In 2006, Governor Pawlenty and the state legislature in developed a common curriculum for the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in Minnesota’s schools. To help meet the ensuing demand, Project SOCRATES provided classroom technology to a large consortium of south-central Minnesota school districts, and offered Chinese classes through Internet-TV for several years.
Nicollet recently hired a native speaker from China who will be teaching in Nicollet but also helping throughout the area through SOCRATES. You can learn more in the Mankato Free Press.
I think this is such a great opportunity. I taught English in Spain many years ago. I taught in some very rural areas. Having a native speaker in the class made the class much more exciting for the kids. With a minor in French, I spoke no Spanish so if the kids wanted to ask me anything – they had to ask in English. It was a great motivator and I just had a better handle on the language than any of the non-native speaking teachers. They had a tendency to actually say “how do you do?” Even the kids knew that was outdated.
As the Mankato article points out – nothing beats having a live native speaker, but using the technology to access a native speaker is the next best thing. The teacher they hired was a university teacher in China – so it seems to me that she may be in a position to use the technology to help kids connect with other kids in China. Now that would really open some fun doors!
Bravo! We are also getting Mandarin Chinese in Battle Lake and Underwood Minnesota through Intermediate School District 287 using a combination of online learning technology and interactive television.
In fact Underwood and Monte will have students taking Chinese 3 this year..imagine students in rural Minnesota receiving three years of Mandarin Chinese! The LCTN has been fortunate to have 4 other foreign languages over the last few years, German, Spanish, French and American Sign Language. In the past we have also had Japanese and Russian! All this is possible due to a fiber WAN and videoconferencing codecs that allow us to reach outside of our WAN.
Pete Royer, LCTN
I am jealous of the kids who get to learn from native speakers – I think that broadens the classes. You learn the language and the culture. And I have to think that it heightens the motivation.
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