By Sofie Schachter
This fall, the UW–Madison School of Education is again hosting teachers from across the world as part of the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement (Fulbright TEA) program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by IREX.
The visiting educators are part of a Fulbright TEA Media Literacy Cohort that focuses on helping teachers promote and develop media literacy and critical-thinking skills that they can use in their home classrooms, schools, and communities.
As part of the program, educators have visited and learned at Verona Area High School and other area schools throughout their six weeks in Wisconsin. Last week, due to a school closure in Verona, the Fulbright scholars attended and toured Madison’s East High School.
The scholars were greeted by Mark Nelson, an instructional coach, and Mikki Smith, the school principal.
After a presentation on East High School’s equity vision, long-term goals, and statistics, the group visited multiple classrooms to experience the reality of an American education experience.
“It kind of reminded me of my own high school, back home,” one Fulbright scholar said. Another added: “Your teachers are so dedicated. … I had only 10 or 15 minutes (with them), but it just came through.”
The international teachers were pleasantly surprised by the community of the school.
“Here, I could actually feel some soul, the spark, something inside. … I’m really impressed, really,” one said.
Nelson noted it was a good experience for him as well to learn from the visiting teachers.
“It was fun sharing about similarities and differences between our schools and communities,” Nelson said.
Note: This story was funded in part by a grant from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings, and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State.