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Magee Educator Selected as 2018 NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellow
Multifaceted yearlong learning journey to prepare Darein Spann, students as global citizens
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 15, 2017) – The NEA Foundation named Darein Spann, an English educator at Magee High School in Magee, Miss., as one of the 48 public school educators to become a member of this year’s class of Global Learning Fellows. Spann will spend a year building global competency skills (the capacity to understand and act on issues of global significance).
As a result of the Fellowship, Spann will be better equipped to prepare students for global citizenship. Fellows also create valuable global lesson plans for their students that are freely shared with educators across the nation and the world through open-source platforms.
“Teaching literature allows us to take students into the culture of others,” says Spann. “This program will allow me to bring the culture into the classroom while teaching. It will give me first-hand knowledge to share with my students to broaden their horizons.”
This class was selected from over 400 applicants from across the country. These new Fellows teach all grade levels – and all subjects: from visual and performing arts to agri-science, vocational studies to history. They come from rural, suburban, and urban schools. They are National Board Certified, curriculum coaches, IB coordinators, foreign language speakers, and more. Some have participated in similar programs, and some have never traveled abroad. The diverse cohort will allow educators to learn from each other and bring global perspectives to a wide range of students.
“We believe that educators are the key to giving students the skills to thrive in an interconnected world,” said Harriet Sanford, President and CEO of the NEA Foundation. “We created the Global Learning Fellowship to provide professional development in teaching global competencies and to support educators as they integrate these skills into classroom instruction.”
Over the course of a year, the NEA Foundation staff, partners, and field experts will support Spann as he immerses himself in online coursework, webinars, and collegial study, including a two-day professional development workshop this fall and a nine-day international field study next summer, bringing the full cohort together with experts in global learning.
Prior Fellows have contributed valuable knowledge to the field by posting replicable lesson plans on open-source platforms here and here. Past fellows have returned to advance global competency in their schools and districts—one Fellow recently brought Peruvian artists to her school to teach her students how to incorporate their own culture into their art.
Get to know all of the 2018 NEA Foundation Learning Fellows by visiting neafoundation.org.
The NEA Foundation will accept applications for the 2019 Global Learning Fellowship this fall.
