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World-class education entails that students are independent individuals who have developed and are able to apply 21st century skills in their learning as well as daily lives. In order to create and foster an environment in which students can develop 21st century skills, I promote world-class education by incorporating technology, the internet and digital technologies/resources into teacher instruction. In addition, I aim to design learning tasks that provide students opportunities to develop, apply and practice 21st century skills such as through collaborative digital projects.

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As a substitute teacher for my district, I feel like I haven't gotten the opportunity to fully provide my students with a "world-class" education in my own classroom. However, I know for a fact that my district does strive to provide these opportunities once the students reach the high school level. The High School in my district offers students the opportunity to develop college-level skills through the IB Diploma program ( INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE PROGRAM) since 2002. Students can pursue either the full IB Diploma or enroll in one or more IB courses where they are encouraged to drive their own learning and to become more culturally aware through second language acquisition. Extended essay topics in all six IB subject areas reflect the diversity of the student body’s interests, as do students’ expansive CAS experiences and projects. Students enrolled in IB courses develop strong research, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Program offerings include the Academy of Finance, the Academy of Information Technology, Project Lead the Way, 22 Advanced Placement courses, and 29 college-level courses available to students in all subject areas.

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The way my classroom thinks globally is very limited. Being an earth science regents class, it is hard to fit in different or not regents focused material. I do use a lot of technology in the classroom, and often have students working together in their lab groups. I encourage students to collaborate and learn from each other when completing their labs. I use technology a great deal in the classroom to demonstrate certain phenomenon's occurring around the world.

To help my future students become more globally aware, I could create more involved labs in which students are given a problem in which they have to solve using their knowledge of earth science. This could be a problem that is experienced around the world. Students could research earthquakes. They would research how we can predict earthquakes, how to protect people during an earthquake, how to deal with the aftermath of various magnitude earthquakes, and how to create buildings to be more earthquake proof. Students would be encouraged to research and post their findings online on a blog in hopes that other students from around the world would be able to express their opinions and perspectives.

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To begin, I do not like the term world-class education because it is easy to associate it with an economic or social class which makes it seem divisive. Something along the lines of globally aware or globally skilled would fit better. This form of education reaches beyond the experiences that current teachers had in their youth. The US education system is loosely held together under federal laws, but varies greatly by state and region. We currently fail to even open the borders of our cities or states, let alone the world.
Yet outside of the classroom students are connecting with others globally anyway. Entertainment media and gaming is exposing kids to different cultures. Immigration continues to rise in the US, forcing teachers to adapt and be culturally relevant. So why not take it a step further?
One of my favorite tools is the 21st century learning skills infographic. We as teachers have to adapt curriculum and instruction to build these skills in our students. How do we get students to collaborate? Set discussion standards, assign tasks, use rubrics and checklists for students to self-assess. Communication requires that we teach students formal vs. informal language, and the rules of etiquette that vary from culture to culture. Students need to be problem solvers with inherit empathy. That empathy comes from connecting to other people worldwide and finding the shared human experience. I am eager to examine how social media can be used to achieve these ends and not just a device for schools to communicate notifications to parents.

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In my classroom I promote world-class education. My class is a STEM classes with a strong focus on Energy & Sustainability. With this subject it’s easy to talk about the new physical technology that is available for different systems around the world. When it comes to world-class education it’s more than just the technology advancements though. World class education discusses things like a more diversified population, solving social issues, easier transportation to various countries, and communicating in different languages. These topics are all extremely important in student’s knowledge and social-emotional skills. I incorporate these topics within my projects.

I teach in NYC, one of the most diverse places. To prepare students, school and districts to be globally connected and culturally relevant I aim towards creating an inclusive community. Since each person is different just getting to know each other and cultures we associate with is a way to prepare the community to be globally connected and culturally relevant. Things like social school events and school projects can help foster the community.

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Promoting a world-class education requires the use of technology, collaboration, and other 21st-century skills as a foundation for learning. Educators who use these foundational skills as the framework for lessons prepare their students for the future. Technology will be even more prevalent than it is today and our children will need to be fluent in order to succeed.  Whether a student goes to college, a trade school, the workforce, or becomes a homemaker, they will be using technology more than we do today. As teachers, we must be constantly and consistently, integrating these skills into our curriculum on a daily basis. When creating lessons, I use technology, collaboration, and 21st-century skills. I use group chats with other teachers to share ideas and discuss issues. I use the internet for research, ideas, and visuals. I use a smartboard and a cloud-based classroom to present information and assignments. Using these skills makes integrating them relevant and creates a more consistent learning environment. By using these skills, teachers learn how to integrate technology and 21st-century skills more easily and effectively. We as teachers can promote a world-class education for our students by using technology and 21st-century skills to educate ourselves.

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One of the nice things about being a history teacher is that I have the ability to look at culturally relevant material that connects the class. Racial equity in the classroom is a great start. One of the things a partner program our school utilizes is to promote black authors. The authors are different dependent upon the demographics of he school. The majority of student’s families emigrated from Jamaica. The goal is have a more equitable learning program that the students can relate to. I feel that NYC DOE approach to education is a great start for students to have cultural relevancy within their learning. Within my classroom I am looking to connect with other culturally diverse middle schools via the use of technology. Specifically by using Google groups my students, staff and school will be able have an enriched learning experience with other various groups they would not normally interact with in their lives.

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The way my classroom during the day Thinks Globally is pretty nil. The only way we talk about something outside of our country is during current events and the Time for Kids magazines. My students are low functioning and getting in what I can is something of a miracle during the school day.

For my own classroom at night at Dutchess Community College, I use a lot more computer based instruction and videos. I take a lot of tv shows and build lessons around them. Even one with Doctor Who which is British tv so they can see what other cultures use in their media. There are also projects that have students researching on the internet for different topics and how technology is being used and how it is changing around the world.

Going forward, In both schools I teach in need to have a complete overhaul of their technology plans and more forward thinking plans going forward. I have seen a lot of random upkeep to retain working what is already working. I would love to be able to have a pen pal program with another country for my classroom, but they will propbably not have a class by the time we even get skype on our school computers.

Let me know your thoughts,

Chuck

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Working as a team with families is the way to create a global world community in our classroom. In my classroom I make it a point to host a Multicultural Feast. During the Multicultural Feast each family brings in a food item as well as a recipe to share with the class. Creating a community that is open to sharing their culture and  learning about others cultures helps create world-class classrooms

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I believe we promote a world class education by giving ample opportunity for students to explore. Students in our classroom have the entire world at their fingertips, a click away to be virtually anywhere and explore anything.  As the world continues to change daily, technology advances too. We are in a time where it is essential for us to teach students how to use their technology, in the same way we would teach them to pick out a “just right book”. We don’t just teach students to read the text but how to question, develop thinking and participate collaborative discussion. This is how we should be guiding them through technology as well. To further build their collaboration and sharing of ideas. The technology is what’s going to enhance their success as learners not just presently but later throughout their lives as well.  There are various free resources for students to practice and immerse themselves into 21st century digital learning as well. In my previous school, students were practicing researching, reading and responding to text online. Students were also able to share with their peers. I’m not to sure yet how my new school has students interacting with technology just yet, but I am eager to see them use their resources to grow and develop as learners.

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I believe that there are many ways for teachers to promote world-class education in our classroom. This can be done through direct communication between classmates, through the curriculum, or through a myriad of technological tools that connect far flung parts of the world to each other in seconds. While the first two components are important in establishing the interpersonal skills and dispositions needed to be open to engaging and collaborating with those in other nations and cultures, familiarity with the digital technologies that will facilitate this communication, and possibly even more importantly the confidence to adapt to innovations as they are created, will be the key to being successful.
In order to prepare our students for the world in which they will live and work, we as teachers must find ways to engage the students using similar technologies and procedures that they will later in life. In much the same way that it is the parents who slowly introduce their young children to the world immediately around them, it is the teacher's job to introduce older students to more and more of the world, both locally and internationally. In the past, schools would arrange for great speakers to visit the school to speak. These would often be of significant expense to the school and limit how often such a speaker could attend. Now, digital technologies allow virtual classroom visits from anywhere in the world, and have made it far more affordable for schools to connect students with thinkers, leaders, or their foreign peers. With nothing more than a video camera and an internet connection, students can have direct contact with those beyond their local community.
Online discussion boards are also a fantastic opportunity to introduce students to a global communication through which they can expand their understanding. I have had the pleasure of working with one of these discussion boards in regards to my work with my school's robotics team. This team participates in a global competition, and a popular online discussion board has been created specifically for participants in the competition to asks questions, gain insight, and simply communicate with other students engaged in the same interests.

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As the world continues to grow and change, it becomes more and more important for our students to gain the skills and attitudes necessary for them to truly embody the meaning of a "lifelong learner." Because the population, technology, and global/social issues of the world will continue to become increasingly diverse, our students will need to continuously learn and develop new and changing skills.
One important implication for my own classroom is the need for students to learn to become less reliant on paper. As Ferriter puts it, students will need to be "fluent in creating and consuming hypertext" and able to collaborate with people across the globe. In an effort to begin to develop these skills with 9th graders, I am using Google Classroom for routines like class notes, digital discussions, and responses, quizzes, and assessments.

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Technology is the key to creating world class learning in the classroom. As the teachers surveyed mentioned in the article, "world class, globally competitive graduates will need to have strong communication skills and be able to collaborate in a multi-cultural environment". As we are preparing our students to be positive citizens in a 21st century world, it is our job to provide experiences to our students that go beyond the classroom.
To promote world-class education, I feel that a necessary stepping stone would be to create a digital community among the students in the class.  This gets them used to interacting, responding, and collaborating with their peers in a digital environment.  From there, students can expand their learning community beyond their immediate peers to reach students from other areas. In addition to the practice, it is important to remind students of the changes and trends in business and education, shifting away from paper and pen, and moving towards fully online.

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I like the ideas presented in the article. This has always been of interest to me. I wonder how we open schools that follow this model. As I work in the Doe many schools including my own were built 90-100 years ago to serve a different economic and employment reality. My Campus was a textile school built in 1929. The school like many others followed the factory model. I question the actual desire and pressure to alter schools. If this is a clarion call that students need these skills why is there not a seismic shift in how we program and teach kids.
I wholly support many of these initiatives but worry that efforts are piecemeal and my disadvantage certain groups that do not receive an updated model of education.

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In this global ever changing world, it is important to bring those ideas into the classroom. My 7th grade students are digital students, equipped with chrome books, but it is not very often in which my students are exposed globally to different cultures, religions and races. Through the use of Skype we were able to video chat with students in Thailand. This was a great way to connect my students not only to a different country, but religion and nationality as well. After the initial Skype conversation, my students then were able to email with our "virtual pen pals" and it became a monthly activity that my students began to look forward to. It is amazing to me how technology has the ability to connect students globally in an educational setting that will have lasting effects on my students. When you are able to make connections to students lives, that is how true learning takes place.

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To promote world-class education in our classrooms, I feel teachers are slowly bringing this into their classrooms. Teachers are now doing Google hangouts where they can do video calls to communicate with different schools across the world. This allows the students to see what other schools are like across the United States and globally. Not only do the teachers use google hangouts, but they also collaborate with other teachers to be pen pals with them and they will use technology by using and sharing google docs with the teacher and the kids will write back. In the readings there was a question-what will our world look like in 2020? I feel there will be no more textbooks and students will be using more technology which schools are starting now. Teachers will flip their classroom by having the kids answer their own questions. I also believe that diverse learning does play a big part in our kids’ education. It is important to learn about different currents in not only our textbooks but also in social media. By doing Google hangouts, learning about different trends, and having students communicate among their peers, will bring world-class education into our classrooms.

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This question brings so many wonderful things to mind. But, the greatest part of this is that we start this process in our very own classrooms. Take my room for example, I have the privilege of teaching in an area that has a wealth of diversity. My classroom has students from around the world from different countries and cultures. One of the biggest things that we must do to be globally connected is to celebrate our diversity! As a nation, we are the sum of our vastly different parts! As a classroom we are the sum of the 25 (ish) parts and one teacher, we should celebrate the amazing things that we all bring to the table. This is done through effective lesson planning that allows students to express their culture while you are still meeting your curriculum goals.  Classrooms, school, and districts should have events that celebrate our various cultures.  The reasons that I think that we should do this is that if we cannot recognize the amazing power of our own diversity in our classrooms/districts, then we will never be able to embrace other cultures in a fundamentally strong manner.

Teachers can invite guest speakers from out of the country via web cams to your classroom.  Offer texts and reading passages that center on non-European culture.  Take students on virtual field trips via Google Virtual Trips to connect the cultures in your room with the outside world. Exchange twitter accounts with a school from another nation or blog together to have your shared classroom experience. If you are super connected, then you can even share your entire lesson via webcam like I was able to do with a class in England 2 years ago.. it was amazing! Technology is a bridge that unites people, but if you are not ready to "embrace" the other traveler, then the bridge.. no matter how nice.. is pointless.

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Students in our classrooms are competing on a global scale. There are numerous things that influence their lives that were created or developed in part by cultures outside of their own. As middle schoolers they do not always seem to have a grasp on just how global our lives are. In my classroom, students learn about digital citizenship and how to promote good digital citizenship by posting their project to the internet. They see that it is not only their peers that they influence and that influence them, but it is also others around the world that come across their works. My school has also begun Google Expeditions training and teachers are already utilizing the capabilities to bring students literally into the room of someone on the other side of the globe. We continue to strive for a paperless culture to promote the idea of global conservation of resources and interactions with others through digital forms of communication.

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To prepare students to think globally, we have to provide them with a world-class education that teaches them how to be problem solvers.  All too often, we want them to repeat information that we give them using technology but technology can be used for so much more.  Our current students are the problem solvers of tomorrow.  They will need to imagine ways to increase food production for expanding populations in urban areas.  I know that I am focusing on asking students questions that they may not be able to answer concretely, they may require thought and research and discussion.  Students need to understand that the lives of others around the world are important and that we can learn so much just by listening to others.  It is so much easier to communicate around the world with the use of technology and we need to teach our students to do that properly.

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Parents and educators feel it is necessary to prepare children for the ever changing world.  One way they make this possible is by providing opportunities for their children to work collaboratively with their peers both in and out of the classroom.  Technology makes it possible for students to work on projects that can address real issues in their communities and overall environment with others around world.  Educators are encouraging their students to participate in rich conversations about the various issues that are impacting the world.  With support from their educators, community members and parents students are beginning to acknowledge different perspectives in order to work towards a common goal.

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To prepare my students to be globally connected and culturally relevant, the first step I take is that I must be understanding of what it means to be connected and culturally relevant. In today’s society, people are connected more and more each day. Telephones, computers, and the internet have created a world that depends on technology. It’s through these methods that we are able to connect our students to become globally connected and culturally relevant. Using research to drive our goals, it is important to think about the long term effects. We must expose our students to different cultures by exploration. Technology is a great way to achieve such “field trips”. You can start simply by using Facetime/Skype to connect to a teacher in your school to show students how close we really are to each other through technology.

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As I read the reading I found a quote that really conveys how I feel toward this idea. "...it is essential to provide our students with opportunities to become networked, collaborative and globally active learners." This speaks volumes as to where the education system is going and what we need to provide our students to keep it going in the right direction. This exact exercise was a used in my district to show where my district thought education should be going. The results were very similar to the results given in the reading.
On a separate note, I think the vision that is being discussed is nothing without the proper administration to put everything into play.

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I promote world class education in my room through teaching with a global mindset.  I actively remind students that we are functioning in a global society.  In our laws, our economy, and even our media we function on a global scale.  I regularly discuss how we need to be working together as a global society to focus on topics like environmental preservation and global energy needs.  On the other hand I also remind them that they are competing on a global level now.  Our students will be competing in everything from college admissions to potential job offerings.  This is even made contextually relevant through the cultural diversity of our school population.

Our school and the entire district are quite diverse with students from all over the world.  Our students recognize this diversity but through the Project Based Learning environment I create students are constantly working with an engaging on another throughout the learning experience.  They learn that everyone has something to offer and that our differences shouldn’t be a point of contention but of celebration.   Another way can encourage a globally connected mentality is through how we teach.  We can work to incorporate different cultures and nationalities into our curriculum, it takes nothing more than a conscious effort.  One small example I do is a Technology Passport where students research and share with the class different technological imports and exports of different nation, all the while highlighting different cultural aspects of that given region.

I believe the most important part in fostering this global mindset is to talk about this topic with our students.  When you make a topic interesting and relevant, students listen.  My hope is that through making the next generation knowledgeable of this point we can have a generation that is more committed to living and functioning as a harmonious global society.

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I believe that we are promoting world class education to a certain extent. The idea that we are in general moving away from a textbook and single minded approach of teaching is the first step. In my subject area of social studies, we now teach history through questioning. We use inquiries to lead instruction and rely on primary sources to uncover the past. This method is not easy but is certainly facilitated through the use of technology. The skills that are being taught here consist of learning how to conduct good research, how to analyze, categorize, interpret, and express one’s opinion are used to name a few. In doing so we are teaching valuable skills that will be needed to be ready to participate and contribute to the global community.

Another area of training for the future world is creating globally aware students with good digital citizenship. When students learn something at an early age, they usually take such ideas with them through life. If we focus a little more on teaching proper digital citizenship, perhaps they will be more successful at communicating with others on a global scale in their future endeavors.