January 23, 2012

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES DEANERY — Robert Herring, principal of Nativity of Our Lord School in Pleasant Ridge, has coauthored, along with Mary Ann Buchino, school psychologist at Nativity, a handbook on global education for educators working with students in kindergarten through the eighth grade.

Published by Rowman & Littlefield, Connecting Across Cultures offers practicallow cost or no cost strategies for teaching global education at the elementary school level. The content is based on 30 years of experience and program development at Nativity School, along with interviews with administrators from a variety of schools that participate in the International School to School Experience student exchange program. The five-chapter text includes: how to integrate global education across the curriculum; a program for teaching students the locations of all of the countries of the world, as well as the major capitals and physical features of the continents; how to facilitate student exchanges at the elementary school level; and strategies for enlisting teacher and parent support for global education.

Nativity School offers a global education program that is unique not only for Catholic elementary schools, but also among elementary schools nationwide. In addition, more than 70 exchanges with students from more than 25 countries and a Maps Program that starts in third grade, Nativity School’s program integrates global education in every area of the curriculum and in every grade. Information from alumni indicates that they feel more informed than their high school and college peers regarding the location of countries around the world and about the culture and customs of a wide variety of countries.

The school currently offers Spanish and Chinese in kindergarten through eighth grade, with an option for Latin in the seventh and eighth grades. A teacher from China comes to Nativity regularly as a result of a memorandum of understanding with Long Cheng Middle School in Liuzhou, China. In exchange for the experience of living with Nativity families, the teacher provides lessons in Chinese language and culture during the school year.

The book has received strong endorsements from the archdiocesan superintendent of Catholic schools in Cincinnati, the director of elementary schools for the National Catholic Educators Association, a retired public school superintendent,  as well as professors from Ohio State and the University of Wisconsin.

The text is available locally at Joseph-Beth Booksellers and at www.rowmaneducation.com and www.amazon.com.