Teacher Professional Development: I need to attend this school in Indonesia to gain knowledge and experience to expose my students to cultures different than their very limited experiences in a rural fringe area of North Carolina. <profdevpilot>
"The strongest oak was once a tiny acorn that held its ground." I want my students to know, through my own example, that much can be achieved through perseverance. I fail often. They can see my failure and my attempts to try again and again. I hope they will do the same.
My students are kind, caring, and loving.
They are also living in poverty situations, many are English as a Second Language Learners, and quite a few have significant learning challenges. Our school is in a rural fringe area. My students deserve chances to succeed and I want to help them be able to do so. We are struggling with our standardized test scores and social studies is often a neglected subject area. Through this project, I can help expose them to a culture different than our own through cultural exchanges.
Many of my colleagues do not see the value in exposing our children to people and places that are different than what we are typically exposed to. I hope to share another culture, not only with my students, but also with my colleagues so we can all benefit from cultural exchanges through multimedia, through my learning experiences, pictures, videos, and artifacts when teaching/learning in Aceh, Indonesia.
My Project
Our students will Skype with Sukma Bangsa School in Aceh, Indonesia biweekly to learn more about the culture of each country and school. Students will create projects to share with Sukma Bangsa to teach them about life in America to share about our education, geography, experiences through the eyes of children, and more! Through my own cultural exchange, I can teach the students of Sukma Bangsa about life in America, share strategies I have found successful with their teachers, and learn firsthand about their culture. I will then return to my school and share what I learn with my colleagues through professional development and teach my students through pictures, videos, personal stories, and artifacts so they can experience a culture they may never otherwise experience. I have permission to share county-wide pd also. I want them to respect people different than they are and learn to value people from around the world. If we ever want peace in our world, we must begin with the children.
I tell my students that "peace begins with me." We each make a decision to treat others respectfully or disrespectfully.
Because many of my students have not been out of our area or state, their knowledge of the world is extremely limited. My hope is that I can plant a seed in them that they have options to visit places in the world outside of their community. I also want them to see people who look and act differently and not say, "They're weird" but respect their similarities and differences.
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