April 7, 2021
University of Missouri College of Education students are already making global connections thanks to a collaboration between Mizzou Academy and the College of Education’s Social Studies program.
This month, social studies preservice teachers connected with a classroom in a Brazil high school via Zoom. Mizzou students shared about their lives on campus, answered questions, congratulated high school students on class presentations and observed teachers who were navigating technology to engage both in-person and online students simultaneously.
“The best part of our experience with our Brazil classroom field trip was being able to communicate with students and seeing them bursting with positive energy,” said Elizabeth Price, an undergraduate in the social studies education cohort. “I know I can learn so much from their joy and kindness!”
Student Ben Halverson, said the trip helped him experience the pandemic world through a teacher’s lens. “With the way our world has been affected by the pandemic, it is definitely something I have personally experienced as a student but getting to see what it is like from a teacher’s perspective was an extremely cool experience.”
Program leaders are already thinking about how to expand this experience to other content areas and future classroom visits.
