VIF International Education, the leading provider of global education programs for K-12 schools, proudly announced Tuesday that Speas Global Elementary School in Winston-Salem, N.C. has been named the 2014 VIF Global School Award winner. In addition to being honored as a top international school in the region, Speas was awarded funds for global education materials to benefit the school.
The VIF Global School Award recognizes schools that demonstrate outstanding commitments to inspire students, teachers and communities toward understanding the world’s languages, its cultures and the diverse perspectives of all people. Specifically, the award acknowledges schools that promote curiosity through project-based inquiry and that integrate global themes throughout school environments and communities.
Speas recently transitioned to a global school by adding dual language immersion programs to its offerings, expanding its number of international teachers and by providing all teachers access to professional development and classroom resources in the VIF learning center to support the incorporation of global content into everyday class instruction. The leaders at Speas formalized their commitment to global education by making the school a member of theGlobal Schools Network.
According to Principal Robert Ash, “The incentive and mission of our school is to have students be aware of the world in which they live and to understand that there is more to their environment and more to their lives than North Carolina and Winston-Salem.”
In addition, all teachers at Speas are engaged in professional development that has ignited their own interests in global concepts. Ash explained, “As teachers began completing professional development, they became even more curious about global studies and wanted to learn more in order to transfer their new knowledge to students. Through discussions, teachers realized they have prior knowledge for integrating the curriculum with global education and much of it comes from their personal lives and experiences.”
Teacher and class blogs, thoughtfully selected reading sources focused on international themes and the integration of current world events in various subject areas are now standard characteristics of classrooms at Speas. The school also created an annual International Night celebration which attracted more than 500 visitors in February and featured classrooms representing carefully researched countries, authentic dishes from a variety of cultures and abundant community and local business support in the form of food, clothing, artifacts and performances.
“Speas Global Elementary is a model for how school leaders can commit to global education while also actively empowering teachers to develop creative approaches for weaving global perspectives into their classrooms,” said David Young, CEO of VIF. “Speas has been successful in making global education relevant to its teachers and so Speas students are developing cultural literacy under the guidance of motivated and dedicated teachers.”
