Connect with a Classroom Abroad

Connect your students to Latin America during Hispanic Heritage Month by participating in a Meet & Greet with teachers of all content areas from Central and South America. Each Meet & Greet is designed to bring teachers of all grade levels together to consider a joint project for their classes. Register below to join one or both of these events at 6:00 pm Eastern time / 3:00 pm Pacific time. Select a date below to register!

English Meeting

This Meet & Greet, with breakout groups and interaction with other teachers, will occur
in English.

Meet and Greet Spanish

Este encuentro se realizará completamente en español, con salas de reunión e interacción entre los docentes.

 

 

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Gabriel Boric
Hispanic Heritage Month

In this edition, we’re highlighting Gabriel Boric, Chile’s youngest ever president elected in December 2021. Boric became a leader of education protests across the country in 2011 in which thousands of students demanded free, high-quality education for all. He also studied abroad with AFS in 2001 (to France).

Need even more inspiration to help celebrate? Read about these 8 inspiring Hispanic individuals who advocated for peace, civil rights, and multiculturism. Our list includes artists, activists, and diplomats who have worked to develop cultural understanding, equality, and justice. We hope this helps you plan ahead for your lessons and discussions for Hispanic Heritage Month.

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Classroom Activity

Do you have any students that are NEW to your classroom or school this year? If so, we hope you’ll consider establishing a baseline of rituals, traditions, and routines through this interactive activity. This activity will help your students work together in small groups and prompt discussion about previous learning experiences while you help them learn what your classroom setting will look like this semester/year. You can treat the unique experiences of your students as assets in your learning environment once you know what they are.

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Resources to Start the School Year

The start to the school year brings with it new challenges and the need to learn how your students prefer to engage in class. This year, we’d like to encourage you to take advantage of our Cultural Considerations in the Classroom handouts. Each one addresses a cultural dimension that impacts how students interact in a classroom setting and is coupled with a classroom activity and various resources to help your students learn more about themselves and each other!

Classroom Participation
Reaching out for Help
Attendance & Homework
Information Sharing
Group Work Dynamics
Student Socialization
Making Friends

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Supporting International Students

If you missed our webinars about welcoming international students to your school, we want you to know that you can still access the information. We have an interactive online experience tailored to teachers, counselors, and school administrators. This 20-minute tool can help answer your questions about navigating enrollment and learning about best practices for the start of the school year.

 

He is pictured between Britta Bjornlund from the U.S. Department of State (left) and Tara Hofmann, AFS-USA President and CEO (right).
2023 Global Educator and Global School Awards: Accepting Nominations!

Are you or your school promoting global citizenship? AFS-USA is seeking nominations for the 2023 AFS-USA Global Educator and Global School Awards. You can nominate yourself, a colleague, or your school! To learn more about both awards and to see if you and/or your school qualify, please visit our global awards webpage. Nominations will be accepted through December 11, 2022. Completed applications are due on December 18, 2022!

Pictured above from left to right: Britta Bjornlund (U.S. Department of State), Josh Amstutz (2022 AFS-USA Global Educator of the Year), and Tara Hofmann (AFS-USA President and CEO).

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Global Competence eBook

AFS Intercultural Programs and the European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL) together with the University of Hull and four other universities are proud to launch an eBook with resources for teaching and learning about global competence. The eBook, entitled Global Competence in Teacher Education, is aimed at helping teacher educators, pre-service teachers, and non-formal educators become more globally competent and foster this in those they teach. In our own way, we all have an important role in fostering global competence in our teaching. Do you define global competence the same way that these educators do?

Download the eBook

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How Will AFSers Make a Difference in YOUR School?

If you don’t have an AFS exchange student in your school this year, there’s still time to encourage your community to host a student so these awesome students (search your zip code) can be part of your classroom. Listen to this episode of The AFS Exchange Podcast to hear what some AFSers accomplished in their U.S. school last year. We hope their story will inspire you to invite an AFSer to be part of your school this fall.

 

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Opportunities for Your Students

Are your students looking for a global experience this fall to complement their in-school experience? The AFS Global YOU Changemaker program is a 12-week virtual experience designed for teens around the globe, ages 15-17. Participants will experience new cultures and become a Global Citizen without leaving the house, all while working with AFS and the University of Pennsylvania to collaborate with their peers on a social impact project! Share this link and this video with students and parents so they can determine if this is a good fit for them! A new cohort begins each month.

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Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX)

A program of the U.S. Department of State, the CBYX program provides scholarships for eligible American high school students and recent graduates to spend an academic year of study and cultural immersion in Germany! The CBYX program is accepting applications for the 2023-24 program through December 1, 2022. Encourage students to start their application HERE.

 

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Kennedy Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Abroad

A program of the U.S. Department of State, the YES Abroad program provides scholarships for eligible American high school students and recent graduates to live with host families and attend a local high school for an academic year in countries like Egypt, Ghana, India, Senegal, Thailand, Turkey and more. We expect the 2023-24 program application to open in September 2022 –sign up to be notified when the application opens!

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National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y)

A program of the U.S. Department of State, the NSLI-Y program provides scholarships for eligible American high school students and recent graduates to learn one of eight critical languages: Persian, Indonesian, Hindi, Turkish, Chinese (Mandarin), Russian, Korean, and Arabic! We expect the 2023-24 program application to open in September 2022 –sign up to be notified when the application opens!

Everyone at AFS-USA is excited to welcome you back to what is hopefully a year filled with promise and inspiration. This edition of the Global Educator has a curated bundle of resources to support a strong and globally focused start to the school year. From learning about Routines, Rituals, and Traditions, to discovering how others work in groups, and even providing you with a new eBook about teaching for global competence, we are here to support you and your students in becoming global citizens. Welcome back and have a great start to your school year. As always, please reach out if we can support your work!

Sincerely,

Jill Woerner
Director of Educational Outreach
AFS-USA, Inc.
E: [email protected]
P: (646) 381-3309

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