;When we teach for global competence, we don't just share knowledge about the world. We bridge divides, break down walls, and create complex connection.
This is one of my favorite class moments ever captured. I teach in a diverse district with over 20 languages spoken, a student population that is half hispanic, and a student body that teaches me about the world daily. Two of my students in this photo made the perilous journey from Central America to the United States in 2014 and 2015, and I don't have the words to describe how much they mean to me as people. They were my teacher more than I was theirs. As the immigration debate in our country intensified over the last years, it was the elephant in the room in many ways in my Spanish class. I'm not one to avoid elephants. I also knew that there was a lot I didn't know. It was a transformative year in my teaching because I was a student on this topic as much as my own students were; I just helped us all in navigating the complexity that is required to understand this important topic. We started our immigration unit by asking, "Why do people want to immigrate to the US?" We then moved to, "How do they do that, both legally and illegally?" Lastly, we reflected on the question, "What does it mean to achieve the American Dream?" I didn't have answers for any of these. I just had resources for discovering them, and deep questioning techniques to allow students to discover their own perspectives and worldview in regards to this extremely important topic. In this photo, my students from Guatemala and Honduras shared with my classes about their lives in their home countries before arriving to the US, about their journeys in getting here, and what happened after they arrived. I didn't invite them to speak to my students until we were finished with our unit so that students could use what that had learned in class to ask deep questions of these boys and all they had endured. We don't always have to leave the classroom to connect to the world. And while we may have borders that define our lands, there are no borders to our shared humanity.
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AuthorI am a teacher, traveler, and life-long learner. I connect students and teachers to globally -focused learning. I believe students crave to understand and interact with the world. I have a Michigan home, and a global heart. Archives
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