Are you ready to make the world your classroom and teach your students to think globally?
The NEA Foundation’s Global Learning Fellowship aims to help teachers incorporate a global perspective into their classrooms.
As a fellow, you will engage in globally-focused professional development with other educators throughout the United States using VIF International Education’s Participate Learning online platform. (Good news! You can receive a certificate for those professional development hours. They can even potentially fulfill certain school/district requirements.)
You will also get to know your cohort through webinars and at an in-person workshop held in the fall of 2017 in Washington, D.C., where you will share ideas and learn more about global competency in the classroom and beyond. Then, in the summer of 2018, you’ll hop on a plane for a nine-day field study in another country!
Want to know what previous fellows have said about the experience? Click the Read Their Stories tab.
Photo: The 2016 Global Learning Fellows in Peru
After the fellowship ends, your global learning journey will continue. Many previous fellows go on to lead Skype sessions, chatting with classrooms and colleagues around the world. Others weave global art, sustainability, yoga, equality, and much more into their daily lessons. And many continue traveling and experiencing new cultures. Last summer, four alumni of the fellowship attended an education summit in India.
If you’re an active NEA classroom teacher, you can apply! The application is open now through February 28, 2017. It is easy to complete, and you don’t have to complete it all at once – you can easily save your progress and come back to it later. Plus, letters of recommendation are not required! More questions? Check out these frequently asked questions.
The application requests basic information about you and your teaching experience, as well as brief responses to open-ended topics, including:
- How you would share your experience as a Global Learning Fellow with students and peers
- Your passion for teaching
- Your motivation for applying
- Your desire to cultivate global competence
- How you incorporate diversity and global thinking into your classroom
We welcome applicants who already have global experience, as well as those who’ve never left the country. The top criterion for this program is caring about the world and wanting to share that passion with your students.
Below are just a few of the innovative global competency-based lesson plans that previous fellows designed during the program. Check them out!
- The Power of Homelands, Karen Toavs of North Dakota, 2013 Fellow
- Made in China, Julie Warr of Georgia, 2014 Fellow
- Distribution of the World’s Freshwater Resources, Richard Erickson of Wiscosin, 2015 Fellow
- Culture and Theme, Kathey Rubyal of Colorado, 2015 Fellow
- Where Are We From?, Mohsen Ghaffari of Utah, 2016 Fellow
We’re very excited to welcome you to the 2018 NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellowship family!
Looking for education grants to connect your classroom with the global community? Visit the NEA Foundation website for information on how to apply for NEA grant resources.
