MISSION & VALUES
VISION
OneWorld Classrooms wants all students to emerge from their K-12 years as confident, engaged, competent and caring members of the local and global communities to which they belong. We envision classrooms and learning spaces that, not only prepare students for global citizenship, but provide regular opportunities for students to be active global citizens. We also envision schools where students connect with their global peers in every area of the curriculum and throughout their academic careers.
MISSION
OneWorld Classrooms’ mission is build bridges of learning and understanding between local and global classrooms through the arts and technology.
In pursuing this mission, we aim to foster global awareness and cross-cultural understanding in the context of the K-12 curriculum to prepare young people for local and global citizenship in culturally diverse settings. We also tap the connective power of the arts and technology to offer programs and services through which young people share, collaborate and explore with their peers from different cultures; and gain the skills, knowledge and attitudes they need to improve their academic achievement and become thoughtful, compassionate and globally competent individuals.
RATIONALE
As our world becomes more interdependent and the problems we confront more global, it is critical that our young people gain knowledge, skills and attitudes that prepare them to enjoy the benefits and accept the responsibilities of global citizenship. To do so, they must interact with and learn from their international peers; just as, as adults, they will live and work with people from different cultures in both local and global settings.
To effectively build bridges of learning, OneWorld Classrooms addresses the needs of students and teachers on both sides of cross-cultural exchange. We create dynamic learning experiences through which students:
1. value themselves and their own cultures;
2. recognize the similarities among cultures that make all people a human family; and
3. respect and appreciate the differences that make each culture unique.
At the same time, OneWorld Classrooms:
• enhances the curriculum;
• integrates technology into the classroom;
• uses the arts as a means to communicate and share across cultures;
• empowers teachers and students to make learning more interpersonal and meaningful; and
• provides a means for traditional societies compromised in the wake of globalization to explore their own cultures and share them with their new world community.
OWC STANDARDS
The following standards provide a framework for pursuing our mission:
#1: Explore. Learn. Share.
Students will explore, learn and share information about their own cultures and regions as they explore and learn about other world cultures and regions. By sharing who they are with overseas peers, students begin to look inward. Self-knowledge, combined with meaningful connections with others, creates positive self-esteem and self-respect; a heightened understanding and appreciation of one’s own place in the world; and a capacity to respect and learn about others.
#2: Interact
Students will interact with overseas partner classes as a means to explore, learn and share cultural information. A powerful learning connection is forged when students from different world regions communicate with each other. By directly interacting with their foreign peers, students adopt a much more personal and meaningful approach to learning about the world beyond their own experience.
#3:Arts and Technology
Students will use the arts and technology as a means to interact with others and to explore, learn and share cultural information. In a world of many tongues, the arts are a universal means of communication which allow children of different regions and different cultures to interact beyond the barriers of language. Technology is a powerful educational tool that can open a classroom to the world and significantly expand the horizons of students.
#4: Curriculum
Students will explore, learn and share in the context of the curriculum. The curriculum is the framework within which teachers should design their interactive cross-cultural experiences. Project participation may be integrated into Math, Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, Foreign Language, Art and Music units with specific curricular objectives.