In summer 2020, TIEs (Two-way Intercultural Exchanges) is running our 5th annual summer program. Teachers from the US will be spending 3 weeks in Chiang Mai, Thailand to collaborate with local teachers.

Each party, the US and Thai teachers, will be sharing their unique strengths as educators though co-teaching, co-planning, and presenting professional development workshops.

Our goal is to better prepare teachers for today’s diverse classrooms by introducing new approaches to education and developing intercultural competence.

By working side-by-side, we also aim for our participants to develop their cross-cultural communication, an essential skill in today’s increasingly globalized world.

We’ve been running our summer program in Lalitpur, Nepal since 2016. Over the years, our program participants have gained insight about things like classroom management, language learning, curriculum planning, and mindfulness for students. Visit our blog to read about the exciting projects that our previous participants have initiated.

We’re excited to see what new insight this year’s participants find!

Overview of 2020 Project

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In summer 2020, our US teacher participants will spend 3 weeks at a school in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for a professional and cultural exchange.

Prior to the exchange

• Partners will collaborate to set personal and professional goals for the program

During the exchange

• Partners will meet regularly to co-plan lessons and share teaching methods
• Partners will co-lead lessons and take turns observing each other lead
• Partners will debrief after lessons to share insight and feedback
• Partners will create/lead professional trainings to benefit the entire school staff
• All participants will convene regularly for an intercultural discussion group on various education-related topics
• Local teachers will share their cultural insight by bringing the US teachers on visits to cultural heritage sites
• US teachers will collaborate with the local schools’ administration on new school-wide initiatives

After the 3-week exchange

• All participants will complete a capstone project to synthesize their learnings and identify ways to apply what they learned to their own classrooms
• Participants will present their learnings to their own school building staffs
• Participants will participate in ongoing follow-up to assess the program’s long-term impact