By Susan O'Rourke | October 8, 2021
World View has been a constant companion and source of understanding since my superintendent, Dr. Myra Cox, first invited me to attend one of their seminars. Taking the classes and learning about other cultures has opened my mind to the possibilities of what my students can be learning that will strengthen their understanding of the world and its people so that they may go forward into life with confidence and empathy for others.
April Swarey is UNC world View’s Educator Spotlight for October 2021. April is an English and Language Arts teacher at Elkin High School in Elkin, North Carolina, “a small town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.” April has invigorated the school community through her commitment to bringing global education to her students and her impressive work to engage her colleagues across disciplines in building globally-focused curricula.
April began attending World View programs in the spring of 2019 and has not stopped since. She “remembers the wonder and thrill of that first seminar,” UNC World View’s Latin America and North Carolina Seminar, as she learned about “the issues confronting Latin American nations, how they impacted immigration to the U.S., and how they affected the students [she] was teaching in [her] classroom.” She recalls that this program had a “tremendous impact” on her because it gave her the space “to be with other teachers, talking and learning about global issues that [she] knew had been affecting [her] students” after “not having had the time or space to investigate them further.”
April firmly believes in the message heard at the UNC World View seminar that “Global is local” and sought to invigorate her classroom with a global focus. We know that how much time goes into developing new lessons and were happy to hear that UNC World View helped April identify useful expert-level resources. She explains:
World View has been a constant companion and source of understanding since my superintendent, Dr. Myra Cox, first invited me to attend one of their seminars… Through my interactions with UNC World View, I have also been introduced to other groups which have supported me in designing global education for my classroom…., such as the Center for European Studies with UNC-Chapel Hill, the Five Colleges Center for East Asian Studies at Smith College in Massachusetts, and the Consortium for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of North Carolina and Duke University.
Even with the disruptions of the pandemic, April has continued to build the network of global educators at Elkin City Schools. Seeking to bring global education to all grade levels, April organized a six-week “district-level book study on global education” reading Global School by William Kist. April’s book study helped her and her colleagues envision what a globalized curriculum could look across the disciplines and plan how “to apply Kist’s tips and strategies to their own practices.” April reports that “most teachers were amazed by how easy it was to incorporate global studies into a curriculum, whether for “math, English, or an elective.”
The support for April’s global education work flows through Elkin City Schools. Dr. Myra Cox asked April started a monthly newsletter for the district that brings global education topics and teaching resources right to teachers’ mailboxes. Working with Dr. Pam Colbert, the Director of Global Studies and Virtual Learning, and other teachers on the global education team at Elkin City Schools, April designs and circulates the newsletters covering topics like the Sustainable Development Goals, Hispanic Heritage Month, and ways to create a more inclusive classroom environment. Each newsletter presents a curated collection of articles and grade-specific resources to help teachers easily tie the topics into their lessons.
We are thrilled that April is a fellow in the 2021-2022 UNC World View Program: Exploring Indigenous Cultures: Ancient North Carolinians, Past and Present. She already is thinking through how to “refine and incorporate lessons [she] is creating into [her] own classroom and envisioning “lessons [that] teach [her] students about the American Indian tribes here in our own state as [they write short stories and study Shakespeare.” April is also “working on [her] Global Educator Digital Badge offered through the NC Department of Public Instruction.”
April knows firsthand the benefits that global studies can bring to the classroom and our individual experiences. She relates:
World View has helped me focus my efforts on equipping my students to understand the world and its people today and to have understanding for others as they grow into adulthood. Personally, I am a more empathetic person due to my involvement in World View, and that places me in a much better position to support all of my students as they grow into thoughtful and informed adults.
We’re so grateful for April Swarey’s commitment to advancing global studies as well as her leadership in creating a community of globally-minded educators at Elkin City Schools.