With VIF’s Global Gateway program, school leaders, teachers and students will participate in meaningful international education experiences that will spark interest in lifelong learning about other cultures, nations and global society. Through dynamic online courses, teachers learn to effectively integrate global content into their instruction, while also expanding inquiry and standards-based practices. Teachers and principals progress through professional development spirals, earning digital badges for their work.To support their work, program participants will have access to the Connections Resource Library, a curated collection of teacher-produced, standards-aligned lessons and activities, and a dynamic community of colleagues in the VIF Learning Center.
Global Gateway Key Components
The VIF Learning Center
Teachers and administrators have engaging professional development, curated digital education resources, and a community of like-minded educators at their fingertips. The VIF Learning Center is a versatile learning system designed to make the teachers’ experience as intuitive and enjoyable as possible. From their own personal page educators can track their progress through professional development modules using digital badges, share and access digital resources, and engage teachers and administrators from around the world in the Community Forum.
Professional Development
With continuous support, leaders and teachers develop critical skills and strategies to lead and teach with a global perspective. Each teacher professional development course consists of four engaging, interactive online modules designed around practical strategies for creating and integrating global concepts using project-based inquiry.
Teachers and administrators will also have access to an ongoing series of webinars highlighting new and emerging topics in global education, as well as extending topics covered in the course modules.
Global Gateway Courses and Content Framework | K-5
Digital Education Resources
In the Connections Resource Library, teachers will find lessons and activities created and shared by their colleagues as part of their professional development. Teachers can download these resources for use in their own library and provide feedback as part of a peer-review process. All content in the library is regionally themed, arranged by grade-level and aligned to the Common Core, P21, CTE, and NET standards.
Global-Ready Designation
Digital badges teachers and administrators receive as part of their Global Gateway professional development can be used towards attaining their Global-Ready designation. Teachers awarded Global-Ready designation by the Global Schools Network are recognized as having demonstrated their dedication to global education in the classroom and to preparing students for an increasingly global society.
The Passport School Model
Built on the foundational components and benefits of the Global Gateway program, the Passport School is a whole-school model with benefits that everyone experiences – greater teacher collaboration, greater depth of spiraling across grade levels, fuller engagement across the school, and school-wide support to create a global inquiry learning environment.
In addition to the administrator professional development modules included in Global Gateway, Passport Principals will complete an initial module, Building and Supporting a Passport School, designed to provide the information and tools required to begin their school’s transformation to a global school model. Administrators will get step-by-step instructions on how to create regionally-themed grade levels, lists of suggested items and materials to purchase to give their school a “global” look-and-feel, and case studies highlighting the successes - and challenges - of other Passport Principals.
Passport Principals will also have access to a dedicated space in the VIF Community Forum where they will find experienced Global School leaders ready to share experiences and provide guidance as they make the transition to a global-school model.
Global-Ready School Designation
Once successfully established, a Passport School will be eligible for designation by the Global Schools Network as an Advanced Global-Ready School, which includes official GSN Designation and Banner, invitations to GSN-related events, a media tool kit, and discounted access to other VIF products.
Training & Support
The Global Gateway online training provides flexible on-boarding to teachers and principals --- participants can get the tools to get started and complete the initial training session as a group or individually. Teachers will enroll in the VIF Learning Center and begin the online, self-directed training session, designed to help participants navigate the Learning Center and understand the program’s features and expectations. Teachers will explore:
● Connections Content Library
● Hallmarks of the program
● Resources
● Location of tutorials
● Discussion forum
● How to get support
Participants will become familiar with the modular structure of Global Gateway and explore strategies for teaching with global inquiry, the foundation of the professional development program. Teachers will also learn how their work in the Learning Center will enable them to earn digital badges that certify their expertise as global educators.
Throughout the year and as the program progresses, Global Gateway teachers will be supported with informational tutorials, technical support, webinars, Learning Center instructors, discussions and a dynamic community of globally minded peers.
Next Steps
Enrollment will begin in June 2013 for the 2013-14 school year. VIF will notify schools with instructions on how to enroll and get started with the training module.
Check for technology compatibility. In our course modules we will ask you to explore the following cool tools: Animoto, VoiceThread, Glogster, Skype, iChat, Facetime, GoogleTalk, OpenTok, iChat. We will also encourage you to extend your global work through a blogging platform such as: WordPress, Blogger, Movable Type, ExpressionEngine, Weebly, Habari, Tumblr, etc. Spend some time investigating these tools and get ready to strategically integrate them into your lessons!
Identify the regional focus of each participating grade level – Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, Oceania, Latin America & Caribbean. Each grade level will take on a global identity based on a world region. Having a focus allows the students at that grade level to gain more than just ‘tourist’ exposure to a country or region. It will allow teachers to really integrate the region into concepts and lessons throughout the year and develop their regional knowledge at that Global Gateway grade. Please talk with your teams and consider what region will best work for their interests and their curricular focus.
Include your specials and resource teachers - Be sure to include your art, music, AIG, EC, media, technology specialists and any other teachers working directly with students who you think would benefit from the professional development. Please consider that the program requires them to submit evidence of their application of the PD with students. These resource/specials teachers can serve on their own team or join other grade level teams to focus their work on a specific grade level.
Start globalizing your school environment. Review VIF’s tips on creating a global look and feel for your Passport school.
Global Look and Feel
Here are some ideas to help you get started on creating an inspiring and global school environment. Websites have been provided but are only samples of what is available.
- World Maps
- Regional Themes (decorative ideas)
- Flags
- Rugs
- Time zone clocks for lobby, hallway or lunchroom - label regular clocks with country names
- Murals - utilize school talent
- Posters/global images
- Languages- post word walls, words of the day in languages from region
- Multi-cultural products for elementary classrooms (rugs, etc): http://www.creativediversity.com
- For the media center - some children’s books to inform and inspire children to be global citizens
Global Gateway Course Catalog | K-5
Course 1
Understanding 1 - Globalizing Your Classroom
In this module, teachers explore the development of global citizenship and global competence with students. Throughout this inquiry-based module, participants will also consider how to combine globalizing strategies and instructional approaches in the classroom to enhance teaching with curricular standards.
Investigating 1 - Culture in your Classroom
The most successful global teams understand that culture influences perceptions, behavior and perspectives. This module helps teachers reflect on their expectations in the school setting and how they may differ from their students’ and their international peers’ expectations. Teachers will come away with a better understanding of culture’s role in their relationships with their colleagues and their students. A higher level of cultural awareness will help teachers leverage the diversity of their teaching team and of their students in their classroom.
Connecting 1 - Beyond Your Classroom
This module highlights the value of using synchronous video chat tools, such as Skype, in the classroom. Teachers learn about the many opportunities such tools provide for global interactions and learning.
Integrating 1 - Blogging in your Classroom
The Web has made it easy to be an author and publisher. Blogging offers a platform for cultivating the writer, reporter, and journalist in all of us. This module discusses the many uses of blogging in the classroom for global education, and curriculum integration.
Course 2
Understanding 2 - Intercultural Competency Inquiry
This module addresses the ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures and work with people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This module will focus on the three components of cultural competence: attitudes, knowledge, and skills. Developing intercultural competence provides the learner with the ability to understand, communicate, and interact with all citizens of the globe.
Investigating 2 - - Internet and Society
School students are Netizens, growing up with the world at their fingertips. For these learners, the Internet is a global transport vehicle bringing the world and all it offers into their lives, no matter where they are. How do we help students see the Internet as more than a place to play games and watch Youtube videos? How does the Internet expand their world? This module addresses these questions while recognizing that the Internet does not represent the same thing for all young people, including those in your classroom.
Connecting 2 - Global Interdependence Inquiry
This module will explore how global trends and challenges have an impact on the local community. The module also references global trends, issues, and international organizations that provide institutional structures for engaging global challenges. Throughout the entire module teachers will be invited to think through ways in which they can incorporate this information to enhance learning of curriculum concepts.
Integrating 2 - Mapping the Local & the Global
In this module, teachers will investigate simple online mapping tools and resources for examining global trends and issues. This module also invites participants to consider various ways to use mapping in the classroom to enhance learning of curricular concepts.
Course 3
Understanding 3 - Intercultural Competence Assessment
The Global Competence checklist can be a powerful tool to assess students’ global/intercultural competence in one particular instance, but, equally important, over time. Throughout this module teachers will learn to use these indicators to assess two pieces of student work.
Investigating 3 - Global Challenges
This module expands skills in understanding and addressing global challenges learned in previous Global Gateway modules, Global Interdependence and Mapping the Local to the Global, to a deeper level. Teachers will gain insight into the power of addressing global challenges to spark student engagement and increase student learning of curricular concepts.
Connecting 3 - World Innovation & Collaborative Video Inquiry
This module explores how innovation and invention emanate from specific cultural contexts and are then received and used in other cultures. In this module teachers will participate in a Collaborative Video Inquiry to create a video of their own discoveries.
Integrating 3 - Visual Literacies
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” Images can help us make sense of complex concepts. Humans process information visually faster than through any other sense. This module helps teachers understand that when we look at images we bring our own perspective and cultural lens to those images. We see images not just as mirrors that reflect their own prior knowledge, experience and assumptions, but also as windows that allow them a more comprehensive understanding of the world.
