By: Michelle Macumber | Priority Partnerships Manager, Participate
Success in business is not simply about being the best in the world, but being the best for the world. This is B Corp’s definition of success and it is what we strive for in the work that we do. Our valued partners, like the Wake County Public School System, share our mission. They are each committed to providing a quality, equitable education for all and being the best for the staff, students, and community. Because we share a common goal to do well by doing good, we were eager to attend WakeEd Partnership’s World Café event and offer our continued support to WCPSS.
Since much of our work at Participate revolves around educators who are committed to globalizing education and making the world a better place, our hope was to connect with two globally-minded schools, interested in taking advantage of our on-site and virtual support, instructional resources, and global professional development. With goals to host large international events, enhance a current global garden, and take the initial steps towards earning the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge, Forestville Road Elementary School and Middle Creek High School were ideal matches.
The North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge is a state-level designation that enables educators to demonstrate their ability to engage students in understanding and acting on issues of global significance by embedding global education in their instruction. The digital badge is earned through professional development and educational practice.
Forestville Elementary School
During the 2015-2016 school year, educators at Forestville Road Elementary School created a Global Garden on campus, which features plants native to different regions of the world. When they came to World Café, one of their major wish-list projects involved the creation of garden posts that represented each grade level’s region of focus and we were honored to provide materials so this project could become a reality. In addition to providing materials for their global garden, five of our Participate staff members attended the annual Forestville Road Elementary School International Festival and volunteered their time to host sessions about Guatemala, Ethiopia, Switzerland, Bangladesh, and England. And when the request came in for maps, Participate maps were promptly delivered and now grace the walls of many classrooms on Lawson Ridge Road.
Middle Creek High School
In addition to offering access to a Global Connections course and global resources, we are committed to supporting Middle Creek High School as they expand their global efforts. In addition to benefiting a South African organization called LIV Village, the school’s recent Ubuntu Fest also had an internal goal – to reinforce the value and importance of a global education for all students. Like us, they believe that all students deserve access to educational experiences that prepare them for success in our interconnected world. At Participate, we are excited about the opportunity to assist the school in achieving this goal by providing ready-to-use global lesson plans and professional development that teachers can use as they pursue the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge. Along with the school’s global leads, we hope to empower all Middle Creek educators to transform their practice and ignite change in their classrooms through collaborative learning and a global perspective.
Without a doubt, these are two schools where the desire to do well by doing good is evident in all they do and we look forward to continuing to support them in this mission.
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