Tweet
Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
July 12 2004
Leaving for an exchange of ideas
Balboa Elementary teacher travels to Armenia to learn how country's
education system works.
By Darleene Barrientos, News-Press
NORTHWEST GLENDALE - Balboa Elementary School teacher Maureen Miller
has helped tutor some of the district's most gifted students. For the
next two weeks, beginning Friday, she will help teach students from
another culture, and, in the process, hopes to learn something
herself.
Miller will leave for Armenia, where she will stay with an Armenian
teacher and learn about students and teaching methods in the country.
The trip will be the beginning of a year-long working relationship
with her Armenian counterpart, connecting their students through
projects and the Internet. Miller was the lone Californian selected
for the program, sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the State
Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
"This trip is to introduce American teachers to their Armenian
partners and allow them time to get a sense of Armenian system of
education," said Barbara Miller, chief operating officer for Project
Harmony, the organization coordinating the exchange.
"One of the criteria was a commitment to develop and execute the
project over the course of a year to make sure the district and the
community support the effort, and to show and express an interest in
multicultural education."
Miller, who works part time teaching gifted students at Balboa,
applied for the program after seeing it on a bulletin Principal Linda
Milano compiles for her staff. Miller will return to Glendale on July
30.
Milano said she was so excited for Miller, she did not realize only
21 teachers were going through the program.
"I said, 'You would be absolutely fabulous for this!' I was so
excited when I got word that she was accepted," Milano said.
The two teachers will work together to create either one long- or
several short-term projects for both their classes that will enable
their students to communicate via the Internet. Miller said she
believed she was chosen for the program because of her attraction to
technology, the Armenian culture and her willingness to commit to the
program.
"Because we have such a large Armenian population, I have an interest
in Armenia and that part of the world." Miller said. "When we had the
huge influx of Armenian children in the '90s, it was just something
that interested me. I took Armenian for the Non-Armenian for a year
at [Glendale Community College], and I got to know so many people in
Glendale who are Armenian.
"The culture is fascinating to me. Whatever I could do to make our
culture and their culture work together, I'm happy to do."
Miller's trip will not be the end of the exchange. She and her
assigned partner, Karine Jaghacpanyan, who teaches technology and
English in Vanadzor, the country's third-largest city, are already
corresponding via e-mail. In October, Jaghacpanyan will travel from
Armenia to Glendale to visit Miller's school and class.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
LATimes.com
July 12 2004
Leaving for an exchange of ideas
Balboa Elementary teacher travels to Armenia to learn how country's
education system works.
By Darleene Barrientos, News-Press
NORTHWEST GLENDALE - Balboa Elementary School teacher Maureen Miller
has helped tutor some of the district's most gifted students. For the
next two weeks, beginning Friday, she will help teach students from
another culture, and, in the process, hopes to learn something
herself.
Miller will leave for Armenia, where she will stay with an Armenian
teacher and learn about students and teaching methods in the country.
The trip will be the beginning of a year-long working relationship
with her Armenian counterpart, connecting their students through
projects and the Internet. Miller was the lone Californian selected
for the program, sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the State
Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
"This trip is to introduce American teachers to their Armenian
partners and allow them time to get a sense of Armenian system of
education," said Barbara Miller, chief operating officer for Project
Harmony, the organization coordinating the exchange.
"One of the criteria was a commitment to develop and execute the
project over the course of a year to make sure the district and the
community support the effort, and to show and express an interest in
multicultural education."
Miller, who works part time teaching gifted students at Balboa,
applied for the program after seeing it on a bulletin Principal Linda
Milano compiles for her staff. Miller will return to Glendale on July
30.
Milano said she was so excited for Miller, she did not realize only
21 teachers were going through the program.
"I said, 'You would be absolutely fabulous for this!' I was so
excited when I got word that she was accepted," Milano said.
The two teachers will work together to create either one long- or
several short-term projects for both their classes that will enable
their students to communicate via the Internet. Miller said she
believed she was chosen for the program because of her attraction to
technology, the Armenian culture and her willingness to commit to the
program.
"Because we have such a large Armenian population, I have an interest
in Armenia and that part of the world." Miller said. "When we had the
huge influx of Armenian children in the '90s, it was just something
that interested me. I took Armenian for the Non-Armenian for a year
at [Glendale Community College], and I got to know so many people in
Glendale who are Armenian.
"The culture is fascinating to me. Whatever I could do to make our
culture and their culture work together, I'm happy to do."
Miller's trip will not be the end of the exchange. She and her
assigned partner, Karine Jaghacpanyan, who teaches technology and
English in Vanadzor, the country's third-largest city, are already
corresponding via e-mail. In October, Jaghacpanyan will travel from
Armenia to Glendale to visit Miller's school and class.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress