Op-Ed: SLSD Needs Host Families for Chinese, Arabic Teachers

Dear Southern Lehigh School District Parents, Guardians, Community Members;

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the ancient civilizations of China or Egypt? Have you ever thought about opening your home to a young professional from another country in order to share our amazing American culture and to learn about theirs? If so, this may be a great opportunity for your family… if not, you may still want to consider this unique opportunity!

As you may know, Southern Lehigh hosted a guest Chinese and Egyptian teacher during the 2011-12 school year. Four different families provided “home stay” for Ms. Guo and Ms. Nofal this year. We recently learned that the district is a finalist for a 2012-13 Arabic guest teacher from Egypt through the Teachers of Critical Language Program grant, sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, and we will also hosttwo Chinese Scholar guest teachers from China through the Confucius Institute in Beijing for next school year, due to the growth of our Chinese language program. In order to continue offering these programs to our students, we must secure host families and it is once again time to start our search.

We are now seeking families to host either a Chinese or the Egyptian teacher. I hope you will consider taking advantage of this remarkable opportunity.  Host families may select the length of stay that suits them- ranging from about 3 months to the entire school year. Host families need to provide a private bedroom and meals for the guest teacher. (The district will provide school lunches.) Transportation to and from school is needed, but we may be able to arrange bus transportation if families are unable to provide daily transportation. Teachers will have a cell phone, laptop, health and liability insurance, and their own spending money.

Specific information about the teachers is not yet known other than their tentative schedule. The Chinese teachers will arrive in Pennsylvania in mid-July, spend two weeks at the University of Pittsburgh and arrive in our area around the beginning of August. The Arabic teacher will arrive in the US in late July, spend 2 weeks in Washington DC and will arrive in the area around mid August. We are looking for host families from the end of August through to the end of the school year- mid June, 2013.

The Chinese visiting scholars are graduate students from Wuhan University in China and come to the United States through University of Pittsburgh’s Confucius Institute in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Education. They will come to us speaking fluent English and are highly qualified to teach the Chinese language.

The Egyptian guest teacher will have at least a Bachelor’s degree, possibly a Master’s degree, at least four years of experience teaching and also will be an English language speaker. All teachers will have been thoroughly screened and selected through a very competitive process in order to participate in these programs.

Please help spread the word that we are seeking host families for our guests. If you or any of your friends or neighbors are interested in hosting for any period of time, or in learning more about hosting, please contact me at christmanl@slsd.org, or by calling Central Office at 610-282-3121 x 5101. Several of our current host families are also willing to share their experiences on hosting with you. Please contact me for more information.

We are very excited about these unique opportunities for our students and community and hope you will consider sharing your home with our guests as we welcome the new teachers to our schools next year!

Sincerely,

Leah M. Christman,

Superintendent