Global Education

A team focus this year was learning more about global education.   Global education and competency will become an even greater priority next year.  We had the great pleasure of attending the Think Tank on Global Education with Fernando Reimers.  Veronica Boix Mansilla also showed up.  It was incredibly fun working with the premier teachers in this field and nearly 100 other diverse educators from all around the country.  It was critical that our entire team went, including our science and art teacher.  Together we have determined that an interdisciplinary approach to global education would best prepare our students to be active citizens capable of making a difference.  We wrote a manifesto of sorts and will continue to seek ways to work together to this end.  Some models of global education that inspire us:



Boix Mansilla and Jackson, Asia Society











Global Competency Matrix from worldsaavy.org








We began using the UN sustainability goals (watch this fun video from Flocabulary!) this year in conjunction with our Global Brief assignment and summit. 




We matched students with a Sustainable Development Goal, led them through a research writing project, and then provided an opportunity for them to meet with other students who had studied that goal.  The groups put together presentations that explained the goal, action steps, and connections to Quakerism. 






Global Brief Samples: 

Access to Water

Hunger and GMO foods

SDG presentations:

SDG #14 Life Below Water

Many other projects supported students' global competency, including Mapping With Heart, Green By Design, and our research papers on alternative energy use around the globe.  

As the NEA states, “our increasingly interconnected and interdependent global society mandates that American students be educated to develop habits of the mind that embrace tolerance, a commitment to cooperation, an appreciation of our common humanity, and a sense of responsibility.” These goals are deeply aligned with Quaker values. Through our curriculum, students will develop the skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviors that will enable them to become active global citizens.

Key Resources:

• http://www.worldsavvy.org/global-competence/
• http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/PB28A_Global_Competence11.pdf
• http://www.globalteachereducation.org/what-global-competence

• Empowering Global Citizens: A World Course by Fernando M. Reimers, Vidur Chopra, Connie K. Chung, Julia Higdon, E. B. O'Donnell 

• Empowering Students to Improve the World in Sixty Lessons. Version 1.0 by Fernando M. Reimers