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Catskill district welcomes delegation from Tianjin
By Jim Planck
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
CATSKILL — A contingent of visiting Chinese administrator-teachers and students toured Catskill Central School on Tuesday as part of the district’s continuing goal of having a Chinese teacher on board to teach the Mandarin language.
The group is from the city of Tianjin, located in northeast China and one of the nation’s largest cities, where they work at and attend No. 41 High School, the sister school of Tech Valley School in Rensselaer.
Hosted by Tech Valley, Capital Region BOCES, and Questar III BOCES, they arrived Monday, Jan. 16, and after spending Tuesday morning at Tech Valley — which included a formal greeting ceremony for their full group of 29 students and eight administrator-teachers, as well as a performance by the Chinese students — the Catskill contingent of seven administrator-teachers and four student ambassadors then came to CSD for the remainder of the school day.
Catskill Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kathleen Farrell said there was a formal exchange of gifts upon their arrival, and that the visiting administrator-teachers were also each presented with a district certificate from Board of Education President Michael Bulich.
Farrell said the group afterward toured the district’s facilities, with CHS students guiding their guest students to and from a variety of classrooms, including high school math, Social Studies and English.
She said the administrator-teachers also visited classes, including those at Catskill Elementary School, where they observed a pre-K class, a second grade writing lesson, and third and fifth grade classes.
Tech Valley’s partnership agreement with Tianjin High School No. 41, which was signed last year, has since been used as a model for new China-U.S. education agreements, including four regional ones, one of which is that signed between Catskill Central School District and Huagiao High School, near China’s southern coastline.
Huagiao is located within the city of Zengcheng, which is an independent administrative sub-unit of the much larger city of Guangzhou, once known as Canton — the city that Greene County’s Town of Cairo was originally named for when it was first formed as the Town of Canton in 1803.
The agreement calls for the potential exchange of teachers, and possibly students, and includes professional development opportunities.
In an initial step in that process, Catskill School Board Vice President Karen Haas, District Clerk Matthew McCoy, and English as a Second Language elementary school teacher Mary Hatton traveled to China in November to visit and tour a number of Chinese schools on behalf of the district.
Farrell said today’s visit was essentially the reciprocal of that, and another step forward in the process.
“This is the second step in continuing to bring a certified teacher of Mandarin from our sister school in Huagiao,” she said.
“We are hoping that with the coming year,” Farrell said, “representatives from our sister school will be able to come to Catskill.”
Farrell said the final step after that would be the actual assignment of a teacher from Huagiao to teach Mandarin at Catskill, adding she is hopeful all will be concluded within the next year.
***
To reach reporter Jim Planck, call 518-943-2100, ext. 3324, or e-mail jplanck@thedailymail.net.
The group is from the city of Tianjin, located in northeast China and one of the nation’s largest cities, where they work at and attend No. 41 High School, the sister school of Tech Valley School in Rensselaer.
Hosted by Tech Valley, Capital Region BOCES, and Questar III BOCES, they arrived Monday, Jan. 16, and after spending Tuesday morning at Tech Valley — which included a formal greeting ceremony for their full group of 29 students and eight administrator-teachers, as well as a performance by the Chinese students — the Catskill contingent of seven administrator-teachers and four student ambassadors then came to CSD for the remainder of the school day.
Catskill Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kathleen Farrell said there was a formal exchange of gifts upon their arrival, and that the visiting administrator-teachers were also each presented with a district certificate from Board of Education President Michael Bulich.
Farrell said the group afterward toured the district’s facilities, with CHS students guiding their guest students to and from a variety of classrooms, including high school math, Social Studies and English.
She said the administrator-teachers also visited classes, including those at Catskill Elementary School, where they observed a pre-K class, a second grade writing lesson, and third and fifth grade classes.
Tech Valley’s partnership agreement with Tianjin High School No. 41, which was signed last year, has since been used as a model for new China-U.S. education agreements, including four regional ones, one of which is that signed between Catskill Central School District and Huagiao High School, near China’s southern coastline.
Huagiao is located within the city of Zengcheng, which is an independent administrative sub-unit of the much larger city of Guangzhou, once known as Canton — the city that Greene County’s Town of Cairo was originally named for when it was first formed as the Town of Canton in 1803.
The agreement calls for the potential exchange of teachers, and possibly students, and includes professional development opportunities.
In an initial step in that process, Catskill School Board Vice President Karen Haas, District Clerk Matthew McCoy, and English as a Second Language elementary school teacher Mary Hatton traveled to China in November to visit and tour a number of Chinese schools on behalf of the district.
Farrell said today’s visit was essentially the reciprocal of that, and another step forward in the process.
“This is the second step in continuing to bring a certified teacher of Mandarin from our sister school in Huagiao,” she said.
“We are hoping that with the coming year,” Farrell said, “representatives from our sister school will be able to come to Catskill.”
Farrell said the final step after that would be the actual assignment of a teacher from Huagiao to teach Mandarin at Catskill, adding she is hopeful all will be concluded within the next year.
***
To reach reporter Jim Planck, call 518-943-2100, ext. 3324, or e-mail jplanck@thedailymail.net.
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