Becoming a Teacher Leader
My final graduate course was ECI 508-Teachers as Leaders. This course provided me with the opportunity to reflect, evaluate, and grow as a teacher leader. For my final leadership project, I focused on cultural exchange programs. During my graduate school experience, I had the opportunity to lead a cultural exchange trip. This trip turned out to be quite the experience! My eight middle school students, principal, and myself were to land in Tokyo a few minutes before the massive earthquake and tsunami struck in March 2011. Luckily, our flight was delayed leaving the United States and we were in mid-air when the earthquake struck. While we were safe throughout our stay in Hiroshima, the disaster greatly impacted our plans, and the nuclear issues that came in the following days caused worry amongst parents and myself. This exchange caused me to wear many different leadership hats at one. As a result of this experience, I became more interested in the values of cultural exchange programs, thus fueling the idea for my final leadership project.
As our world becomes smaller, students must learn a sense of global awareness at a young age. Students must become familiar with other cultures, languages, and religions to help prepare them for the future. One means of creating global awareness is having students participate in cultural exchange programs. Immersing yourself in a new culture is becoming an increasingly popular method of instilling global awareness in students. Study abroad programs were once typically reserved for college students, but this has changed over the past few years. My leadership project describes current cultural exchanges, explores the leadership needed for successful cultural exchanges, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of cultural exchanges.
Below is a video of one of my students describing her thoughts on experiencing a cultural exchange as an early adolescent:
As our world becomes smaller, students must learn a sense of global awareness at a young age. Students must become familiar with other cultures, languages, and religions to help prepare them for the future. One means of creating global awareness is having students participate in cultural exchange programs. Immersing yourself in a new culture is becoming an increasingly popular method of instilling global awareness in students. Study abroad programs were once typically reserved for college students, but this has changed over the past few years. My leadership project describes current cultural exchanges, explores the leadership needed for successful cultural exchanges, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of cultural exchanges.
Below is a video of one of my students describing her thoughts on experiencing a cultural exchange as an early adolescent: