2 Planes and 1 Roomie- The Global Education Symposium

Flashback to February 21- My direct flight from Huntsville to DC got canceled so I hitched a ride to the Nashville airport. The good news- I had an empty seat next to me on ALL MY FLIGHTS! That has never happened to me! After a much longer travel time than expected, I made it to DC just in time for the Welcome Reception at 6:00. And I got to meet my cool new roommate for the symposium, Kendra Miller. Kendra teaches in New York City and it was interesting to compare our daily commutes, teaching environments, student population, school holidays, and lives outside of school. She seemed super cool to me because she had very "New York-y" trendy clothes, awesome earrings, and way more face lotions than I have ever used in my life. After talking with many of the TGC fellows, I realized that most of us had roommates that were different from ourselves- rural/city, younger/older, elementary/high school, Southern/East Coast, etc. I thought this was a neat way for TGC to start our "cultural immersion" from the get-go.

Flashback to February 22- What a full day of learning!  It started at 8:30 am with our first concurrent sessions.  The administrators of the group went to the School Leadership and Global Education session to get an overview of what us fellows did and learned during our 10 week course. The teachers attended a session called "Prepare Yourself: The International Field Experience" where we broke up into groups based on our assigned countries: Morocco, Senegal, Peru, India, Indonesia, and Colombia. During our sessions, the IREX staff presented general information about the International Field Experiences (IFE). We also talked with a Fulbright fellow from Colombia and Maria Zelaya, a teacher that participated in the program 2 years ago. I felt better hearing their first hand accounts and learning more of what to expect on the IFE. This was by far my favorite session of the day.

After a coffee break (or water break for me) admins and teachers joined together for the Global Competence in Action: Classroom Strategies and Peer Reflection sessions. We were separated by subject areas and were able to analyze the student work we brought with us for 21st century skills and global competencies. I printed images of student artwork from my UNIT PLAN to share. I was please at the feedback and enjoyed viewing the other elementary teacher's projects.

During lunch, we were officially welcomed by the U.S. Department of State and it was all very fancy. We heard from Marie Royce, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. I actually got to sit at Table 1 with her and several other TGC fellows. I was super nervous when I was told about my seat for lunch. I have a tendency to ramble (ie- this entire blog) and often stick my foot in my mouth...maybe a Southern thing. Anyway, I successfully made it through lunch without embarrassing myself or the great state of Alabama. It was actually really easy to talk to Secretary Royce and the conversation flowed easily at the table. She even used some of our conversation in her welcome speech.

Later, we participated in an alumni panel on Increasing Students' Competitiveness by Improving Global Education and attended the Global Education Resource Fair. At the resource fair, I ran in to some of my favorite people- Jan and the TOP Crew! (Minus the wonderful Jenny) The Transatlantic Outreach Program is a joint partnership between the U.S. and Germany to promote relationships, cultural exchange, and understanding of modern Germany. Check them out!

The final session for the day was The Global Bridge: The International Field Experience and Storytelling. We explored storytelling as a tool for mutual understanding and started to develop our guiding question for the international travel component of TGC.

I spent that evening with a random assortment of teachers, including our Alabama group, just running around DC.  We ate at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl and it was very, very tasty. Then we wandered around the National Mall and created our own night time monuments tour where I read miscellaneous facts and information from the internet as we passed different monuments.  It was silly and amazing.

Flashback to February 23- On Saturday we spend the day with administrators and teachers together in a main conference room. Our sessions included Diversity and Cross-Cultural Communication with the very engaging and dynamic Dr. Hakim Williams. He taught us about working effectively across diverse cultures and reviewed strategies for cross-cultural communication. Our last session was Global Education Leadership and Action Planning where we worked on our global education visions for our classrooms and schools. We also discussed challenges and opportunities for global education in educational demographic groups.

We wrapped up the symposium with a catered lunch and a large group photo.