The Chronicle newspaper of Goshen, New York reports the Goshen Central School District has been funded by U.S. Department of Education to provide Mandarin Chinese lessons to its sixth-grade students.

GOSHEN —The Goshen Central School District has received the U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language Assistance Grant, a three-year grant that will allow its sixth-grade students to study the language of Mandarin Chinese.

The program is open to select students and is a full-year traditional foreign language program, delivered via state-of-the art e-learning hardware and software. Classes will be taught by a New York State certified teacher whose primary classroom is located in the Video conferencing Lab at the Orange-Ulster BOCES Harriman Learning Center.

From this location, the teacher will meet with one or two classes at a time for instruction. Materials will be made available to students through a teacher created Web site and blackboard. Students will also meet with their teacher at least once a month. Communication with the teacher will take place during video conferences, via the course management system and through e-mail.

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