Educator Learning Community Program

Educator Learning Community (UTELC)

Piloting for Summer ’24, with a full launch in AY 24-25, this year-long continuing education program for K-12 social studies educators will comprise of monthly meetings, with lectures by subject matter experts pertaining to topics germane to regional and global topics (i.e., “migration”, “food pathways and food insecurity”, “human rights in times of conflict”, etc.) and pedagogy experts to increase the use of global and world region content in teaching while meeting learning requirements and required skills as established in teaching standards such as TEKS.

All educators are welcome to apply, and participation is open to all. If the threshold is met for maximum participants, a selection process will be engaged based on criteria pertaining not to the applicant themselves, but to their teaching: pre-service vs. in service teacher; grade(s) taught; subject(s) taught; number of years in the profession; type of school (private, public, charter/magnet, Title I, etc.); successful completion of participation in past Hemispheres’ continuing education programs (if applicable). These criteria are employed to encourage a diversity of instructional approaches, schools, grades, and areas of thought.

Summer Pilot Sessions:

The summer pilot sessions will include a pared-down version of the year-long program. Your participation will enable us to understand what educators are looking for, and produce effective content to help you globalize your classrooms in the years to come (so, thank you!)

Topics in the summer include:

Global competency goals/benchmarks
Festivals and holidays - culturally appropriate celebrations/observations
Best practices in finding and organizing speakers

Objectives for the year-long program:

During the year-long program, participants will identify an area of their curriculum to develop by incorporating topics of a global or regional nature. At the end of the year, they will present such topics to the cohort, and work with a curriculum developer to create a lesson plan, curriculum unit, or set of instructional activities for publication on Hemispheres’ website. They will also receive a certificate for continuing education hours through UT Hemispheres Consortium that they can apply to their own continuing education requirements.