“Working on streamlining our mission and vision was liberating work,” says Patricia Podorsek, Nido Director of Teaching and Learning. “Then, as we explored more opportunities for agility in our school and school systems, Inspire Citizens came into the conversation. No other organization is doing the kind of work they are doing to help schools navigate how to think and plan for the future in a way that merges global citizenship with futures thinking.”
Read MoreEmmett Kelly is in a unique position to understand the depth of learning and reflection that is developing in part one of this year’s Inspire Citizens’ Global Citizenship Certificate (GCC). He collaborates with Frankfurt International School (FIS) as a writer and media specialist, and is taking the GCC this year with the intention of observing and writing about what is happening. His bird’s-eye view of the course is yielding rich insights.
Read MoreA grade 6 student at Frankfurt International School takes action to “twin” toilets at her school with a community in Malawi. She is passionate about helping girls and women gain access to safe & secure sanitation facilities.
Read MoreThis year the Inspire Citizens team has been excited to begin new partnerships and relationships with educators in the AISA (Association of International Schools in Africa) region. Aaron Moniz traveled to Johannesburg in October to take part in AISA’s educators’ conference, the first time educators have been able to meet face-to-face since the beginning of the Covid pandemic.
Read MoreDay H at Frankfurt International School in Germany is a special day. On this eighth day of a rotating 8-day schedule, teachers and students are invited to design learning experiences that extend into the realms of inquiry, reflection and experiential learning.
Read MoreThis fall, an Inspire Citizens (IC) partner school, Dulwich College Seoul, decided to invest in enhancing its CAS experience for grade 11 and 12 students. Scott Jamieson and Ivy Yan were excited to help the Dulwich team create a 2-day experience for all students to frame CAS for greater impact.
Read More“At NESA, we have an innovative mindset, and Inspire Citizens is one of our best thought partners and leaders in this area,” says NESA Executive Director Maddy Hewitt.
Read MoreInspire Citizens’ co-founder Steve Sostak takes on a coaching role with NESA youth keynote speaker Said El Kadi.
Read MoreLast year, Sarah Sisco enrolled in the Inspire Citizens’ Master Teacher Endorsement for global citizenship, now called the Global Citizenship Certificate (GCC). What she experienced has completely transformed her approach to planning her school’s strategic initiatives for school improvement.
Read MoreIf you could walk through the doors of the Primary School at the Inter-Community School Zurich (ICSZ), you would find yourself in an atmosphere of creativity, inquiry and innovation. This is a place where leaders and educators care deeply about students and cultivating a sense of wonder of the world.
Read MoreThe Inspire Citizens Global Citizenship Certificate program (previously named the Master Educator Endorsement) is a dynamic series of professional learning courses designed to equip and inspire K-12 educators to engage students in meaningful and impactful global citizenship learning.
Read MoreWhen Shari Wejsa, a high school teacher in northwest New Jersey, heard about the Inspire Citizens’ Eco-Photography summer course, she signed up right away. A history teacher with a creative bent and interest in interdisciplinarity, she was excited to channel some of her summer into learning about connecting with nature in ways she could share with her students.
Read MoreThe American Embassy School of New Delhi (AES) in India had a goal: they wanted to embed a meaningful service learning experience in every grade level of the school from pre-kindergarten to grade 12.
They knew they needed help to make this happen and leaders reached out to Inspire Citizens. What has transpired? An incredible partnership, a lot of enthusiastic teachers and quite a bit of professional learning magic.
Read MoreCOJOWA school in Colombia has developed a thorough and purposeful strategic plan with service learning at the heart of transforming values into action.
Read MoreInspire Citizens has teamed up with the Digital Citizenship Institute (DCI) to promote and share what’s going on with this summer’s Eco Photography camps for teachers and families. Marialice Curran, DCI founder and executive director, says the course is perfectly aligned with DCI’s pillars for digital citizenship.
“I love that the Inspire Citizens Eco-media courses specifically speak to the pillars of what we do at DCI, and also about being balanced and knowing how to prioritize your time on and offline,” says Marialice.
Read MoreThis past year, middle school teacher Julia Fliss 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”. Read more about how her students in Colorado are engaging with global citizenship from both inner and outer perspectives.
Read MoreGrade 5 students at the Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) have a special opportunity to get creative with their International Baccalaureate PYP exhibition. Art has taken center stage and has become a frame for expressing a synthesis of student learning.
Intrigued? This novel approach to the PYP exhibition is worthy of your attention.
Read MoreColleagues Angelia Crouch and Pim Arora at the Western Academy of Beijing were playing golf one day when a casual conversation sparked the genesis of a multi-layered, interdisciplinary learning experience.
“This story starts with the grade 9/10 design team,” explains Pim. “The design team is close-knit and we were evaluating our units. There’s a design unit that focuses on clocks, where students design and create clocks. At the end of that unit, I found myself disposing of 100 clocks that students didn’t want to take home. This became a great opportunity to to rethink the unit, the more responsible use of our resources, and how me might design a learning experience around a concept that is relevant to the lives of all of us.”
Read MoreKerry Craig is the Outdoor Learning teacher at the International School of Prague (ISP) and she is thrilled to see how this new program is growing roots and gaining momentum.
“We’re looking at the Sustainable Development Goals throughout the school and we’re about to start the PYP (Primary Years Program) and MYP (Middle Years Program),” says Kerry. “It’s new at our school to use a sustainability lens at these levels and we want to do this intentionally, to create embedded and integrated learning experiences throughout the program. I can see how our Outdoor Learning program is going to play a key role.”
Read MoreThis July, Inspire Citizens is offering an Eco Photography camp for teachers, a month of fun and meaningful professional learning that will get you outside, viewing the world through a creative lens, and that will also equip you with skills to introduce your students to Eco Photography.
Ivy Yan, an Inspire Citizens and Two Birds facilitator, and Steve Sostak (co-founder of Inspire Citizens) have teamed up to create a dynamic and engaging experience for educators.
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