Hingham, Shrewsbury Educators Win GEM-AIG WorldSource Award

On Friday, July 18th, 2008, educators Deanne Moore and Robert Wilson were named co-recipients of the third annual Global Education Massachusetts (GEM) AIG WorldSource Award for Excellence in International Education.

Moore, a Hingham High School English teacher, and Wilson, an art educator at the Floral Street Elementary School in Shrewsbury, were chosen by the awards committee in recognition of the innovative global projects they have incorporated into their teaching.

Bill Judy, Regional Manager for AIG WorldSource, presented the awards at Boston College on the final day of Primary Source's Teaching for Global Understanding summer institute. "It was an extremely difficult decision this year because of the many outstanding applicants...the reviewing committee was impressed with the variety and depth of projects that involved all subject areas," he noted. The projects ranged from a middle school exploration of geography through technology to an elementary school experiment with international short wave radio communications.

Over the past five years, winner Robert Wilson has developed a unique international art exchange with elementary students in Shrewsbury. His students create individual pieces of artwork, which are sent abroad to be completed by children in an exchange school, or vice versa. Wilson's innovative project has introduced students to new perspectives, languages, and communities through their collaboration with peers across the globe. This work, Wilson remarked in an acceptance speech, "brings light to a student's self-expression and knowledge of concepts from a different point of view."

Co-recipient Deanne Moore has also found novel ways to connect her students to the world, involving projects in and out of the classroom. She led fundraising efforts with students to help build a school in rural Ghana, support orphans in Kenya, and bring a displaced Bosnian Muslim refugee to attend Hingham High School for a year. Moore also organized student trips to Romania and India. Most significantly, she has worked with colleagues over the past four years to create a high school world literature curriculum, expanding the traditional language arts unit to include international voices and content. Accepting the award on behalf of Moore were Hingham colleagues Ellen Keane and Laney Silva.

Moore and Wilson's innovative projects will have a lasting impact throughout Hingham and Shrewsbury, and illustrate the possibilities of global education throughout New England.