Exploring inner & outer journeys to sustainability
Students in Julia’s class engage with reading books connected to the Inner Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals.
When Colorado educator Julia Fliss first encountered Inspire Citizens co-founder Steve Sostak on Twitter, she was hooked.
“As soon as I saw the vision of the Empathy to Impact cycle and the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), I couldn’t get enough,” smiles Julia. “The SDGs have been life awakening, and Steve and I have collaborated on everything from idea jams to classroom lessons. Steve has guest taught a few sessions with my students, and his daughter Lucy has also done some work with us. In 2020 when schools shut down, I helped my students launch personal action campaigns, and Steve supported me with that work. He has helped expand my work in so many ways.”
Julia is a passionate champion of global citizenship and she teaches at Evergreen Middle School, which is located in the foothills of the mountains just outside Denver, Colorado. For over 20 years she has been a language arts, Spanish and social studies teacher, and she even served as a school librarian for a period of time. She has taught an international strand of learners and has engaged with service learning. Through all of these experiences and roles, Julia has focussed on equipping students to understand the world and know how to take action to create positive change. She has spearheaded initiatives at her school to do everything from eliminating foam trays in the cafeteria to creating a literacy and global citizenship mindsets partnership with a local elementary school.
An empathy map created by Julia’s students while learning about refugees.
This past year, Julia has expanded her focus to include the Inner Development Goals (IDGs), five categories of 23 skills and qualities of human inner development and growth. The IDGs were created as a response to the SDGs, as leaders from a variety of different sectors realized that how we think and feel impacts our ability to work towards targets for the SDGs. The IDGs encompass five broad categories of “being, thinking, relating, collaborating and acting”.
“In my language arts class this year, I want students to consider the question of ‘how can I respond to what’s happening around me or outside me so I can be a deeper thinker, a global citizen, a person who sees the world,” says Julia.
One of Julia’s units of study features A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, a short book that recounts the real story of Salva Dut. When Salva was a boy, he was one of approximately 3,800 “lost boys of Sudan”; he was separated from his family and endured great loss during the Sudanese civil war, ultimately leaving Sudan on foot and leading a group of about 150 boys to safety in Kenya.
“We use this story to explore connections to our own community, state and country, and then move on to what we care about and what we want to take action on,” explains Julia. “Students engage in informational writing and research, and every student is focussed on something unique. They take their learning and build websites that involve personal action plans, and we engage in action in our community.”
This convergence of global citizenship education and service learning leads to deep student engagement, reflection and learning.
Julia’s students also take part in SDG book clubs, selecting books and meeting on Fridays, and this year the books connected to the IDGs.
“Every Friday we dig into levels of the stories, and we create empathy maps to connect with characters,” says Julia. “One day we went outside and drew sidewalk murals of ourselves and created a map of the IDGs that most connect to our own stories. It was incredible. I really like how the IDGs are organized with the first level as “being” (being quiet, sitting with ideas, thinking about things), and then moving towards the last level of taking action. The students were prompted to explore why the IDGs are organized this way. There has been so much exciting thought and conversation about all of this.”
Julia is excited to continue partnering with Steve and Inspire Citizens, and is looking forward to planning a global studies course with a humanities lens.
To learn more about the IDGs, click HERE.
