For my final blog post, I wanted to further explore some of the case studies that I read in my course text, The Global Educator by Julie Lindsay, last week. There were 10 different case studies found on pages 229-244.
While reading through all of the case studies, there were two that I wanted to reflect on the most. The first one was Case Study 4.3- THINK Global School: Learning to be Global While Living Globally found on page 231. The second one was Case Study 4.5- Our Global Friendships found on page 233. I chose these two because I was able to create the most connections while reading them.
The first one talks about the THINK Global School (TGS) and how it moves around the world and fully focuses on ‘place-based’ learning, meaning wherever the students are geographically. This reminded me of multiple things we covered throughout this course. One, most recently, were the virtual reality tools. Although, virtual reality is not reality and that through TGS these classrooms are getting up and physically relocating, the purposes of the two are quite similar, in my opinion. They are both to teach the students and bring them to new environments and fully learn about that place. Also through TGS, every student and teacher is given a Macbook, iPad and iPhone. I think this is so awesome that this program allows such a room for growth and giving them access to technology that is always advancing.
The second case discusses ‘Our Global Friendships’. This is a small virtual community made up of global educators who collaborate with other educators. The purpose of this community is to learn from and with each other while bringing many different educators and students together to work on global projects. I agree with the case study when it stated, “professional learning for educators has changed significantly in the past ten years”. It is insane just how much educators and students have access to these days. If I were to be a future educator, I would implement all of the technology I could, but without making it feel inauthentic. I think it is important to include digital tools, but I also think it is important to stay in touch with those around you, especially in your classroom. While reading this case study about ‘Our Global Friendships’, it reminded me just how important it is to have a community and people around you to learn from and grow with.