Applying for the "Global Learning Fellowship"

1 *What motivated you to apply to the Global Learning Fellowship? 2*As an educator, how have you facilitated a classroom environment that allows students to engage in open, appropriate, and effective interactions with others from different backgrounds? (2000 character maximum for each answer, so I had to remove some details) My Response... As an early childhood educator who now teaches career high school students who are starting their career path in education, I feel that I need to be directly involved in activities that will instruct me on how I can teach tolerance of all and learn how to close the “global achievement gap.” Currently, I teach an urban class that includes 6 foreign born students, 2 are illegal immigrants and 3 are english language learners; somali and hispanic. I see first hand the challenges that they have and I really want to be able to support them through the process of completing High School and the transition to college and/or the workplace. They share stories of the lack of opportunities from where their from. I like to share stories of real life along with statistics regarding test like the ACT, but mostly I think “closing the global achievement gap” is accomplished by creating real world experiences for students, being a facilitator to them through the learning process and offering encouragement to them along the way. I have had students say, “Mrs. McGrath you do not let us give up, you keep asking us to do it.” I have learned that you have to be real with students and I explain to them that I am just that, a realist. You may not like it but I do not want you to be surprised so I do not sugar coat things, I explain that college is tough, but I know that they can do it and that I am here to help them complete the assignments that I teach that equals college credit.      My grandfather spoke adamantly about the horrible treatment of his parents as Irish immigrants. They came here with nothing and battled depression and issues of poverty. As the oldest child he joined the Army in World War II to make money and to get his family a better life. He talked a lot about President John F. Kennedy and what it meant to see an Irish Catholic elected. I grew up in a changing urban area. In 2nd grade I attended Catholic School and a new black family was moving in next door. I was confused by the adult talk, because a very nice black family lived across the street. I was excited because the girl was the same age as me. We still had a separateness about us, but we had mutual respect and we grew up together, often sharing stories and playing. Just being kids. High School started 7 years later, and I was unable to get out of being sent to the historic black high school in Columbus. In the 1990's Columbus Public Schools was part of a desegregation process, so some kids were bused to non neighborhood schools to create more equally diverse high schools. Many of my white friends found a way to get out of it, I didn't. My father mentioned paying for me to attend Catholic Schools, but I left in 4th grade because we couldn't afford it and I didn't feel like I fit it with other rich catholic kids, so I decided to get on the school bus and go across town. My High School was about 65% black, 30%white and 10% other. This taught me to find the goodness of others, sometimes we would see the bad sides of our indifference, however, we had more in common as we struggled to figure out how to become better than our parents and make money. I share my story with my Columbus students today, so they know that I really do know these streets because I survived them. I have seen friends and family members of mine go down a path that ends in the tragedies of addiction by being buried and/or incarcerated. I still check in, love them and offer them hope because we are Columbus. I feel that the NEA Global Learning Fellowship will help me to expand upon my teaching experiences and help me grow as a teacher who is passionate about social justice and opportunities for all students. I have gotten to travel a little and I always encourage my students to take advantage of opportunities to travel. For example, my class is connected to a Career Technical Student Organization, CTSO, that holds regional, state and national competition leadership conferences. Every year I advise students through this process and sometimes we get sponsored to attend the National Leadership Conference; this is held in a different city in the United States. My students and I have traveled to Orlando, Florida; Anaheim, California; Chicago, Illinois; Nashville, Tennessee and San Antonio, Texas. We get to see historical sites and attractions in each place, while attending leadership conferences and meeting other from all of the United States and Puerto Rico. I enjoy hearing stories of we are all more alike than different, but there's something about travel and meeting new people. I enjoy participating in the CAP Space Read Across the Planet event every year, since 2015. I have advised my high school students through the process of learning to read to young children by practicing and preparing props for a Dr. Seuss book. Then we have a web conference call and read the story to preschool class in South Carolina and West Virginia. The preschoolers teach us something too, like a song or about their art project. It is a great way to meet a teacher and students in a new city. I create a Google map to show the location of the children that we got to meet. I have to teach the importance of language and literacy so what better way than using the internet to connect to a new place. This is in addition to the preschool children my students work with locally while earning valuable internships. I start the school year off by giving multiple intelligence surveys. I like my students to know as much about themselves including new vocabulary to describe their strengths, like bodily-kinesthetic and interpersonal learning styles. Then I have them go around and interview each other to find out about others. Also, they complete career profile surveys. I discuss what the data means and how the information can help them in their career goals by writing back individual thoughts and explaining in class lecture. Howard Gardner is the theorist behind the multiple intelligences and I introduce his work with this lesson. I try to show how our differences help us to learn to work as team. In our class we work on a couple service learning projects in addition to our internship experiences with local preschool programs. I have students who sign up to be project managers as we tackle these task. Please see the lessons attached below.

Music in the classroom can be a powerful addition to any lesson, especially in the Early Childhood Education setting. This lesson is aligned to the Child Development Accreditation, CDA; Competency Goal  II; To Advance physical and intellectual competence  (Updated 8/27/12) Cultural and Linguistic Groups Identity (Bilingual appreciation) Assignment 1= Select 4 songs, finger-plays, word games, or poems that you can use to promote phonological awareness. Describe (means in 1 paragraph) strategies to promote phonological awareness among children whose home language is other than English. Clue; Refer to textbook definitions and lecture notes in regards to teaching phonological awareness.  For example, think about how you teach children to pronounce a word in English or the other language. ***Helpful Website; www.mamalisa.com/world Assignment 2= Create a song card collection of at least 10 songs for future use in your classroom; 4 songs have to have English words with translation of words in another language;. Spanish, Chinese and Somalia languages are often used by bilingual families in the central Ohio area.  Sign language explanation can be added to any song for your future use but does not meet bilingual or phonics requirement. Take notes below & make decorated song cards in preparation to Type your final essay response to this CDA goal. 1.       “Song Title”- country of origin. Why you chose this song and example of it’s use to teach phonics.

The last lesson I shared for the global learning fellowship was my work on project based service learning.