getting ready to go to China

The trip this summer will begin in Beijing with a conference for the educators from both countries, China and Canada. Last year the conference was near the end of the 10 day visit and everyone felt it would be better to have it at the beginning so James has made this change. Its great to have that kind of influence and Tianjiao does as one of the co-sponsors of the conference along with the Beijing Education Commission. The size of the group has grown enormously from last year as well. We had 43 people last year and now we will be around 300 in the delegation. James thinks this may be enough to convince the Chinese to hold the conference in the Great Hall of the People. That would be something.

I will be making arrangements for a follow-up teaching delegation to go to China later in the year, possibly late 2007 or early 2008. There are 2 cities in Hunan province that are interested in my proposal and I will meet with the Directors of education while in Beijing this summer to establish details or at least begin the process of setting it up on the China side. Back home I am initiating things through the establishment of a society under the Societies Act. This will create a structure that will manage the project and will work closely with Tianjiao to ensure the mutual benefit to both the Chinese hosts and the Canadian educators who participate in the project. I am doing a lot of research on the internet to grasp the already existing range of similar projects and to gather details of each organization from goals, arrangements, placements, compensation, location, almost anything as each is different from the next. One of my discoveries has been the world of bloggers who are actually living in China and teaching or going to school or just travelling around. I will pick up some of their blog links and add them to this blog as I go. Hopefully a dialogue will follow that can be useful to those interested in the project.