Official Site of The State of New Jersey
International Education in N.J.
Here are examples of how the Woodcliff Lake School District and a Spanish teacher at Glassboro High School have integrated international education into their programs. If your district has an innovative international education project, please share it by e-mailing David Greer at david.greer@doe.nj.gov.
In the Woodcliff Lake School District three faculty members visited with faculty at schools in both China and Japan. The district is developing a partner relationship with two schools in China, one in Japan, two in Rome and will begin this month to communicate directly with teachers in each of the schools. Soon, students will be communicating electronically as they develop joint collaborative projects. Click on http://www.woodcliff-lake.com/woodclifflakeschools/site/default.asp and scroll to the Journey to Japan or China Adventure to see how the Woodcliff Lake School District is integrating international education into their curriculum. World languages are an important component of the program. By 2011, every student in the district will have the opportunity to study Mandarin Chinese.
At Glassboro High School, Spanish teacher Patricia Yañez uses blogs and podcasts as a way to bring the world to her students and her students to the world. As the advisor of the Foreign Exchange Club, Patricia arranges for two-way exchanges with San Viator School in Spain. Click on http://www.glassboroschools.us/Page/1 to find out more about international education at Glassboro High School.
Voyages of Discovery Through a Backpack Exchange
To further the mission of international education in our schools, Fair Lawn’s Chinese teachers established a backpack exchange with a sister school in China. The collective backpack makes several “voyages” throughout the year, each focusing on one theme, or aspect, of middle school life. The backpack becomes a culture bearer, providing insight into items of interest to middle school learners such as student art work, scrapbooks, photo albums, school print materials, sample assignments, student poetry, favorite books, magazines, CDs and much more. To reach the wider community, the backpack and its contents have become a traveling museum show to be signed out on an overnight basis so that every family has an opportunity to examine its contents and to learn from them along with their children. Click Voyages of Discovery through a Backpack Exchange for more information on this project.