Some people may be surprised to find out that Oakton has hosted several international teachers the past week through a program called TEA (Teaching Excellence and Achievement). This program is funded by the U.S. Department of State and implemented by the IREX. The TEA program selects about 160 teachers from around the world to come to the United States for 6 weeks. While in the US, the teachers attend academic seminars and learn more about lesson planning, teaching strategies, and using technology in the classroom. The teachers also spend eight days in an actual high school setting. When the teachers return home, they share what they learned within their communities to promote better education and new learning techniques to their community.

George Mason University is one of the five universities in the United States that participates in this program. Its proximity to the capital holds an appeal, as well as being not too close to the city life. While the teachers are in the United States, in additions to holding seminars to learn more about the educational system, they take trips to places like Washington DC, Baltimore, and Mount Vernon.

Oakton has been hosting the TEA teachers for a while now, as Dr. John Banbury is a professor at George Mason University. Banbury has been aware of the program and its benefits, and has been bringing teachers to Oakton to show them what the real high school experience is for students in the United States.

Brandon McCulla, an AP World History teacher at Oakton, has helped out with the TEA program for the past four years. His first two years, he interacted with teachers from Colombia, last year he met a teacher from Bangladesh, and this year the teacher he met is Ndifor Richard, from Cameroon. While McCulla doesn’t keep in contact as much as he would like, he still emails the teachers who came previously a couple times a year. Through this program, McCulla has learned to be appreciative of what we have in our school system. “We can always find things to complain about, but compared to what they are working with… it makes me really appreciate what we do have,” said Mr. McCulla.

Richard, the teacher from Cameroon, even talked to McCulla’s students during class about life in Cameroon and how the United States schools are different from the schools where he lives and teaches at. A major difference is the Cameroon school’s stance on the use of cell phones because in Cameroon no cell phones are allowed. If any student is caught with a phone on school grounds, it will be taken away and destroyed. Additionally, the amount of freedom that students in America have is very different than the schools in his country. In Cameroon, everyone has a school uniform, regardless if they go to a public, private, or a mission school. The amount of respect expected from the students to the teacher is also different, because when Richard walks into his classroom all the students are required to stand up until he tells them to be seated.

The TEA program allows for teachers across the world to learn how the educational system in the United States works. The main purpose is to bring teachers from developing countries to learn about the American educational system so they can go back to their country and institute some changes. The fact that Oakton High School showcased the average high school experience for these foreign visitors for eight days is pretty cool, and hopefully the foreign visitors saw something in our school that they want to try for themselves.