This year Upper St. Clair was able to offer Chinese by partnering with the Beattie Career Center. And Bethel Park High School has an exchange teacher from China.

Upper St. Clair High School students interact with their teacher, Zhang Yancheng, via video conferencing through the Internet. In January, Xiaofang Ouyang, a teacher from China came to Upper St. Clair and started working with Yangcheng.

Principal Dr. Michael Ghilani said that since Ouyang, a doctoral level student, had never taught an on-line class before, she and Yangcheng are team teaching the class this semester.

Ouyang comes to the school through Pitt's Confucius Institute. Ghilani explained that the Confucius Institute, a program set up by the Chinese government, has about 20 locations throughout the United States. Highly-qualified Chinese teachers are sent to the U.S. to teach free of charge for up to three years.

According to Ghilani, the Chinese government hopes to increase interest in the Chinese language and to inspire more Chinese-Americans to become teachers.

In addition to the nine USC students, the Greenville School District has 12 students in a pilot program who are also taking the class. Ghilani said that next year they plan to offer on-line classes for a few schools and hope to have other schools help subsidize the program.

Ghilani said that traditionally classes in China are very structured and primarily lectures with little interaction. He said he would call Ouyang a non-traditional teacher in that she is very creative, incorporating a number of different elements in her lessons. For example, she had the students making Chinese scrolls during class and making Chinese food.

Bethel Park exchange

This semester Bethel Park High School welcomed Hattie Zhou to teach a social studies class called, "The China Experience."

An English Teacher at Xing Zhi High School, the district's sister school in Shanghai, China, Zhou is teaching 50 high school students at Bethel Park about the history, culture, customs and language of China.

Zhou is the third Chinese Exchange Teacher Bethel Park High School has welcomed since 2004, and is working with Bethel Park High School social studies teacher Amy Smock.