This is late. Really late. (Some of you have gently reminded me that I haven't written since Thanksgiving... oops.) But I realized if I just keep thinking of the unrecorded memories, unpublicized photos, and unwritten thoughts, I would never blog about anything again. I thought I had to catch up before I moved forward, but I'm realizing that isn't the way to go about it. Instead I have to deal with the fact that there are a few mystery months in my blog and go forward, catching you up along the way.
So here we go...
When I first applied for Fulbright I wrote, "I believe education should foster a sense of confidence in individuals so that they are willing and eager to contribute to the world around them." I never realized how precisely this statement would sum up my experiences with a Fulbright grant and more specifically, my experiences with Global Classrooms.
If you don't know what Global Classrooms is, you probably haven't talked to me about my job in the past year. For those of you who have heard about (perhaps from last year's blog?) or experienced GC, you probably also know that it has dominated most of my work over the past few months. As the Fulbright ETA mentor, the preliminary GC conferences became my responsibility. I trained the Fulbrighters, worked with Lauren to design an evaluation rubric, met with representatives from the Comunidad de Madrid to decide on the logistics of the conference, and completed a variety of other tasks that come with organizing a city-wide conference involving 41 schools.
The job was not always enjoyable, but I willingly invested extra time in it because I believe that, when done correctly, the Global Classrooms program fulfills my idea of education. It encourages students to take ownership of a perspective that is not inherently their own and to enter into a productive discussion to better the world. Okay, okay... the discussion is only imaginatively productive in physical terms. However, emotionally and educationally, I believe these kids have been marked!
From the administrative standpoint, GC was a huge success. (After all, nobody tried to trade lions.) I was sick the week before the conference, which made it easier to convince myself to stay in the apartment, answering e-mails and reminding people of their responsibilities. It apparently also prompted e-mails from other Fulbrights like this...
Credit: Sean Planchard
I didn't realize that there was a fear of ending up in "Amber's Dog House", but if the fear served as a motivation factor for organization, I'm not complaining!
On the day of the first conference, there was a bit of uncertainty among
the Fulbrighters because we hadn't had a group meeting since November. However, many people stepped up to the plate, bringing an appropriate mix of excitement, professionalism, and fun to the experience. The second conference went even smoother, since everyone involved in running the conference was more confident.
Dais in one of the rooms
"Momma shark do do, do do do do..."
The "Shark song" was one of the biggest hits of the conference. If you aren't sure what it is, check out this video. The one that was conference-wide famous was a slightly different version, but you can get the idea of the way Fulbrights broke the ice with the students. My favorite part of the conference was probably when a delegation used a "point of personal privilege" (traditionally used for addressing a personal issue... telling the Dais that one is too hot, can not hear, etc.) to ask for the "Shark song" to be repeated before officially closing the conference.
My fabulous co-Fulbrighter, Joe, and I
In the end, IES Ramiro de Maeztu (my school), did not make it on to the next conference, which will include the visit to La Asamblea de Madrid, a new topic, new countries, and a chance at the end to nominate a student for the international conference in NYC. This is a bit of a disappointment, mostly because I know that the school is capable of more. (Last year our student was one of the 10 representatives from Spain at the international conference.) However, last year I had 75 students to choose from and 5 months to prepare them, with classes twice a week. This year I had 20 students to choose from (75% of which were signed up to go on the ski trip the same week and 40% of which are not enrolled in the bilingual program) and only 3.5 months to prepare them, in one class a week. So the odds were never in our favor (Hunger Games, anyone?).
But that doesn't mean my students didn't impress me. Check them out...
Two of my students during Moderated Caucus
One of my students with a very large stack of notes from other delegations
But did the GC experience foster a sense of confidence in my individual students? Yes. One of the students who had seemed like a wild card in the initial selection ended up partner-less at the last minute and from that moment, took complete ownership of his work. When he delivered his opening speech during the last class before the conference, it was all I could do to keep my mouth from hanging open as I tried to explain to the student that I was utterly impressed with the work he had done. Another student who was petrified she would stutter the whole way through her speech came up to me mid-conference exclaiming, "I'm not nervous, Amber! I'm not nervous!" Later that day I had to talk to her because she had gotten a little sassy with the Dais in her room. Confidence, check.
And did the GC experience make my students more willing and eager to contribute to the world around them? I hope so, though only time will tell how far they will take what they've learned.
IES Ramiro de Maeztu
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