Boston schools celebrate International Education Week

BOSTON - Schools across the city this week are joining schools around the world to honor International Education Week with a wide range of activities and programs designed to help students celebrate the benefits of worldwide exchange.

International education, however, is not just confined to one week in the Boston Public Schools as many schools have international studies as their theme and encourage students to be active participants in the world. Additionally, BPS families come from over 115 different countries bringing with them many wonderful resources. Several BPS schools are promoting international study and understanding through exciting ventures.

Students at Boston International High School in Jamaica Plain, a school designed for high school aged students new to the country, are organizing a trip to Honduras to assist with the building of a family's new home as part of the Habitat for Humanity Home Building Project. Headmaster Oscar Santos says the 15 students will learn valuable life skills while experiencing firsthand the power of leadership through service and commitment to others. Additionally, the lessons they learn in Honduras will be shared with their classmates upon their return, allowing students to become teachers as well. The school is not alone. Since September 2005, 186 BPS students from 12 schools have traveled to 12 countries through exchange, language and other learning programs.

Jessica Penchos, an 8th grade science teacher at the Timilty Middle School in Roxbury, traveled to Belarus this past summer through a grant from the Earthwatch Institute. She was part of a research team there that collected samples on bogs. The wetland areas are difficult to explore but are essential to understanding global warming. This year, her students are studying global warming and its effects on ecosystems throughout the world and she's using her firsthand experience to help bring the lessons to life.

Deborah Dancy, Principal of the Channing Elementary School in Hyde Park is a 2006 Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund (JFMF) participant. Ms. Dancy recently traveled to Japan for three weeks where she visited schools in the cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Shizuoka to learn about the Japanese education system and to share information on the policies and practices of the Boston Public Schools.

At Boston Adult Technical Academy in Roxbury, students in the World Issues class are learning about population, education, healthcare and other issues that affect the quality of life in a country through a collection of photographs. The class is learning about topics such as Gross Domestic Product and fertility rates by studying extra-large photographs of families from around the world, their homes and possessions to make the connection between policy and practice. Students then dig deeper; looking for statistical indicators of nation's development and constructing meaning around their visual observations of the photographs.

In the summer of 2006, the Snowden International School in the Back Bay sent nine students and 2 teachers to China to participate in the Inner-City Kids in China Program, a community service focused program, which was organized by the Phelex Foundation and funded by the Freeman Foundation. The students were engaged in helping the disadvantaged children by teaching English, exchanging ideas, and working in the school nursery farm to raise tuition-funds for local needy children. Snowden Headmaster Gloria Coulter said that the Inner-City Kids in China Program has successfully enriched students' global cultural experiences and made a significant impact on the participants' lives.

"Preparing our students for higher education and employment includes preparing them for participation in the global marketplace," said Superintendent Michael Contompasis. "Whether it's through classroom activities, internationally themed schools, or exchange programs, BPS provides its students with opportunities to become active participants in the world."

International Education Week (IEW) is a collaboration of the US Department of State and Department of Education to promote programs in schools that prepare students for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn and exchange experience in the United States. For more information on International Education Week, please visit http://iew.state.gov/index.htm.

The Boston Public Schools serves approximately 57,000 pre-kindergarten through grade 12 students in 14