Educating for Global Understanding
Megan Fitzharris Harlow teaches music at Carlisle Middle School. After studying about and traveling to West Africa with Primary Source, she now teaches her students about West African culture through music, dancing, and drumming.
Primary Source: What do fifth-graders at Carlisle Middle School learn in your music class?
On Friday, October 23, 2009, 300 guests gathered at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a colorful celebration of Primary Source's accomplishments over the past twenty years and its vision for the next two decades and beyond.
The annual International Education Week (IEW) will take place from November 16-20, 2009. Primary Source is proud to participate in this unique opportunity to celebrate international education and exchange for all Americans with events and resources.
Primary Source's newest publication for teachers and students, China in the World: A History Since 1644 (Cheng and Tsui, 2008) is favorably reviewed in the current issue (Volume 14, Number 2, Fall 2009, page 57) of Education About Asia. Caryn White Stedman, global studies curriculum specialist and social studies department chair at Connecticut's CREC Metroplitan Learning Center, finds the sourcebook "unabashedly a teaching volume that successfully provides the instructor with both background material and highly effective pedagogical approaches to help students understand the complexities of modern Chinese history." Download the article to read Stedman's full review (reprinted with permission of the Association for Asian Studies).
Shop for your holiday gifts and give back to Primary Source at Ten Thousand Villages on Friday, December 4! Fifteen percent of all sales from 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. that day will be donated to Primary Source. Join us for light refreshments and enjoy beautiful handmade gifts from artisans around the world. All are welcome!
Now you can support Primary Source every time you shop online! At GoodShop.com, up to thirty percent of your spending will be donated to your favorite nonprofit.
By Charlotte Mason, China Exchange Initiative
Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization
By Yong Zhao
228 pp. ASCD/Alexandria/2009
When ASCD speaks, educators listen. This venerable organization features the issues of the day in its regular flagship magazines (Educational Leadership and Education Updates), often by presenting two or more sides to each issue. By choosing to publish Yong Zhao’s new book, ASCD is implicitly asking us to question the role of and movement toward high stakes testing in our educational system, and to take pride in our unique, historic, and innate American strengths. In his book, Zhao draws from his personal experience of growing up in rural Sichuan and going to school in China, his wife's more privileged education in Beijing, his children's experiences in schools in Michigan, and a great deal of scholarly research in the field of education.
In 1989, our founders Anne Watt and Anna Roelofs had a vision. They believed that educating teachers about diverse world histories and cultures would create a more tolerant, peaceful and inclusive global society, one in which young people could cooperate, collaborate and communicate across racial, linguistic, and national lines. From this shared dream, Primary Source was born. Today, twenty years later, Primary Source is still driven by the same principles, and works towards these goals every day by delivering outstanding global education programs that promote global understanding in K-12 classrooms.
Today our organization is stronger than ever before, and we invite you to join us on Friday, October 23rd Primary Source to celebrate our shared success at the Gala for Global Education at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Marcy Prager, a teacher at Brookline's Driscoll Elementary School and a longtime participant in Primary Source's programs, has been selected as the recipient of a prestigious national award for educators for her innovative and internationally minded work with young students. In August 2009, The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) recognized her extraordinary accomplishments by naming her Elementary Teacher of the Year.
Jonathan Turrisi teaches eighth grade social studies at Milton's Pierce Middle School. He has participated in many of Primary Source's workshops and recently traveled to China with the organization. In May, he helped to create the Pierce Middle School Global Celebration, bringing teachers, students, and parents together for an internationally-themed community event.
Primary Source: How has Primary Source helped you to bring global perspectives into your classroom?
Jonathan Turrisi: Over the past four years, I have participated in a number of Primary Source seminars and events. Each has enriched my understanding of history and culture in profound ways. Regardless of the topic a concerted effort is always made to incorporate global perspectives. While the seminars have deepened the understanding of history, events such as the Holiday Bazaar and the "Discovering India through Dance" program have sparked ideas for ways to engage students in the world history curriculum in meaningful ways.
