Come with me on an exciting adventure of personal and professional growth as I share my Fulbright TGC experience! As an educator with a passion for global education, the Fulbright Teacher for Global Classroom Fellowship was a dream come true. After being waitlisted on my first attempt, I was overjoyed to receive an email in August 2022 stating that I had been selected for the fellowship. Little did I know, this would be the start of an incredible journey filled with opportunity and growth.
The 10-week long intensive global education course was filled with valuable tools and resources related to global education, including webinars and assignments. Despite the workload, I was eager to learn as much as I could, especially from my cohort of educators across the U.S. with different subjects and grade levels. Through weekly webinars and discussion posts, we shared ideas and resources, which helped me broaden my perspectives and gain new insights.
But the real excitement began when we created our unit plans towards the end of the course. I decided to focus on water, with a global perspective and a local impact. And the results were truly amazing! I applied for and was awarded a small classroom grant of $5,000 to buy test kits and other related expenses to test our local water system with students. And that was just the beginning! I went on to propose an international expedition to teach students about water systems in a global context. To my delight, the proposal was accepted, and we received $25,000 to extend our learning beyond our community. As I write this post, I am thrilled to be taking 6 students and one of my colleagues to Costa Rica next month to study marine mammals and predators.
But that’s not all! After the course, we were invited to attend a global education symposium in Washington D.C., where we had the opportunity to meet people from IREX and Fulbright, government officials, and our fellow cohort members. We were even able to bring our administrators, which was a fantastic opportunity. I learned so much about the program and met people who I will be traveling with to Uruguay this summer from June 4th to 18th.
My Fulbright TGC experience has been nothing short of amazing so far, and we haven’t even gone on our international field experience yet. I can’t wait to see what lies ahead. Fulbright Teacher for Global Classroom has given me the tools and resources to develop a global education perspective, and I am excited to continue sharing this with my students and community. From the intensive global education course to the international expedition, I have grown both personally and professionally. I am grateful for this incredible opportunity and can’t wait to see where it takes me next. So join me on this journey of personal and professional growth, and let’s discover the world of global education together!
Expeditionary Learning 