Building Connections

My story of Global Education begins in Virginia...

I'd like to tell the story of one of the projects we were assigned in our Global Education course in the Fall of 2022. We were each partnered with another teacher somewhere in the U.S. and asked to design a learning experience for our classes. I teach science classes in California and I was partnered with Joel Shapiro, who teaches choir classes in Virginia. At first we put our effort into finding connections between science and music and focusing on content connections we could present to our students. But we quickly realized that the students were most interested in learning about EACH OTHER - they wanted to make connections with each other. We adapted our plans, and gave students time to talk in small groups over Zoom (with some structure to help overcome the initial awkwardness). Once they made these personal connections, THEN they were more excited to share what they were learning with each other. By the end of my students' Science of Sound unit, they were eager to share their musical instruments they had built from found materials; and Mr. Shapiro's class wanted to share their performance for their upcoming Winter Concert. The lessons I learned from this teaching partnership laid the foundation for processing my field experience in Colombia.

The story continues in Bucaramanga, Colombia...

One of my favorite memories of my time at Dámaso Zapata school in Bucaramanga was a relatively unstructured time with students. The three of us visiting teachers were taking a break in our host teacher's classroom, and many of his students came to visit and get to know us more. Vanessa, Matthew, and I were sitting with a small group of students around each of us, just chatting about favorite books, movies, goals for the future, and anything else that came up. We were speaking a mix of Spanish and English, depending on our language skills and whichever words came to mind first, and we were building connections by hearing each other's stories. (We are made of stories!) 

Connections between people and places!

As I think about how these experiences will shape my teaching going forward, my primary goal is to find as many ways as I can for my students and myself to make connections and collaborate with students in other places. This can include connections between other students in my own school and district, between other classes in the United States, and of course continued connections with Profe Diego's classes in Bucaramanga! Based on the successes I have seen so far, I imagine these collaborations being structured something like this:

1. We tell each other our stories, backgrounds, hopes, etc.

2. We notice similarities and differences between our experiences and places we are connected with, and explore these. 

3. Then we have questions about each other's lived experiences & places.

4. These questions lead to deeper examination of issues that affect each of us (and possibly all of us!)

5. With some guidance, this can hopefully lead to a collaborative examination of these local and global issues, and then to designing solutions TOGETHER.

6. Then, how do we tell these NEW STORIES together? I'm pretty sure this last stage is co-created in collaboration with students, teachers, community members, all together. We decide together how to tell our stories.