Summer Readings

"Educating for Global Competency" and "The Asia Society-Global Competence" clearly point to the responsibility that we, as teachers, need to recognize and assume in preparing our youth for the challenging and diverse world that we live in.  These readings prompted me to reflect on the efforts made by the school communities where I have worked and my involvement in developing global competency with my young students.  There was a cultural faculty exchange with two teachers from Rwanda who had the opportunity to come to our school and learn about our community and experience America for the first time. My kindergarten students had the opportunity to ask the teachers questions about their country and their schools. Our teachers who visited Rwanda returned to our school community to share their experiences working and visiting there. I recognize that this could be one of many ways to achieve global competency, especially after reading both of these articles.

Reimers notes the importance of developing cultural awareness starting at the early ages because this is when basic values are shaped as well as attitudes, which is the first dimension of global competency. I found that looking at global competency as multidimensional is helpful in understanding how I can contribute to its development with my students.  With young learners this can be a challenge, but it is important to developing their character, attitude and skills.  Reimers suggests engaging children in project based learning, learning through experience and interacting with students from different cultural backgrounds.  

As one of the new teachers in the  BB&N community I am looking forward to learning more about BB&N's current opportunities to achieve global competency, participating in professional development and being a part of a community dedicated to working towards global education. 

Lesley