Brockton School Launches International Heritage Festival
Gilmore Academy, a public middle school in Brockton, Massachusetts, is auditioning for a big part. As a candidate school to offer the Middle Years Program of the International Baccalaureate, it must prove that it meaningfully addresses the major principles of the program. Over the past two years, Primary Source has been a valuable resource in helping the school to address the important MYP principle of international-mindedness. From in-school Primary Source workshops for the school's entire faculty to the attendance by two Gilmore teachers at this past summer's Teaching for Global Understanding institute, this important principle in 21st century education has been fostered. Jocelyn Young and David Brewster, Humanities teachers at Gilmore, found the summer institute changed their perspectives on what a globally-minded education means. The school had been planning to have an international festival for several months. But after attending the Global Understanding institute, Young and Brewster knew that the planned festival had the potential for more powerful learning than they had anticipated. "I wanted my students' experience to mirror what I had experienced in the summer institute. I was so energized every day and I wanted my students to feel the same way. It wasn't just content I learned, it was a whole new way to approach teaching," says Brewster. According to Young, "I was able to share new ways I had learned to see our global connections." Gilmore Academy's International Heritage Festival, a two-day event in late October, was a great success. Over 750 people visited displays, viewed re-creations and demonstrations, sampled healthy food from around the world, and most importantly, engaged students in a dialogue that promoted global-mindedness. Student teams organized displays around universal themes such as poverty, wealth, superheroes, monsters, folktales, and women's rights. By investigating our world through themes, students began to see that our conspicuous differences really highlight our deep-seated similarities. From re-creations of rural village life in Bangladesh and an inquiry into environmental superheroes around the world, to a "bake sale" of mud cookies and contaminated water to support Heifer International (a cause discovered by the teachers at the summer institute) students discovered their own responsibilities to their neighbors around the globe. "I helped to spread awareness about what's going on in Congo," commented 7th grader Gabriela Sanchez. According to her partner, Chidera Onyeoziri, "If people don't know what's going on around the world, there's not a possible way of helping them." |
Educating for Global Understanding
