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  • Glendale hosting Armenian teacher

    Glendale hosting Armenian teacher
    By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer

    Los Angeles Daily News, CA
    Article Published: Monday, April 04, 2005 - 6:53:05 PM PST

    GLENDALE -- Armenian teacher Karine Jaghatspanyan took on the role of
    student Monday at Balboa Elementary, learning how American children
    are taught, in order to enrich her own approach.

    Jaghatspanyan -- one of 22 teachers from Armenia visiting the United
    States as part of a State Department-sponsored exchange program --
    is the only teacher from the program sent to Glendale.

    "I'm impressed," Jaghatspanyan, 42, said while visiting a third-grade
    class at Balboa Elementary. "Both about teaching methods and their
    knowledge, too. (The students) know so much."

    The federally funded program, known as the Project Harmony Teacher
    Exchange, not only offers teachers the opportunity for professional
    development but students the opportunity to learn about different
    cultures.

    As part of the program, students in Jaghatspanyan's computer lab
    class in Vanadzor, Armenia, have been exchanging messages with Balboa
    Elementary students about their daily lives, as well as folktales
    and heritage.

    "My whole family is from Vanadzor, just exactly where they are from,"
    said Mona Chilingaryan, 10, a Balboa Elementary student. "So it's
    pretty cool to know exactly what they do."

    Students and others also have learned of some of the challenges
    the Vanadzor students can face. Earlier this year Vanadzor students
    could not send online messages because the school had little heat
    and it was too cold to operate the computers, said Jeff Lawson, 51,
    a parent volunteer helping in the Balboa Elementary class.

    Jaghatspanyan noted that the school was damaged in an earthquake in
    1988, but said things are improving.

    "After then we rebuilt it. We had no equipment, and day by day
    everything is getting better," said Jaghatspanyan.

    Balboa Elementary teacher Maureen Miller went to Armenia last July
    as part of the exchange program and noted the differences in resources.

    "Sometimes we have more than we need. They certainly have less than
    they need. But they work very hard to educate the students with very
    little," Miller said.

    Among the differences are that elementary-school classes in the
    Glendale Unified School District are broken into smaller groups in
    which students can talk to or get help from an aide -- students in
    classes in Armenia sit in rows facing the teacher.

    But Jaghatspanyan said an advantage to that system, which also has
    been used in the United States, is that students maintain focus on
    the teacher.

    "Every method has its advantages and disadvantages. None of them is
    better and none of them is worse," she said.

    Jaghatspanyan will visit other schools in Glendale this week before
    heading to Washington and Philadelphia to complete the exchange
    program.

    ----
    Alex Dobuzinskis, (818) 546-3304 [email protected]
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