When looking forward to summer vacation, the beach, the sound of that final bell, and the sweet taste of ice cream on a hot afternoon all come to mind. It’s not often that one expects to hear Mandarin, throw cake, sightsee around Beijing, and help Chinese students with their English. This is what Southern Lehigh teachers have to look forward to when they participate in The International School Partnership of Hebei Province Summer Camp, or ISPHP.

“I just thought [ISPHP] would be a great adventure. I absolutely know no Chinese, I really didn’t know much about the culture, and their way of schooling, so I thought it would just be an interesting and fun experience,” high school math teacher and 2015 camp participant Mrs. Beth Dottery said. “I thought it would be more authentic than just going as a typical tourist.”

ISPHP is 23 days long. Participants have about a week of tourist-type adventures, like visiting the Great Wall of China, and then two weeks of teaching at the summer camp. At the end of the camp, the students and teachers can throw cake at each other in celebration of completing the camp.

“It was amazing. It was one of the neatest things I’ve ever done, if not the neatest thing I’ve ever done,” middle school teacher and 2014 participant Ms. Jackie Butler said. ”It’s so different and we’d just be walking around and be like, ‘We’re in China. This is so crazy.’ It was a really good opportunity and you learn about yourself, and as a teacher.”

The camp is located in the Hebei province in Qinhuangdao, which is right next to Beijing. Most of the teachers for this program are drawn from the United Kingdom, and only two other High Schools in the United States participate in this program: Kennett High School and Downingtown High School, both from Chester County in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

“Even though it’s two totally different cultures, the learning process is the same. Different methods are used but more or less it was not that hard to adapt to what they were thinking and for them to adapt to my teaching style,” ” high school tech ed teacher and 2013 participant Mr. Robert Gaugler said. “The learning process between two different cultures is pretty universal.”

The goal of ISPHP is to help Chinese students understand English better. This is accomplished by being taught about American holidays, foods, and more, in the morning, and by playing an American activity, like Wiffle ball, in the afternoon using only English.

“The most important thing is we’re really fortunate. To live where we live, to have the schools that we have, to have the teaching philosophies that we have,” intermediate school teacher and 2013-2014 participant Mr. Russell Tucker said. “We are certainly not perfect, but the Chinese system is not perfect either, and we just have to keep refining our craft all the time to do what’s best for students.”

Although the district presents the opportunity, teacher’s spouse’s (if they’re a teacher) can also apply and attend the camp. Teachers are able to go for free since the trip is paid for by the Hebei Educational branch. Not only spouses can go, however; teacher’s children are allowed to attend the trip and help out, as long as the parents pay for their child’s plane ticket.

“That was a life changing moment for my daughter who was eight at the time. She has really developed an appreciation for China,” Mr. Tucker said. “I sense that that won’t be the last time she goes there. She really bonded with the students, they loved her and she had a really hard time saying goodbye to [them].”

Superintendent Dr. Leah Christman was able to bring the ISPHP program to Southern Lehigh from connections she made during a school administrator exchange with China. She was introduced to Eddy Tang, the man in charge of ISPHP, who allowed Southern Lehigh teachers to participate.

“I just made this random connection from this lady from China, and what has grown out of that, and what I think has been very rewarding is that one thing leads to another leads to another and now we have teachers having these awesome experiences for free,” Dr. Christman said.

Southern Lehigh first participated in this program in 2013, although it started 12 years prior to that. The program may even expand to possibly allow students to go and assist teachers on their trip to China or even have Chinese students visit America. Although no Southern Lehigh teachers are attending this year, the school district will not stop advertising the program anytime soon.

“Probably the most memorable thing was leaving. It was memorable for a good and bad reason. We were leaving so we’re coming back home to our families, but the love and sadness and disappointment that the Chinese students had seeing us leave [was hard],” Mr. Tucker said. “Seeing their faces, boys and girls just sobbing uncontrollably, just because they never had teachers like us before where they got to know us as people, they got to develop that connection, and that we were leaving was very hard for them.”