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A Systems Approach to Global Education
We believe that several problems in education worldwide can be answered through a strategic, systems approach. Through our projects and programs, we are building a globally interconnected educational ecosystem that is learner-centered for the 21st Century and that answers three of the most pressing issues in education currently:
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Critical teacher shortages
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Equitable access to education both at the k-12 and post-secondary levels
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The critical need for 21st Century skill-building, which include:
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Language instruction at the elementary level
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Increased Culturally Responsive and Social-Emotional Learning Practices and Pedagogies
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Experiential learning models that promote creativity and incorporate Universal Design for Learning.
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LW5S Eduation Bilingual School
Centers for Global Learning
Dakar, Senegal
Diass, Senegal
All of our teachers and future teachers that come to train at our Centers for Global Learning in Senegal, also receive crucial field experience because our Centers for Global Learning also double as bilingual school programs for Senegalese people.
Our school programs are based on an experiential learning model. The teachers in our school are trained and certified in the LW5S Method and provide a learning environment that is learner-centered and that fosters creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and global mindedness.
We currently have our Center for Global Learning in Dakar that we are working to update and add additional classrooms. We also have land in the Thies region of Senegal where we will be building a second Center for Global Learning. It costs approximately $30,000 to build a school in Senegal. If you would like to donate to our CGL campaign and help us raise the money to update our current CGL and build our new one, please click the button under the image or scan the QR code.
Future Teachers
Growing a 21st Century Teacher Workforce
The Future Teachers program is designed to build a strong, 21st Century educator workforce that empowers and equips teachers to educate for an increasingly global world. This program is critical for growing a new generation of 21st Century educators who possess the same skills that they need to facilitate in the classroom and provide to students. These skills include:
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Bilingualism
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Creativity
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Critical Thinking
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Digital Literacy
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Problem Solving
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Collaboration and Collaborative Inquiry
This program addresses the issues of teacher recruitment and retention, especially of culturally and linguistically diverse educators, and access to higher education for underrepresented and marginalized groups.
This program also addresses the significant lack of professional development and support for teachers and the widening gap in support between teacher preparation and early years in the classroom.
This program also addresses the need for language instruction at the elementary level.
In-Service Teachers
M.Ed in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education
This program is designed for teachers who are already in the classroom or those who already have a Bachelor's degree and have the desire to become a teacher. This program combines coursework in language instruction and pedagogy with cultural and linguistic immersion and experience teaching diverse learners at our CGLs in Senegal.
This program addresses the need to build a more Culturally Responsive and linguistically diverse teacher workforce, while also providing essential professional development and support to educators worldwide.
Global Classrooms
Mentor Teachers
Global Classrooms is a program at Language with the Five Senses Education (LW5S Ed) linking North American educators to educators in countries in Europe and Africa via the LW5S Education Global Learning Centers. The LW5S Ed Global Learning Centers are in Spain, France, Italy, and Senegal. Teachers who participate in the Global Classrooms program are partnered with a teacher in one of our partner countries. Over the course of a school year the teacher partners engage in collaborative inquiry and professional development. They come together at one of the Centers for Global Learning during a three-week period to work in person.
Upon their return to the United States, the American teachers and their international partners engage their classes in cooperative learning activities through a curriculum based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the LW5S Ed 21st Century Education Framework. The mission of Global Classrooms is to enhance the teacher participants’ cultural competencies and increase student achievement through experiential learning, digital literacy, and global connections. The program is meant to bring the world into the classroom.
The LW5S Ed Global Classrooms Program is defined as a collaboration between two teachers, who live in different countries and who are of different nationalities. This collaboration includes the following factors:
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Professional development to develop and enhance linguistic, global, and cultural competencies.
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Collaborative activities between the two teachers to learn about each other as humans, each other’s cultures, and each other’s countries both virtually and in person.
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One lesson per week on social justice and/or global issues in each classroom that aligns with collaborative work the students will do together.
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Integration of language study in the elementary classroom.
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A yearlong cooperative learning project between students in both classrooms where students in both classrooms meet at least once per month via video and work together to complete cultural learning activities and complete a culminating service project at the end of the school year.
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Based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the LW5S Ed 21st Century Education Framework.
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Virtual and in-person collaboration between both educators and virtual collaboration between students in both classrooms.
Global Classrooms teachers serve as mentor teachers and cohort leaders for the Future Teachers and M.Ed programs. Global Classrooms teachers are trained in the LW5S Method and possess essential 21st Century Education skills.