Teaching Excellence and Achievement program (TEA)

The Teaching Excellence and Achievement program (TEA), now in its seventh year, brings teachers from other countries to Appalachian State University to enhance their skills in teaching science and English as a foreign language.

From mid-September through Oct. 30, this year’s TEA Fellows are in the High Country learning about:

• student-centered teaching approaches that are highly engaging
• project-based teaching
• instructional design and assessment
• teacher-leadership throughout their careers

The TEA Fellows spend four weeks on Appalachian’s campus engaged in discipline-specific workshops. Then, they spend two weeks teaching in regional schools alongside a U.S. partner teacher.

Meet the 2017 TEA Fellows

The Teaching Excellence and Achievement program (TEA), now in its seventh year, brings teachers from other countries to Appalachian State University to enhance their skills in teaching science and English as a foreign language. Meet the 21 TEA Fellows, representing 18 countries, that visited campus in fall 2017.

Meet the 2017 TEA Fellows

The local community benefits from the program, too, as the visitors share their culture with local students and spend one weekend with host families.

“In coming to Appalachian and Boone, these master teachers greatly impact our campus and the local community. They contribute to global learning by meeting with hundreds of Appalachian students and local school children during their six weeks here,” said Dr. Maria Anastasiou, executive director of the Office of International Education and Development (OIED).

“More importantly, we hope the teachers will continue working with our students and faculty once they return home using the amazing technologies that they learn about during their time here.”

TEA is a program of the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and implemented by IREX. At Appalachian, it is cosponsored by OIED and the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the College of Arts and Sciences.

2017 TEA Fellows

See images from the 2017 Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) program at Appalachian State University.

TEA leaders at Appalachian

TEA’s core team at Appalachian consists of Dr. Beverly Moser and Dr. Maria Anastasiou, project co-directors; John Spagnolo, technology coordinator; Dr. Linda McCalister, field experience coordinator; Dr. Rachel Potter and Dr. Leslie Bradbury, science teacher coordinators; and Mallory Sadler, social/cultural and logistics coordinator.

Appalachian receives $183,000 grant to train international science and English teachers

June 25, 2014

Appalachian State University has received a $183,000 Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Program grant to implement a training program designed to enhance the capacity of 20 teachers representing 17 countries to teach science and English. The TEA Fellows will come from Bangladesh, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Guatemala, India, Jordan, Mali, Nicaragua, Niger, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Zambia.

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Building Bridges: International language teachers study at Appalachian

Nov. 12, 2012

Twenty-one teachers from 17 countries come to Appalachian to boost their skills in teaching English as a second language.

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About the Office of International Education and Development

The OIED is responsible for spearheading the internationalization efforts at Appalachian. The internationalization mission of Appalachian is to develop awareness, knowledge, appreciation and respect of cultural differences in both domestic and international contexts in its students, faculty, staff and the surrounding communities. The university is also dedicated to creating a campus environment that builds the theoretical and practical skills needed to interact effectively in a global society. Learn more at https://international.appstate.edu.

About Appalachian State University

As the premier public undergraduate institution in the state of North Carolina, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls more than 19,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.

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