What+is+Global+Classrooms?


 * __What is Global Classrooms and Why is it Important?__**

Global Classrooms is a UNA-USA edu**cational program that integrates preparation for a Model United Nations Conference into the History and Social Sciences curriculums** of middle and high school-age students around the world. The program, rather than emphasizing success at the culminating Model UN Conferences as its sole purpose, **teaches students invaluable lessons in communications, tolerance, and problem-solving. It also strengthens students’ critical thinking skills and opens up their horizons by teaching them to think about issues that may or may not directly affect them from diverse points of view.** And lastly, for those students who participate in the program in bilingual schools outside of the United States, it **brings their level of English to a whole new level** by forcing them to express complex ideas and to negotiate and debate in English. The improvement in Global Classrooms students’ level of the English language as well their level of confidence and ability to think critical after having participated in the conference and the year of preparation is remarkable.

Global Classrooms has been a part of the curriculum in Madrid’s 10 bilingual schools for four years now, since 2006. **The program is operated by a collaborative partnership between Madrid’s regional government, the United States Embassy, The British Council, and the Fulbright Commission.** In March of 2010 approximately 220 students from Madrid’s secondary bilingual schools participated in the program and 10 students—one from each school--traveled to New York City to participate in a Model UN Conference there with students from all over the world.


 * __Global Classrooms helps students learn how to:__**


 * Develop their literacy skills
 * Read Critically
 * Communicate effectively in writing
 * Develop public speaking skills
 * Understand the ideals and work of the United Nations
 * Cooperate and work together
 * Learn how to resolve conflicts
 * Realize that they are citizens of the world and that their home extends beyond their current neighborhood and city.

Each Madrid bilingual secondary school prepares for Global Classrooms in its own way, but all of them integrate the program into the normal school curriculum. History and English teachers work with the Fulbright and Madrid Regional Government English Language Teaching Assistants to teach the Global Classrooms curriculum to the students. After learning how the conference works, and what is expected of them as well as practicing their research, writing, public speaking, and critical thinking skills, students are eventually assigned country delegations from all over the globe. Their job is to find out all they can about their country and to represent their nation in a conference on a given topic. The Model UN Conference topics change every year and can range from de-mining initiatives, to the quality of primary education, to solutions for malaria.


 * __By the end of the Global Classrooms program, students will know how to:__**
 * · Use the specific and appropriate **vocabulary** needed for the conference procedure
 * · Write a **Position Paper** that effectively represents their country and defends their policies as well as offers solutions for the problem at hand
 * · Effectively **debate in both formal and informal caucuses**
 * · **Write and deliver speeches** a well **speak spontaneously** on the spot in front of large groups of people
 * · **Think fast** and **share their ideas** with their fellow students
 * · Provide **suggestions for solutions** to problems
 * · Draft and official **Resolution Paper**, similar to those used in the United Nations Itself
 * · **Work as a team**

For more information about Global Classrooms in general, visit the website at [] And to find out more about Global Classrooms at the IES Parque de Lisboa, read on!!