| Partnership could bring Spanish students to Alberta |
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| Local Content - Local News |
| Written by Greg Price |
| Thursday, 04 March 2010 16:00 |
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As the Horizon School Division has showed, education goes far past its own boarders. “We are very fortunate to have such great support of our schools that are involved in it,” said Dave Driscoll, associate superintendent of programs and services, who spoke about the international education initiatives schools are taking within the division. Vauxhall high school is partnered with the Instituto de Educacion Secundaria Valverde de Lucerna in Spain in interacting with students through written letters, e-mail, video conferencing and/or school trips. “This is a ministerial-approved partnership, which means the minister has signed documentation and made a formal certificate saying you are in a partnership. There are 53 partnership schools in the province right now and Vauxhall is one of them. There are only three or four in the whole south area right now,” said Driscoll. “It is in the planning stages right now, that students from Spain will be coming to Vauxhall to spend some time with their students and attend their school for a week around Easter time. Vauxhall would be looking to attend their school next year during break time.” Driscoll pointed out language-learning programs with Enchant school having a French program throughout the whole school, and W.R. Myers having prevalent second-language teaching. “We have plans on expansion with teacher support. We have purchased for our elementary (kits) from Alberta Education in French. It has labels, overheads, programs, songs and lesson plans that really supports them,” said Driscoll. “About half of those are signed out right now and of course we have our video conferencing with second languages.” There are student exchanges available for kids who want to go to Spain, Japan or Quebec in their Grade 11 year for approximately three months. “We’ll let the language teachers know it’s out there. It’s not for everybody. It’s a major commitment on the part of the student with heavier semesters taking the exchange,” said Driscoll. Instructors have done teacher exchanges in the past in the division with Alberta agreements with Australia, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, but the exchange has not been utilized recently, according to Driscoll. International-student programs have been a staple in the Horizon School Division in its overall international education protocol, with 13 international students currently within the Horizon school system. “While it’s a small part of it, it’s one of the more high-profile ones. We’ve had some really good successes with it. It has to do with the leadership in schools having great teachers. We’ve heard from students that have come here and their parents they didn’t know what to expect moving to a small town out of the city,” said Driscoll. “To a T, every single one of them has wanted to stay. They loved their stays. It has been a great experience for the schools and the students from what I’ve been hearing. Our students have informed us they have learned a lot more about different cultures, language barriers and what peoples’ home and lifestyles are like in other areas.” International education within the system has had its share of challenges, with the world economic slump and the H1N1 pandemic that have kept potential travelers at bay. “Just as we were ready to sign an agreement with the school (in Mexico) to send over 20 students they withdrew their applications,” said Driscoll. While the term “rural” is commonplace in southern Alberta, it takes on a negative connotation in some areas where Horizon is trying to do partnerships in attracting international students. “We have to convince people rural is a good term and a good lifestyle. Rural in many parts of the world means the poor and the down-trodden and where they send teachers who can’t teach and they don’t put any money into education,” said Driscoll. “We have a real battle to overcome with that.” To recruit international students, Horizon has created a web site at www.expandinghorizons.ca. |
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