International conference opens new vistas for educator

Monday, March 02, 2009 -

 Stephanie Waite in the Galapagos Islands
 

The flyer that Stephanie Waite picked up off the floor of the Education Building in 2005 opened a new window on the world for her — a view that the young high school science teacher brings into her classroom today.

The informational piece told Waite, then a teacher-in-training, about an upcoming two-day conference that featured a multidisciplinary array of globally-centered sessions led by well-traveled professors, teachers, and others. The description appealed to the love of travel she had developed as a child.

“My parents were big believers in learning through context,” says Waite (B.S. ’06 in biology and broad field science). “To them, that translated into traveling as a family and learning as we went along.”

Further enticed by the fact that the $25 fee included lunch, she signed up right away for the International Education Conference, co-sponsored by the UW-Madison School of Education and several other educational institutions and organizations.  Those attending included practicing teachers and a few teacher-training students.

“I left the conference feeling like I could go anywhere, do anything,” she says. “The world became a smaller place and connections to other countries and people seemed easily accessible.”

(The 2009 conference is scheduled March 16-17. Information is listed at the end of this article.)

At the conference, Waite met B. Dean Bowles, the emeritus professor of educational leadership at UW-Madison who has been the driving force behind the conference.

“We discussed the idea that attending a conference of this magnitude could have life-long effects, and it should almost be a requirement (for students) to attend because of the information and connections I gained,” Waite says.

With Bowles as her mentor, she took on the role of conference coordinator for the 2006 conference, which has become a collaborative venture with the Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies. Waite — now a science educator at a diverse high school in Racine, Wisconsin — says the conference fueled her love for educational travel.

But how do her international interests fit with her role as a science educator?  After all, international education traditionally has been viewed within the context of social studies and world languages.

“Science is often thought of as a separate entity aside from other disciplines,” Waite says.

Instead, she views science as “a universal topic that brings people together, regardless of language and borders.”

She says, “Discovering the cure for cancer or AIDS is a common theme throughout the world. How to go about solving those global issues involves much more than the analytic, quantitative details, but stems into world economies, policies, and other disciplines.”

She pushed to include science in the conference and, at last year’s gathering, presented a session on “International Dimensions of Social Studies and Science.”

“I found that teaching students even the basic ideas in a global context leads to stronger comprehension, builds relationships between ideas, and ultimately allows students to think outside of their backyards,” she says. “Maybe, students will develop a spark to travel and learn about international affairs, even in relationship to science.”

Her combined interests led to a pair of international science-related experiences last summer.

Viewing a television program about the Galapagos Islands and their connection to the work of Charles Darwin kindled her interest in visiting there.

“I figured a science teacher should be adept at discussing the ideas of evolution, biomes, ecosystems and geological formations, but what if I traveled there and experienced it first-hand? My words would become more pronounced and confident, the passion with which I would teach would be fueled by my memories of actually being there. My teaching would be authentic,” she says.

Just days after returning from the Galapagos Islands, she boarded a plane for Beijing, invited by the International Crane Foundation to participate in a three-year educational program, “Three White Cranes, Two Flyways, One World.”

She had met the main contact for the foundation’s program at the International Education Conference. The contact later came to Waite’s school and classroom to do a presentation on the crane flyways and invited Waite to travel to China and Inner Mongolia as a part of the program.

As the only practicing public school teacher invited, Waite says, “My main role in the International Crane Foundation project was to create and focus on science-based activities to teach Chinese and Mongolian students during multiple summer camps, as well as to create a variety of presentations to teach Chinese, Mongolian and Russian educators about the workings of the U.S. education system, and how we teach environmental education in the public school system.”

Back in Racine, Waite is using her experiences in China and the Galapagos Islands to engage her students about environmental issues. Her photographs enable her to take students on “a virtual field trip.”

“These photographs and ideas will serve as starting points for students to discuss differences in landscape, importance of the environment and approaches they can take to help our community in Racine, as well as in the world outside of their backyards.”

Students have been eager to hear her stories, and inspired to do additional research. One has even started looking for a program to do some educational traveling of her own.

“These are moments that are exciting and make my travel experiences worthwhile,” Waite says.

“My take on international education follows one of our family’s philosophies: ‘Watching the world on the television in your living room puts you on the sidelines, traveling it puts you in the game.’”

About this year’s conference

The 2009 Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies and International Education Conference – “Global Challenges and Changes” – will be held Monday and Tuesday, March 16-17, at the Madison Marriott West Hotel, 1313 John Q. Hammonds Drive, Middleton.

The conference will feature sessions and workshops in the sciences, arts, and humanities designed to engage K-12 teachers in curriculum development and instructional improvement, especially in international and global education. Several strands will address the Wisconsin Standards for Teacher Development and Licensure (PI34) and the pedagogical knowledge and skills for effective teaching.

Keynote speakers are:

• Gretchen Steidle Wallace, founder of Global Grassroots, on “Social Entrepreneurship Training and Funding for Disadvantaged Women to Start Social Change.”
• Jeremi Suri, UW-Madison history professor, on “Kissinger and the Transformation of American Society since WWII.”

Registration includes continental breakfasts, lunches, refreshments, exhibits, networking opportunities and WCSS membership.

To learn more, go to the conference website, www.education.wisc.edu/elpa/conferences/iec/, or contact B. Dean Bowles at bdbowles@wisc.eduor Melissa Collum of CESA 7 at wcss2009@gmail.com.

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