Trio of Sudbury teachers heading to China for educational experience of a lifetime

Getting ready for the trip of a lifetime Three kindergarten teachers from the Sudbury area travelling to China to teach students at a summer camp.

Three kindergarten teachers from the Sudbury area are preparing for the journey of a lifetime.

The trio will be traveling to China, where they will get the chance to teach students at a summer camp.

Rosemary Tripodi isn't just reading a book to some of her kindergarten students, she's teaching them through a play-based model.

It's a teaching technique she and three other teachers will use next month during a two week kindergarten camp.

"The children are learning through play," said Tripodi.

"It's driven by their interests, so we're going to introduce that to their model of teaching and hopefully collaborate and have some coordinating of programming to incorporate our play-based model."

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board's superintendent of education Terry Papineau hopes the teachers' journey to Asia will attract overseas students to Sudbury.

"We're constantly talking about global citizens," said Papineau.

"We don't get a lot of immigration in Sudbury. When you look at the demographics in our schools we're mostly white/Caucasian"

Papineau said there are currently three international students at Sudbury Catholic schools and14 more are on their way in September; including a visit from a sister school in Hungjo, China.

“We have agreements with two other high schools, but right now we're still in the stages of finalizing what kind of learning opportunities will we be providing to them and what learning opportunities will be available to us," said Papineau.

"We feel it's the tip of the iceberg with what can be done with international education."

To prepare for the new students arriving this fall, the school board is looking for host families to place the 14 children coming to Sudbury.

Papineau said statistics show each international student brings in about $30,000 to the host community.