Hello, and welcome to Ms. Bollinger's Global Classroom. My name is Emily Bollinger, and throughout my fellowship year, I was a ninth-grade English teacher at Park Center IB World School in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, just north of Minneapolis. From 2018-2022, I taught English to 9-12 graders at the Osseo Area Learning Center (OALC), an alternative high school in Brooklyn Park. During the 2020-2021 school year, I was also a Teacher on Special Assignment - Admin Designee for the Distance Learning Academy, a pandemic-response school that served nearly 25% of the district's students. In August 2022, I began a new role as an Instructional Coach and am working with educators at OALC and Maple Grove Senior High.
Over the course of my career, I have taught thousands of beautiful, brilliant learners, and now I am able to impact many, many more through my work with their teachers. Regardless of my position in education, my passions have always been equity and global education, which are certainly interconnected. In 2017, I was selected as a Teachers for Global Classrooms (TGC) fellow. This website was developed over the course of my fellowship year and includes a wealth of information gained from an intensive ten-week course. Additionally, it includes a blog about my travels, including my international field experience in Colombia in July 2018. Over the course of a year-and-a-half, I planned a student-travel trip to Peru, and in the process, I also traveled to Paris, both of which are also documented on the blog. My own learning regarding global education has continued since my TGC fellowship, and I was selected to participate in the Teacher Leadership Program through Qatar Foundation International and the University of Texas at Austin: this includes travel to Austin, Dearborn, Chicago, Baltimore, New Orleans, and Doha. This program started in January 2020 and, due to the pandemic, is concluding in March 2023. Additionally, I traveled to Germany with Centropa's Summer Academy the summer of 2022, and my adventures in Hamburg and Berlin are documented on the blog as well as via Instagram and Facebook. Global education is an urgent necessity, but it is not something brand-new, nor is it yet another initiative; rather, it is a lens through which to view curriculum and instruction. It both can and should be infused in every subject and at every grade level, and hopefully the resources on this site will help that happen. |
"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."
Mother Teresa
The Osseo Area Learning Center (OALC) is an alternative high school for students whose needs are not being met in a traditional high school setting. The OALC offers personalized learning with high expectations, a welcoming and inclusive environment, and holistic support for students and families. Currently, we have 200 students and a waiting list. Forty-eight percent of our students are black, 20% are white, 14% are two or more races, 9% are Latino, 6% are Asian, and 2% are American Indian. Approximately 12% of our students receive EL services, and 12% receive special education services. An estimated 65% receive Free/Reduced Lunch, and we also serve a number of homeless students and families.
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Park Center IB World School is located in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, and is home to nearly 2,000 students: 35% black, 32% Asian, 17% white, 12% Latino, 5% multi-racial, and 1% American Indian. The racial demographics can be broken down even further, as Minneapolis/St. Paul have the largest percentage of Hmong, Liberian, and Somali individuals outside of their areas of origin. Accordingly, 12% of the students receive EL services, but more than 50% are multi-lingual, speaking a language other than English at home. Additionally, 12% of the students receive Special Education services, and 66% receive Free/Reduced Lunch.
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Park Center is an International Baccalaureate (IB) school and provides 100% of ninth and tenth graders with Middle Years Programme curriculum as well as self-selected eleventh and twelfth graders with the full Diploma Programme. The IB "aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect."
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Our mission is to inspire and prepare all students with the confidence, courage, and competence to achieve their dreams, contribute to community, and engage in a lifetime of learning.
District 279 Mission Statement