Foundational Work: Redesigning a School’s Global Citizenship Journey

“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.”

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A macro view of the Inspire Citizens’ Global Citizenship Certificate

Emmett 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.

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Partnerships with AISA educators: Inspire Citizens & new connections

This 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.

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A PYP Empathy to Impact Model

If 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.

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A New Perception of the World through Eco-Photography

When 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.

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Teaching and Learning: Service in Action

The 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.

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Inspire Citizens and the Digital Citizenship Institute: a Partnership for Impact

Inspire 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.

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Exploring inner & outer journeys to sustainability

This 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.

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Art for Impact: Rethinking the PYP Exhibition

Grade 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.

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Cross-curricular Collaboration for Deep Learning

Colleagues 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.”

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