International Education at

Hamilton International Middle School

Hamilton International Middle School (HIMS) strives for academic excellence while integrating a global perspective throughout the curriculum. All students take world language and culture classes. Innovative teaching is supported by utilizing technology and forming partnerships with a variety of organizations. And, perhaps most importantly, HIMS is inclusive. HIMS is an urban, public, middle school, diverse in many dimensions. Racial diversity is apparent when you walk in the door. Approximately two-thirds are students are of color, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story. 34% of the students are of Asian descent, 21% African and African American, and 10% Latino. Linguistic diversity helps show another dimension. At last count, 38 languages were spoken as the first language in the homes of our students. Income diversity is also evident; over half of the students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, while others choose HIMS when their parents could well-afford private school tuition. And then there is the dimension of learning styles and challenges. HIMS attracts students who benefit from the challenges of a gifted program, others who need the careful attention provided by our special education teachers, and the many others who thrive when treated as unique individuals in the classroom. All of these students are involved, engaged in, and contributing to international education at HIMS.

Another term that should be used to describe our developing program is messy. There’s a lot going on, and it’s not always orderly. HIMS began its transition to an international school in 2000, and the program continues to evolve. When you come into our school you feel energy, enthusiasm, and change. Teachers and students are ready and willing to experiment, to take risks, and to tolerate (or even enjoy) a little chaos. You’ll see intense hallway discussions about setting priorities, funding, developing curriculum, and trying to do what’s best for each student. Our mission of figuring out “what international education means to us” provides all the highs and lows of a bootstrapping start-up company trying to find its niche.

Integrating international content into different curriculum areas

All teachers at HIMS have agreed to implement at least one project in each class that addresses issues related to a global perspective. This results in a wide variety of activities that help students grow as global citizens. Teachers seek projects in the following areas:

• Global Challenges, where students examine and evaluate global issues, problems, and challenges
• Culture and World Areas, where students study human differences and commonalities
• Global Connections, where students analyze the connections between the United States and the World

Examples abound.

• A world geography teacher instructed students about the global challenge of landmines. Students studied maps and saw videos, but will always remember this project because of the simulated minefield detection zone that was set up in a nearby park. A mine detection dog, sponsored by the Marshall Legacy Institute, worked with her trainer to successfully sniff out the location of the planted landmine – to the delight of students and staff.
  
• A health and environment teacher, who incorporates service learning into his curriculum, partnered with a volunteer for World Concern to help students see the world from the perspective of a child in Afghanistan. Julie Bolz pushed desks aside and set up her “home” in the classroom. Students were instructed to behave according the cultural norms of their hostess, and had the opportunity to try on burqas and turbans. They also examined a U.S. humanitarian rations pack from their new perspective. After their classroom experience, students decided to raise money to buy materials for desks in a school being built in Afghanistan – and in that way involved other students in the school in their project. Finally, students developed a broader view of the situation in Afghanistan when Paul Barker, Country Director of Afghanistan for CARE, came to speak with them.
  
• Students in Special Education classes participated in a mural exchange with students in a school for the developmentally disabled in Ranchi, India. Working in partnership with the Seattle International Children’s Festival education department, HIMS created a mural that was hand-delivered to the school in Ranchi, where they in turn created their own mural that was brought back to Seattle.
  
• Music teacher Bud Jackson has developed a cultural exchange with the Quileute Tribal School on the Olympic Peninsula. Students have visited each other’s schools, exchanging performances and cultural experiences.
  
• Students in physical education classes took a break from team sports to learn Zimbabwean dances from artist-in-residence Lora Chiorah-Dye.
  
• Immigrant students interviewed family members and created a CD containing stories about customs and holidays from around the world.

As our program evolves, we see more projects that grow beyond a single classroom. An example is a project last spring centered on Japanese internment in the U.S. during WWII. An English-as-a-Second-Language class read Ken Mochizuki’s Baseball Saved Us, a U.S. History class read Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s Farewell to Manzanar, and a Special Education class read Eleanor Coerr’s Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Hallway displays were put up with information about Japanese internment. Eighth grade students, who had visited the Puyallup Fair in September, saw pictures of the fairgrounds in a very different light – when the Japanese Americans from Seattle were sent there to live temporarily. Special Education students learned to fold paper cranes, and then took their creations to drape on the statue in nearby Sadako Peace Park. Then two distinguished Japanese Americans were invited to HIMS to talk with students about their experiences during WWII. One had been interned while attending a local Seattle high school; both ended up as members of the Military Intelligence Service while their families remained at the Minidoka interment camp in Idaho. After patiently answering many questions, the visitors gently reminded our large Asian American student population not to take for granted the rights that previous generations had gained for them, and made analogies to the current treatment of Arab Americans. Then students had an opportunity to express their own ideas about freedom. At a family-oriented “Authoring Freedom Night” students presented essays, songs, plays, and other expressions of freedom. Thanks to a partnership with the Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers in the School Program, the keynote speaker for the evening was author Ken Mochizuki, renowned for his children’s books on the Japanese American experience.

A more spontaneous project developed between the shop teacher, art teacher, and one of the Spanish teachers – who is also a percussionist in an Afro-Cuban band. Justin Maggart wanted drums for his classroom so that he could integrate some music into his Spanish classes. Herb Ellis, shop teacher, was building musical instruments from around the world in his shop classes. Working together, a plan quickly evolved to build drums in shop, paint them in art classes, and then use them in the Spanish classroom and after-school program, allowing students a variety of hands-on cultural experiences.

School-wide international projects help give students a sense of continuity and community. The ASB (Associated Student Body – the student government) has adopted a Companion Flag project as a way to symbolize our international program. For the past two years, students have researched and presented new national flags with their Companion Flags at assemblies on Sept. 11. The national flags show that we celebrate the diversity of our wonderful student body and of the world. At the same time, the companion flags remind us to honor our similarities and the humanness we all share. The flags are displayed in the front entranceway as a constant reminder of what we are about.

Emphasis on learning world languages

Expanding and enhancing our world languages program has been a high priority in the development of our international program. It is a complex process, and has been driven by two self-imposed guidelines:

• Depth over breadth. We have chosen to develop serious three-year programs for Spanish and Japanese rather than to offer a smorgasbord of language introductions.
  
• Inclusion over exclusion. We have chosen to involve all students in the language and culture classes. A program that just benefits our high-achieving students is not sufficient. This year all students (with a few rare exceptions) are taking a class in the World Languages department

Partnerships that support the international dimension of our school

Partnerships have been the cornerstone of our international education program. We are fortunate to have a wide variety of enthusiastic community participants. Our most important partners, however, are our families. HIMS is the recipient of a Family Partnership Grant to help us increase the participation of this wonderfully diverse group families in the school. Other active partners include:

University of Washington. HIMS has benefited from a formal partnership with the University of Washington through the International School Partnership Group. HIMS’ proximity to the UW makes it convenient for UW students to intern at HIMS and for HIMS students to take field trips to the UW, for example to the Burke Museum or the Cultural Fair put on by international students. The UW Business School has created a valuable outreach program, where business students from around the world come to HIMS and have students analyze a global business challenge from a variety of interest-group perspectives. Faculty members from the School of Education, such as Walter Parker, have met with teachers at HIMS to explore avenues for further “internationalization” of their social studies curriculum. UW faculty members have been generous with their time, meeting with HIMS staff to discuss curriculum, assessment, and staff development issues.

Seattle International Children’s Festival. The International Arts Consortium(IAC), funded by the Washington State Arts Commission through a grant to the Seattle International Children’s Festival, has been the backbone of our international arts initiative. The IAC provides numerous artists-in-residence throughout the year. Last year projects included creating a Mexican mural, Mexcian “carpa” street theater, dance traditions from southern Africa, the mural exchange with Ranchi, India, and presentations on West African music. This year we will begin by introducing students in art, shop, and Spanish classes to Día de los Muertos activities from Oaxaca, Mexico. The IAC also provides a trip for all students to the Seattle International Children’s Festival in May.

Jack Straw Productions. Jack Straw is an audio arts center with a focus on international education. Our projects with immigrant students develop English literacy skills while encouraging the exploration and sharing of cultural heritage and experience. Students learn interviewing techniques, write scripts, and work in a professional radio studio to record their work.

World Affairs Council. The World Affairs Council’s Global Classroom program connects teachers and students with international resources, ideas, and people. Frequent international visitors are an important enhancement to the program. For example, last fall the World Affairs Council arranged for the Vice President of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the Commissioner of Tariffs of the Philippines, and a variety of other financial wizards from the Pacific Rim to come to visit HIMS – complete with lunch in the cafeteria – on Halloween. Visitors and students all rose to the occasion and had a terrific day.

The World Affairs Council has also sponsored the much more ambitious Linking Lands project. Last spring, HIMS hosted two teachers from the Arusha area of Tanzania. These visiting teachers made world geography come alive as they told tales of long walks to school, class sizes of 100, and subsistence agriculture. Then, in August, two HIMS teachers had the life-changing experience of visiting their partner teachers in their village near Arusha. Corresponding with partners in Tanzania will now be part of our language arts, social studies, and world cultures curriculum.

Commitment of leadership and faculty to active student learning and continuing professional development

Three overarching goals have been established: improving academic skills and knowledge, eliminating disproportionality, and creating a community built on trust, collaboration, cooperation, and belief in diversity. A prominent strategy in the plan is enhancing and developing curriculum and course offerings to provide a cohesive international education program. This strategy is supported by five key action steps:

• Implement at least one project in each class that addresses issues related to a global perspective.
• Expect all students to take three years of a second language.
• Integrate geography into the world language curriculum.
• Integrate international art themes in the unified arts curriculum.

A transformation team on international education meets regularly to facilitate the implementation of these action steps.

Use of technology to promote international learning

Everyone knows that middle school is the time when children become peer-oriented and when technology becomes irresistible. Having middle schoolers use technology to communicate with peers around the world is a natural, and it allows students to evolve as truly global citizens on their own terms.

HIMS has received two grants to allow the exploration of digital cultural exchanges, a Macromedia’s K-12 Education Innovation Grant and a National Geographic Education Foundation Teacher’s Grant. Working in conjunction with the Bridges to Understanding (http://www.bridgesweb.org) project, HIMS is developing an online cultural exchange with students in Ollantaytambo, Peru. Students use digital cameras and audio recorders to document their own cultures. These pictures, sounds, and stories are then posted to a web site, and are the foundation for subsequent email discussions. HIMS has also been building a sister-school relationship with a school in Nepal. Students have exchanged photographs and created web pages about the project. Technology is also at the foundation of the World Affairs Council’s Linking Land project. A computer lab has been built in Tanzania, and teachers received training. This fall we will be working to create the technology link between the classrooms.

Projects with Jackstraw Productions also engage students through the use of technology, and use the Internet to disseminate the results. Students use digital cameras and world processors to create web site content, and use the elaborate computer and microphone setups in the recording studio to record their stories.

Measures of student success in learning about the world

Assessment is clearest, although by no means simple, in the area of foreign language acquisition. Students are given assessment tests at the beginning and end of each year, while teachers informally evaluate oral proficiency. The HIMS teachers have been trained on the Student Oral Proficiency Assessment (SOPA); a more formal oral proficiency assessment may be added as funding and time permits.

Our next step in assessment is to have students provide evidence that they have indeed raised their level of global citizenship while at HIMS. We expect that students will build portfolios over their three years, and then present them as part of the eighth-grade graduation activities. While language arts and social studies teachers are likely to be the leaders in this effort, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see creative approaches emerge from other classrooms.

Student actions are our best evidence that they are successful in learning about the world. We see students taking the initiative to raise money for small loans to women in Guatemala; students putting on bake sales to buy materials for desks in Afghanistan, students carefully listening to and questioning our international visitors. Our student leaders are spending their time trying to plan a school-wide international service-learning project, while plans for pep rallies take a back seat.

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