Welcome to Global Conversations! This site exists as a resource for teachers and students who are interested in international communication, diverse perspectives, investigating the world, and working every day on ways to improve our planet. We are a small accredited, alternative high school located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Individuals posting from my classes are 11th and 12th Grade Language Arts students. High school students from all over the world are welcome to post on our blog.
I teach minority students facing serious socio-economic issues. It’s been my experience when I teach Common Core curriculum with a one-fits all approach; I get a lot of deer-in-headlights looks and not much enthusiasm for what we’re doing. When I seek to learn about my students various cultures and diverse perspectives, and try to honor different backgrounds including students’ ethnicities, or their love of diverse music, ideas, technologies, styles, and values, students become engaged.
But I have a further responsibility towards my students besides honoring the cultures that are represented in my classroom and school. I must teach them to respect diversity and cultural difference in the world, and that respect is not an inactive role. Students are obliged to learn about cultural differences outside the classroom, outside the United States, and in the world, right now. I must encourage them to develop their communication skills with real people, diverse perspectives, and in different countries, today. I must foster in them an attitude of hope and empowerment, that each of us has a responsibility to work on solving the personal, local, and global problems that we face today.
I teach minority students facing serious socio-economic issues. It’s been my experience when I teach Common Core curriculum with a one-fits all approach; I get a lot of deer-in-headlights looks and not much enthusiasm for what we’re doing. When I seek to learn about my students various cultures and diverse perspectives, and try to honor different backgrounds including students’ ethnicities, or their love of diverse music, ideas, technologies, styles, and values, students become engaged.
But I have a further responsibility towards my students besides honoring the cultures that are represented in my classroom and school. I must teach them to respect diversity and cultural difference in the world, and that respect is not an inactive role. Students are obliged to learn about cultural differences outside the classroom, outside the United States, and in the world, right now. I must encourage them to develop their communication skills with real people, diverse perspectives, and in different countries, today. I must foster in them an attitude of hope and empowerment, that each of us has a responsibility to work on solving the personal, local, and global problems that we face today.
This blog is not an official U.S. Department of State blog. The views and information presented are the grantee’s own and do not represent the Teachers for Global Classrooms Program, IREX, or the U.S. Department of State.