An inspiring look inside the American Community School (ACS) of Abu Dhabi's KG1 program, where the youngest learners are developing empathy, knowledge, and advocacy skills through deep exploration of the natural world.

At the International School of Uganda (ISU), visual arts teacher Jill Pribyl is creating transformative learning experiences that amplify belonging, wellbeing, meaningful connections and community engagement.

When it comes to experiential learning and trips, purposeful reflection can change a trip from being a one-off experience in a vacuum to being a deeply relevant and meaningful chapter in a student’s learning journey.

A grade 4 unit called “Sharing the Planet” exemplifies many transformative aspects of service learning, including interviews with primary sources for dynamic research, creating digital stories for advocacy, and working with community partners.

At the International School of Kenya (ISK), middle school ELL educator Susan Cizek has redefined what it means for her students to be “changemakers,” thanks to a transformative coaching partnership. This collaboration led to a dynamic reimagining of Susan’s “Becoming a Changemaker” unit, adding real-world action, community engagement, and a new layer of advocacy.

In this post, I interview educator Michael Hernandez about his digital storytelling experiences with students over many years, and about his advice for teachers about how to use digital storytelling to redesign everyday teaching and learning, and assessment, to deepen student engagement and learning.

A multi-year coaching partnership with the Missions team at Orange Lutheran High School in California has led to the creation of program goals, standards & benchmarks, and articulated curriculum rooted in service learning and community engagement.

A one-week visit to Schutz American School in Alexandria brought the impact of service learning and storytelling to the fore of strategic planning.

LeeAnne’s partnership with the American Community School of Abu Dhabi includes on-site and virtual components of coaching, facilitation, and strategic planning.

Grade 9 students at the International School of Addis Ababa just experienced an English unit centred around story circles and story exchanges. The result of this deep listening is a transformed sense of self and others.

A grade 9 student at the International School of Kigali in Rwanda has created a new framework for service learning and community engagement called the “4 Pillars of Mindful Service”. Check out this inspiring story!

Elementary teachers and students at the American International School of Lagos in Nigeria used poems for Earth Day to deepen a budding community partnership with a local school.

A grade 7 interdisciplinary learning experience at the American Community School of Abu Dhabi provides an excellent model of how to support students in an experiential deep dive into sustainability, community engagement and action.

Before you get too close to the end of the semester and school year, think about how you can celebrate the successes of your service learning and global citizenship programs. Hosting a community-wide celebration can raise the profile of what you’re doing and create a lot of momentum for meaningful action.

Check out one school’s multi-layered co-curricular approach to teaching students about sustainable food, from gardening and composting to cooking and social entrepreneurship.

The International School of Kenya is building a curricular PreK-12 service learning program and modelling what it’s like to create a strategy that is tailored to its context and rich history of service.

Are you curious about how to use generative AI tools for digital storytelling with your students? In this post I share my recent journey using DALL-E to create visual images, and how to craft prompts that generate specific images with students.

Khartoum American School has been displaced since April of 2023 because of war in Sudan, and I had the opportunity to work with students and staff in November to use storytelling as a means of reflecting, healing and sharing messages of hope and resilience.

How Antwerp International School replaced all marketing strategies with storytelling for authentic engagement with prospective families.

How to coach and support your student leaders to grow their skills and ensure they’re thinking about leading with sustainability and inclusion in mind.