Classroom III

I am trying to blog this live, so these are just ideas.

Creating and Integrated, interdisciplinary Global Studies Curriculum session presented by Caryn Stedman, Bloomfield, CT. 100% graduation rate, wow!.  Caryn began by telling us about how her school demographics matched normal schools.

The Need- skills for a Flat World – Sharing our planet – 20-20 book it is Issues involing the goabla communtiy. Global warming, biodviersity….Massive step-up in the fight against prvery.  Third area, policies econ, biotechnology Vivian, Are we fixing the wrong things? Yong Ed Leadership. Applause from the audience when she said that creativity is being driven out of our educational system today.

What is necesary?  Creativity and  What is NAME?

Area/Regional Studies- indepth study of world region or area include African and others, she moves too fast for me…High School – World regional studies- is now a survey approach. She wants to see school focus on one area in depth instead of looking at all of them.

International Studies – NGO’s and multinational firm: McDonalds- got laughs.

Global Education-  integrated approach to ed with systems thinking.  Disciplines are de-emphasized. World is different in other cultures. Color- red blue, etc, look at spectrum

which has no distinction. Piaget – on traditional education…She pointed out that we are testing and teaching to lowest level of learning when just teaching traditional skills.

Global Systems curriculum- Middle School curriculum was their starting point. She showed us their test score from CT and I was impressed. Test scores showed improvement. Integrated, Interdisciplinary, Systems-based curriculum.

Essential questions- addressed teacher’s strengths, looked at case studies from around the

world as main themes. Mapped out ideas. Region was not the guiding idea. She pointed out urban amermica and Arctic region unit. Other skills, math, science, teach the system, not the chapter! This is something we need to implement in our school to get away from chapter driven teaching. They use capstone project as a graduation requirement. Students must pick an issue. Process to their projects is complex and we need more information which Caryn will be providing.

Three Signature Elements- students expected to participate in action, including service learning, travel, and/or internships.

Man, I just had a brain-storm. We have an new program in our district for student to graduate with fewer credits than the regular high school- 11-12 graders that choice to particpate in this new program must complete a Global Issues project.

Economic Systems- Global Issues, careers, and skills are included with knowledge.

Exchange program, math classes international studies helped teach math lessons.  Scholarships for study abroad. It costs about $10,000 to house and feed a kid today, it only costs $5-6,000 to send them to foreign countries.  Global Nomads.