FORTVILLE — Chen Pinhan discovered he loves American gym class and breakfast food, especially pancakes.
Chen, who goes by the American name “Hugo,” spent last week with a host family, learning about the United States and trying to get used to the snowy weather.
Mt. Vernon schools last week welcomed more than a dozen students and staff members from Taiwan into the middle school and high school, showing the visitors around the schools as well as taking field trips. The middle schoolers visited The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis; a Pacers game; and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, among other activities, said Maria Bond, Mt. Vernon’s director of communications. They also spent time shadowing their host families’ students.
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The partnership is the latest in Mt. Vernon schools’ efforts to increase its foreign exchange programs: In the past year, teachers have traveled to Anshan, China, and South Korean educators, business leaders and government officials visited to learn about integrating technology into education.
Patricia Chang, a special-education teacher at Chunan Elementary School in Miaoli County, Taiwan, joined the group on her sixth trip to the United States. She said the students they brought along were shocked by the snow, many having never seen it before. Taiwan’s climate, she pointed out, is closer to Florida’s than Indiana’s.
For Chang and the other educators on the trip, the differences in how the schools operate are intriguing. Students in Taiwan don’t work with laptops or tablets like students here, she said. Another difference is that students grow very close to their homeroom teacher, she added.
Chang stayed with Amy Tucker, an elementary resource teacher, and had the opportunity to lead a lesson with Tucker’s students.
“I’m so lucky for my host, Amy Tucker,” she said. “(Teaching her students) was a very nice experience for me.”
Liao Chin-wen, principal at Chunan Elementary School, who goes by Mr. Orrick, said he enjoyed the chance to partner with Mt. Vernon schools and bring his students to Indiana to help them improve their English skills.
”I want certain students to be able to learn in English,” he said. “In Taiwan, the English-speaking environment is bad.”
Some 300 students from Miaoli County applied to be a part of the exchange trip, Bond said. Chunan Elementary School has about 1,500 students, Orrick said.
Yi-Fan Lin, who teaches Mandarin Chinese at Mt. Vernon High School, was already acquainted with Orrick: The two met two years ago in Kokomo, she said.
She and other teachers at Mt. Vernon schools hope to travel to Taiwan in the summer, but Bond said they will have to wait for a new superintendent to be named to approve the trip.
