{"id":27844,"date":"2019-09-23T09:28:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T14:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=27844"},"modified":"2019-09-23T09:28:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T14:28:32","slug":"apsus-eriksson-college-of-education-sends-students-professors-to-china-for-the-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2019\/09\/23\/apsus-eriksson-college-of-education-sends-students-professors-to-china-for-the-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU\u2019s Eriksson College of Education sends students, professors to China for the summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – Earlier this summer, Amanda Crumb opened an innocent-looking email promoting a free trip to China. The information seemed legitimate, but the promise of a hassle-free, all expenses paid trip caused her to hesitate. Was this one of those email phishing scams?<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An Austin Peay State University professor and two APSU students taught at a summer school in China this July. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to myself, \u2018I need more information,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A month later, Crumb \u2013 a self-described country girl \u2013 found herself in Beijing, teaching kindergarteners at a school partially named after Austin Peay State University (APSU). Instead of a phishing scam, the APSU education major had stumbled across one of the most transformative experiences of her college career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still in disbelief over it, I\u2019m still in shock,\u201d she said. \u201cSomebody actually came to me to go to China, and there were no hoops to jump through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Amanda<\/a>

Amanda Crumb helps a student during class. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

The email that landed in Crumb\u2019s inbox originated from APSU\u2019s Eriksson College of Education, which has spent the last two years developing collaborative relationships with educational institutions in China.<\/p>\n

 \u201cWe now have a partnership with a kindergarten organization in China that operates kindergartens across the country,\u201d Dr. Benita Bruster, chair of the college\u2019s Department of Teaching and Learning, said. \u201cThis organization wants the College of Education to continue this relationship and send our faculty and students there.\u201d<\/p>\n

[320left]In February, a delegation of 15 teachers and administrators from China\u2019s Oriental Dragon International Preschool and Kindergarten visited Austin Peay State University for a special, week-long training symposium. That visit was such a success that the school\u2019s owner changed its name to Austin International Preschool and Kindergarten.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis summer, we had one faculty member (Dr. Cheryl Lambert, assistant professor of education) and two students (Crumb and Gavin Brant) teach in the kindergarten\u2019s summer school,\u201d Bruster said. \u201cIt was a completely free trip. The organization paid airfare, room and board and excursions. They treated us like royalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teaching in China<\/h3>\n

Crumb, having never left the U.S. in her life, arrived in Beijing on a Sunday afternoon. She\u2019d been on a plane for 13 hours, didn\u2019t know the language and discovered she had to teach early the next morning. Surprisingly, she was in a good mood and felt prepared and eager to begin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really wasn\u2019t too bad going off little sleep,\u201d she said. \u201cSince I had to go directly into teaching, I didn\u2019t have a choice. And the culture over there is so very warm, very inviting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gavin<\/a>

Gavin Brant reads to a class in China. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

The purpose of the summer school was to teach young Chinese children different aspects of American culture. Austin Peay State University\u2019s early childhood education faculty, along with some of the college\u2019s Chinese graduate students, developed a curriculum for the Austin Peay State University team to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Lambert fine-tuned it and did daily, detailed lesson plans, and our students also wrote lesson plans and prepared lessons for each day,\u201d Bruster said.<\/p>\n

[320right]As part of her teaching, Crumb helped her students make American flags, told them the significance of bald eagles and introduced them to one of the United States\u2019 great pastimes \u2013 the Slip \u2019n Slide. One afternoon, she taught the children western dining etiquette by having them use forks and knifes. As each day passed, her feelings grew stronger for her precocious students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in tears at the summer school\u2019s graduation,\u201d she said. \u201cI have trouble finding words to describe the experience. The children over there are just brilliant. They\u2019re 4, 5, 6 years old. They\u2019ve been in mandatory school since they were 2. They\u2019re just really, really curious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crumb spent two weeks in Beijing, while Dr. Lambert taught in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, and Brant spent an entire month in China, teaching at both locations. When the APSU teachers had downtime, their hosts took them to such sites as the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Cheryl Lambert works with students. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

The APSU team is now back on campus, making their way through the fall semester.<\/p>\n

Bruster said the college is maintaining its relationship with Austin International Preschool and Kindergarten, with plans to continue this work next summer.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Great Wall of China.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on a Memorandum of Understanding with the school to solidify our relationship,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are making plans to come back this winter. They want to do a winter camp here at Austin Peay State University, with parents, children and teachers all from these Chinese kindergartens.\u201d        <\/p>\n

For information on APSU\u2019s Eriksson College of Education, visit, www.apsu.edu\/education<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – Earlier this summer, Amanda Crumb opened an innocent-looking email promoting a free trip to China. The information seemed legitimate, but the promise of a hassle-free, all expenses paid trip caused her to hesitate. Was this one of those email phishing scams?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[34091,23,7855,33588,262,26374,4690,3672,512,825,34093,34092,21795,26178,34094],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7f6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27845,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27844\/revisions\/27845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}