At OakHill Pilar school in Buenos Aries, Argentina, a Kindergarten group and a First Grade group are both participating in Level Up Village’s Global Storybooks Engineers course and having tons of fun! They’re reading each book with the help of Miss Mai and Miss Pipi. Each book leads to a project that stems from the story: they have worked hard to make spaghetti towers to help Strega Nona and Big Anthony, and then a shell cover to protect Jabuti the Tortoise. They also used the Engineering Design Cycle to build a boat to help poor Monkey avoid Crocodile and shared videos and pictures of their projects.
When I joined Gayaza High School in 2016, I was relatively quiet until third term when I was enrolled in the “I am Malala” class. I was so fascinated with Malala’s courage to fight for what nearly got her killed. It was at that moment I asked myself what I believe in and what is worth fighting for.
Every school year I start with a goal in mind. This goal might be to implement something new, perhaps tweak an existing project by taking it to the next level, or even a change as simple as rearranging the classroom. But after attending ISTE 2016 last June, I was inspired to make Global Collaboration my goal for the 2016-17 school year.
It was 105° in the small town of Nagarote, Nicaragua. Sweat dripped down my face as I lugged yet another pile of dirt out of the garden bed. I sensed my advisees were growing more tired with every passing hour, but we all persevered, determined to both build a new classroom and create a garden that would help further the educational programs at NicaPhoto. That’s what we at Builders Beyond Borders (B3) were known for, after all – building a better world for others.
Kids are growing up with smart phones in their hands, developing their own apps, programming robots and creating online personas. Indeed, technology is prevalent in nearly every facet of children’s lives, including at school where they’re often using technology tools to enhance their learning. But just because a child knows what buttons to push or has access to a world of knowledge at their fingertips doesn’t mean he or she knows what to do with that power, and power it surely is.
Helping students develop a global mindset is a top priority for many schools, and today’s wired classroom environment is creating new and exciting opportunities to do so. Future-ready Catholic school leader Abby Giroux at All Saints Academy in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is fostering global connections between her students and peers from around the world by partnering with Level Up Village. She recently taught LUV’s Global Web Designers, which combines environmental science with website development and culminates with each student building a website together with a partner student in another country.
Level Up Village actively seeks out innovative global partner organizations to team up with, in order to provide cutting-edge STEM to underserved populations of students. This January, we launched a partnership with WAAW, which stands for Working to Advance STEM education for African Women – a non-profit organization focused on increasing the pipeline of African women entering Science and Technology fields.
We are delighted to share that Level Up Village team member Nicki Brill has been named a NAA 2017 Next Generation of Afterschool leader, an award that highlights the contributions made by emerging professionals active in the afterschool community. Nicki was profiled in the Winter 2017 issue of NAA’s AfterSchool Today magazine and will be recognized for her achievement at the National AfterSchool Association (NAA) Conference on March 19 in Dallas, where Level Up Village will also be exhibiting.
“Level Up Village Account Director Nicki Brill possesses passion and a commitment to youth — embodying NAA’s core competencies,” wrote NAA in its recent newsletter.
Guest post by Marianne Mann from EduMais in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In cooperation with Level Up Village, EduMais has introduced a new, exciting class: Global Web Designers. The class is an exchange program between EduMais and The Rumson Country Day School in New Jersey, United States. It gives eight children from EduMais and 13 children from our American partner school, aged between 10 and 12 years, the opportunity to exchange video letters and create a joint website about renewable energy.
Level Up Village recently partnered with Feminist Approach to Technology in India, an innovative organization working to challenge societal stereotypes and empower girls in marginalized communities through the acquisition of technology skills. A group of girls, whose parents are migrant workers, are now collaborating with partner students at All Saints Academy in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in LUV’s Global Web Designers course.