-level English in her native Kunming, China, has the choice to extend her stay for another year. 

Dan is one of 34 guest teachers in 19 states that are participating in a new association between China’s institute Hanban and the college Board, a non-profitable organization that administers the complicated Placement exams and SAT testing ).  Plans are for an extra one hundred guest teachers across the U.  S.  by this summer and 250 by 2009.  The partnership is part of China’s sizeable effort to plug the Mandarin language and getting people in other countries to learn it. 

This is the perfect program for many Pacific Coast states that do a lot of business with China.  Chief Sealth high school principal John Boyd went to China as a part of a Hanban program and was moved to supply a course in Mandarin to his Seattle faculties scholars.  He and Noah Zeichner, who heads up the highschool world language program, wanted to expand the world focus in his Seattle faculty.  They already have a student exchange program from Chongqing, China. 

Zhu Dan teaches the Mandarin language in three Seattle schools – Denny Middle, Madison Middle, and Chief Sealth high schools.  While the institute Hanban pays her a stipend, the Seattle schools provide housing, airfare and cover other costs.  Dan is residing with Sealth teacher Frank Cantwell and his folks. 

Dan applied for the guest teacher program for 3 reasons – to improve her own English skills, to help Americans understand more about China and its culture, and to help get the program started inside the Seattle colleges.  She wants to leave her students with enough understanding of the Mandarin language to survive a visit to her country. 

Before journeying to the united states and the Seattle schools, Dan had to take a 14 day crash course in Beijing.  It covered our culture and education system, our cash system, and the way to write a check ( something seldom done in China ). 

many of her Seattle colleges scholars took her course, as it sounded fascinating.  Others have friends or members of the family who speak Mandarin.  Within her first 2 weeks of instruction, Dan’s Seattle schools scholars could count to ten in Mandarin, pronounce the Chinese names she gave them, work through the pronunciation drills and vocabulary exercises given them, and sing a song about the Chinese New Year to the tune’My Darlin’ Clementine’.  In addition, Dan shares her Chinese culture with the students, making her classes even more fascinating. 

Besides the guest teacher program, many Seattle schools now are offering instruction in Mandarin, as well as advanced Placement courses in Chinese and the AP testing that earns university credit for the Seattle faculties scholars who pass.  For this year, Dan’s Mandarin class at Sealth school meets after school.  It will be part of the standard, daytime curriculum in the autumn.  Principal Boyd is encouraging elementary schools inside his area of the Seattle colleges to apply together for a second guest teacher for the Mandarin language.

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