That’s A Wrap, DC!
The morning of Day 3 @ 9:00 AM
The last day of the Global Education Symposium was short and sweet. We began the day with a breakfast buffet (always a great way to start the day!) and proceeded to the Dolly Madison Ballroom to have time to build upon the conversations and ideas from the past two days. Part of the session included Fulbright alumni (Greg) and his administrator (Colby) who shared about how they collaborated to make the Fulbright experience have a lasting impact on their school community:
They created classroom-to-classroom relationships
They also looked for partner schools in Taiwan
They obtained county funding for their Global Education projects
They leveraged digital tools such as Padlet and Flipgrid to host discussions between classrooms in the US and Taiwan
They also shared about the challenges they encountered such as coordinating video calls from both corners of the globe and managing the time differences.
All the sessions I had been to were geared toward teachers, so it was really interesting to hear how Colby, the administrator, played a key role in supporting the implementation of these projects.
Colby shared that these were the ways in which he supported Greg:
Connect global education projects to the school’s Mission, Vision, and pillars that already exist in the school community
Invite, do not mandate, teachers to participate → Teacher mindset shifts from “One more thing I have to do!” to “This looks interesting; let me try it.”
Provide teachers with the necessary support to be successful such as working models, materials, funding
It was nice to see such a strong teacher-admin relationship that worked for the best interests of the students and school community. Diana and I were inspired!
We were also given structured time to work on our guiding questions. I had a rough draft in my head (and in my notebook). Diana and I had an in-depth discussion about what I might want to focus on. As the PreK-5 STEM Specialist at my school, I initially wanted my guiding question to be STEM-related. However, as Diana and I continued to talk, I became really interested in school culture.
You might be wondering why school culture piqued my interest; it is because Diana and I had also been working closely on school culture at our school’s Culture Leadership Cadre. It is also my personal and professional belief that meaningful learning happens within a school culture that supports student-centered learning. To a non-educator, that belief might seem to be a given. And it’s true; if you ask any educator, they might say something similar. However, often theory and practice do not align, so it is our job as educators to hold ourselves accountable in consciously cultivating a culture of curiosity, exploration, intellectual risk-taking, and a love of learning inside and outside of the classroom. HOWEVER, I digress! That is a whole other topic in and of itself, so back to the formulation of my guiding question. Here is a peek into my brain:
So many possibilities!
Suffice it to say, I left with more questions than answers, but they were juicy questions to ponder on on the flight back to Los Angeles!
Fulbright TGC 2023 Cohort