Educators from Mongolia visit Niskayuna schools
as part of international exchange program
A trio
of teachers from Mongolia will visit Van Antwerp
Middle School in late October as part of the
Sage Colleges’ Civics Mosaic II program, funded
by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of
Education. Civics Mosaic was established to
promote a better understanding of democracy
through teacher exchanges and aims to improve
civics education in Russia, Eurasia and the
United States by creating and sustaining
relationships between the participating
countries.
The
Mongolian educators will observe instruction and
participate in special activities while visiting
Van Antwerp classrooms from October 28-30.
During their stay in the Capital Region, they
will also spend time in classrooms at The Sage
Colleges and Emma Willard School In Troy, as
well as the Colonie and Troy City school
districts. The Mongolian teachers will also
participate in a teacher seminar at Union
Graduate College and have an opportunity to
observe democracy in action, when on the Nov. 4
Election Day, they will visit local polling
places, Albany’s Democratic and Republican
headquarters, and WNYT-TV NewsChannel 13 where
they will watch the election results.
VA seventh-grade social studies teacher Tracey
Newell will continue Niskayuna’s tradition of
participating in the international teacher
exchange program, when as part of the Civics
Mosaic II program, she travels to Mongolia in
April 2009. Three other Niskayuna teachers,
Susan Burke, Stephanie Schecter and Catherine
Snyder, were all involved in the initial Civic
Mosaics program.
The first Mosaic grant concentrated on
strengthening civic education in Russia by
training thousands of teachers each year. The
second grant expands Mosaic to include five
Eurasian countries that lie between Russia and
the Middle East or China: Georgia, Bulgaria,
Armenia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
“The
program serves as a tool for middle and high
school teachers around the globe that they can
use to bridge the gap between civic knowledge
and civic engagement,” said Stephen L. Schechter,
Sage professor of political science and director
of Civics Mosaic and Sage’s Council for
Citizenship Education. “The larger purpose of
Civics Mosaic is to teach students to learn how
to think and act civically and to address the
issues of their own communities and beyond.”
