1. INTRODUCTION

By Sheila Onuska
China Project Director
IEC at CSD

St. Louis teachers are now teaching about China from firsthand experience. Last summer teachers from across the area spent three weeks seeing the Great Wall with their own eyes, climbing Tai Shan with their own feet, and talking one-on-one to Chinese citizens from Beijing to Guilin to Shanghai.

Thanks to the generous support of the Freeman Foundation, the Cooperating School Districts of St. Louis and the International Education Consortium have been able to offer this opportunity to area teachers for the past three years. Now over 60 teachers are able to say with authority what they experienced during their time in China and to share their knowledge with their students.

Over the next months, teachers who are participating in the China in
Missouri Schools Project will share their insights and experiences in the classroom on a regular basis with readers. This first installment describes the itinerary for the St. Louis teachers who traveled in June 2002. Additional installments will feature excerpts from a group journal kept by the teachers and other articles written by the teachers and their colleagues from previous years. For more information on the project, email sonuska@csd.org.

Cooperating School Districts is a nonprofit educational consortium providing cooperative purchasing, technology, staff development, legislative, human resource, research and financial services to public school districts. The St. Louis Regional Professional Development Center (RPDC) provides quality staff development for teachers, principals and administrators in partnership with Cooperating School Districts. Established by districts in St. Louis County some 70 years ago, Cooperating School Districts today serves districts throughout Missouri. The St. Louis RPDC is one of nine state facilities established by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. 

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