When the snow flies and the cold bites this February, three Douglas County educators will be enjoying their lunch served in an outdoor patio.
Solon Springs administrator Fred Schlichting and teachers from Solon Springs and Superior High School are participating in an educator exchange with two Thailand schools.
The educators spend three weeks in Si Sanchanalai in northern Thailand.
They'll visit Muangchaliang High School, a school about the size of Superior High School located in the small city and Ban Mai, a smaller school in a rural area.
Thai educators will visit Wisconsin in April.
ADVERTISEMENT
Schlichting, Solon Springs English teacher Russ Nelson and a yet-to-be-chosen Superior High School teacher will make the trip.
Both the Wisconsin and Thai educators will give presentations on their countries' history, culture and cuisine, he said.
They will tour schools, work with students and work with Thai teachers to develop an activity exchange between their schools during the 2009-2010 school year, Schlichting said.
The Thai schools teach English from first-12th grade but many students do not speak English well because they do not have many opportunities to practice the language, Schlichting said.
Northern Wisconsin students too don't have many interactions with other cultures, so the exchange will benefit both groups of students, he said.
"Our kids do not have the opportunity to learn about the culture of Southeast Asia," he said.
In history classes they learn about European and American history, but the histories of Asia and Africa are barely touched, he said.
The exchange follows on some previous trips Schlichting took to Thailand following a Hayward shooting in 2004. In the incident a Hmong hunter shot several white hunters.
ADVERTISEMENT
At the time Schlichting was administrator of the Cooperative Educational Service Agency 12, which provides services to area school district, and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction was sending educators to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam to learn about Southeast Asian culture and work with districts to teach students about the region's people.
He traveled to Southeast Asia in 2005 and then participated in a Fulbright Administrator Exchange with Thailand in 2006. Schlichting spent six weeks in Thailand visiting schools and touring the country. A Thai administrator, Tawin Hirunsri, also visited northern Wisconsin for six weeks that year.
The culture of Thailand is quite different from that of the United States, Schlichting said.
Most of the people are Buddhist, and the students study the traditions of Christmas, Halloween and Easter in school. Because Thailand is warm year-round, students eat lunch in an outdoor cafeteria, he said.
Funding for the exchange is coming from two grants and both school districts.
The districts received $5,000 in a federal grant through the Department of Public instruction and a $3,300 grant from the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation for the project. Both schools also will need to provide additional funding for their teachers' transportation costs as a condition of the Foundation grant, he said.
Schlichting envisions distance learning exchanges between students three times in the 2009-2010 school year. The students from both countries could develop presentations about their country's culture and history to present to one another, he said.
The exchange would give Thai students an opportunity to work on their technology and English skills. It would give Superior and Solon students the chance to work on public speaking and technology skills. Both sets of students would benefit from learning about another culture, he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
"It's a unique piece," he said. "If it's successful it could be replicated in other places too," he said.
In other business:
- The Solon Springs school board approved a home school family request for two students to join band.
- Requested the policy committee to develop a policy limiting access to school property to make way for a school project to reclaim unauthorized ATV trails on school property.
- Approved a policy restricting cameras and electronic recording devices from the locker room.
- Approved the hiring of a junior high cross country coach, special education teacher, band director, junior high basketball coach and forensics coach.
- Principal Sue Chandler announced Sept. 15 as the start date for prekindergarten students.
Anna Kurth covers education. Call her at (715) 395-5019 or e-mail akurth@superiortelegram.com .
