International Education
Goal for International Education in Delaware: Produce better informed, more engaged, and more internationally competent citizens in our communities. Such engagement comes through education. International Education provides the information, perspective and decision-making tools needed in an increasingly interdependent world. (K-20 International Education Capacity Study)
Delaware Department of Education Framework for International Education
International Education provides Delaware students with a developmentally appropriate set of experiences and a broader context in which to actively participate in a multicultural society and global workforce. International Education in Delaware inspires students to explore beyond their state and country by providing them with:
- Knowledge of world regions and international issues;
- Skills in communicating in languages other than English and working with information from a variety of world-wide sources;
- Cultural perspectives for comparison of worldviews, dispositions and attitudes;
- International experiences to exchange information with peers around the world.
Which Languages are Most Valuable for Delaware Students to Learn to be Globally Economically Competitive?
Mandarin, China’s official tongue, is also the top language worldwide for business other than English, according to Bloomberg Rankings. Mandarin, spoken by 845 million people, scored highest in a ranking of languages, excluding English, based on business usefulness. The ranking scored languages according to the number of speakers, number of countries where the language is official, along with those nations’ populations, financial power, educational and literacy rates, and related measures. French, spoken by 68 million people worldwide and the official language of 27 countries, was ranked second, followed by Arabic, which is spoken by 221 million people and is official in 23 nations. Mandarin is unlikely to supplant English soon as the primary language of business, said Leigh Hafrey, a senior lecturer in communications and ethics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. Download a copy of the Bloomberg's Most Useful Business Languages.
US Schools Forge International Connections Online
American students are teaming up via the web with classrooms around the world to learn valuable lessons about current events, economic trends, and cultural norms.
Chinese to become a commonly taught language across the US
In the 1980s and 1990s, in an effort to define the territory of our field, language educators created the idea of the “less commonly taught languages,” or LCTL . What is peculiar about this notion is that it includes just about every single one of the more than 5,000 languages spoken on Planet Earth, with the exception of English and just three other languages: Spanish, French, and German. For many years, these “big three” languages were just about the only choices available to language learners in the U.S., especially at the K–12 level.
ePals Global Community
Discover ways for you and your students to communicate with peers from around the world and to collaborate with them on curriculum-based projects. ePals is a leading provider of safe collaborative technology for schools to connect and learn in a protected, project-based learning network. With classrooms in 200 countries and territories, ePals makes it easy to connect learners locally, nationally or internationally. Many services such as the ePal Global community ePal School email accounts are provided free of charge, while other services such as enhanced student email and digitally-based Learning Space are provided at nominal costs. ePals currently partners with National Geographic and the Smithsonian to provide rich curriculum content to enhance any classroom collaborative project.
Delaware STARTALK Hindi Language and Culture Camp
Univeristy of Pennsylvania, STARTALK trained Hindi teachers and faculty members join with Delaware Technical and Community College to bring the Delaware STARTALK Hindi Language and Culture Camp to Newark, DE, July 28-August 6. Students in grades 6-12 may participate in this federally-support program to to speak one of the world's oldest languages--and a language deemed critical for Americans to learn for economic competetiveness by the US government. For more information, contact Ms. Dolley Chatterjee, rubudas0056@yahoo.com.
Delaware Lighthouse Chinese Partnership: A STARTALK Summer Program for Teachers of Early Language Learners 2011
The Cape Henlopen School District in partnership with the University of Delaware College of Education, the Delaware Department of Education and the Chinese School of Delaware are pleased to present the Delaware Lighthouse Chinese Partnership: A STARTALK Summer Program of Early Language Learning. This opportunity offers the optimal setting for learning the methods and instructional strategies that promote high levels of proficiency in early language learning and for the observation of these Chinese best practices under the guidance of expert teachers and nationally recognized world language experts. A two week children's camp is also offered at Shields Elementary in the Cape Henlopen School District: Cape's Chinese Summer Camp for grades K-8.
Italian Language Summer Camp for Children 2011
This summer camp experience will expose Delaware children to the Italian language and culture. They will learn to communicate in basic Italian expressions and explore Italy's culture through its history, music, art and cuisine. Each day of the camp will focus on La Piazza, or town square, in five different Italian cities: Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples and Palermo. The curriculum for the camp is based on the Delaware Recommended Curriculum for World Languages.
See the New Resource List compiled by the Asia Society, Longview Foundation, and the States Network on International Education in the Schools, February 2011
The Teacher Development Continuum in the United States and China - Summary of a Workshop (2010)
Held in Newport Beach, California, on July 31–August 2, 2009, the workshop brought together about 40 mathematics educators, mathematicians, education researchers, and other mathematics education specialists from the two countries. There were participants from three regions of China - Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu Province (north of Shanghai), as well as several Chinese scholars who now work in the United States. These experts on mathematics education discussed professional development methods and techniques commonly used in their countries. The workshop summary report features invited presentations and discussions that focus on the teacher development process used in the U.S. and China, and how the professional lives of teachers are structured to receive ongoing professional development.
DOE and Peace Corps Partnership Project 2010: Facing the World's Challenges One Village at a Time
DOE partnered with the Peace Corps Coverdell World Wise Schools (Washington, DC) to devise a four-week long summer online collaboration experience for Delaware high school students and their peers in five countries with which the DOE already has existing Memoranda of Understanding for international student exchanges (China, France, Italy, Japan and Spain). This online collaboration experience combined the knowledge and skills designated as essential 21st Century Skills with the real-life experience of dealing with world-wide challenges faced daily by Peace Corps volunteers. Delaware high school students became parts of an International Peace Corps Team with their peers in the MOU partner countries. Each team consisted of one Delawarean, one Chinese, one French, one Italian, one Japanese and one Spanish student who worked together to develop solutions for a variety of real-world challenges. The teams researched current challenges, collaborated using a variety of available technologies, decided on a possible solution, and presented the solution. All of this work was completed in the context of working as an International Peace Corps Volunteer Team that has been assigned to a virtual village suffering from a plethora of challenges. The teams were responsible for presenting their solutions to the project director and the Regional Ministry of the virtual village.
Cape Henolopen's STARTALK Summer Chinese Program is like a Field Trip to China
Read the News Journal article about the two-week Chinese language and cultural immersion experience on Delaware's beaches
Asia Society Information to Build Strong, International Partnerships
Creating a strong, internationally focused school does not necessarily require additional funds. Teachers can begin to integrate international content into their courses by using free curricular materials on the web and by making use of existing information technology.
International Education Decree from Governor, 2008
International Education Summit (April 27, 2006)
K-20 International Education Capacity Study
Delaware’s International Education Partnerships
Peace Corps Coverdell World Wise Schools
To help internationalize Delaware’s schools and our curriculum.
International Education in the Schools
Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning
January Issue
Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs)
Japan (Miyagi Prefecture), 1997
Copy of MOU
China (Hanban), 2006
Copy of MOU
Spain (Ministry of Education and Science), 2006
Copy of MOU
Trinidad and Tobago, 2007
Copy of MOU
Italy (City of Ripatransone), 2007
Copy of MOU
Italy (Ministry of Reforms and Public Administration), 2007
Copy of MOU
Italy (Scuola Sant’Anna), 2007
Copy of MOU
Germany (Senat Von Berlin/Checkpoint Charlie), 2008
Copy of MOU
France (Académie de Créteil), 2008
Copy of MOU
International Delaware K-12 School Partnerships
Appoquinimink
Appoquinimink High School--Lycée La Tour des Dames, Rozay-en-Brie, France
Brandywine
Brandywine High School--Lycée Camille Claudel, Pontault-Combault, France
Caesar Rodney
W Reilly Brown Elementary School--Ecole élémentaire d'application Jacques Dubus, Pontault-Combault, France
Caesar Rodney High School--Lycée Emily Bronte, Lognes, France
Cape Henlopen
Milton Elementary School--Ecole Internationale Leonard da Vinci, Fontainebleau, France
Capital
Booker T Washington Elementary--Ecole élémentaire Pont de l'Union, Aulnay-Sous-Bois, France
East Dover Elementary School--Ecole élémentaire Varlin, Aubervilliers, France
Dover High School--Lycée François 1er, Fontainebleau, France
Christina
Glasgow High School--Lycée professionnel Paul le Rolland, Drancy, France
Shue-Medill Middle School--Collège Henri Barbusse, Alfortville, France
Colonial
William Penn High School--Lycée Etienne Bezout, Nemours, France
Delmar
Indian River
East Millsboro Elementary School--Ecole élémentaire Barbeuf, Aubervilliers, France
Lake Forest
Lake Forest Central Middle School--Ecole élémentaire Pierre et Marie Curie, Chevilly-la-Rue, France
Laurel
Milford
New Castle County Votech
Polytech
Red Clay
Highlands Elementary School--Ecole élémentiare les Violennes, Bussy-Saint-Georges, France
Cab Calloway School of the Arts--Lycée Sonia Delaunay, Cesson, France
McKean High School--Lycée Jacques Brel, La Courneuve, France
Dickinson High School--Lycée Etienne Bézout, Nemours, France [Wilmington-Nemours Sister City Sponsored Partnership]
Seaford
Smyrna
Sussex Tech
Sussex Technical High School--Lycée professionnel Théodore Monod, France
Woodbridge
Charter Schools
International Visiting Teacher Programs
China--Teachers of Chinese Language and Culture
Spain--Teachers of Spanish or Content in Spanish (Bilingual)
Germany--Any Content Area including Math, Science and Special Education
International Education Professional Development
- iEARN [www.iearn.com]
- International Education and Technology Clusters
- Asia Cluster
- Smithsonian Institute
- Delaware Educators' Summer Seminar in Italy (Italian Culture, Language and the Italian-American Heritage Experience)
Agenda
Final Project Summary
District Examples of International Education
- Appoquinimink
- International Education Plan
- School Partnerships
- International Visiting Artist Program
- Visiting Principal Program
- Elementary Language Programs (Chinese, French, Japanese, Spanish, American Sign Language)
- Caesar Rodney
- School Partnerships
- Technology Projects
- Cape Henlopen
- Elementary Chinese Program (FLAP Grant)
- Technology Projects
- School Partnerships
International Education Resources
