Peace Corps World Wise Schools

Coverdell World Wise Schools is proud to kick off a yearlong celebration of its twentieth anniversary!

Beginning in 1989 with then-Peace Corps Director Paul Coverdell’s vision, the Correspondence Match program has linked thousands of Peace Corps Volunteers and U.S. classrooms for an exchange of letters, cultures, and ideas. It didn’t take long for World Wise Schools to realize its unique ability to bring foreign cultures and environments to life through Peace Corps Volunteer experiences. Over the years, our resources have grown into a treasure trove of stories, slide shows, videos, podcasts, and case studies, all linked to lesson plans grounded in national standards and an Understanding by Design framework.

During the past twenty years, World Wise Schools has helped to foster significant changes that recognize the importance of teaching about global issues, so that students can develop into responsible global citizens. World Wise Schools would like to celebrate those changes and our role in the future of global issues education by inviting you to its second global issues in the classroom conference, “Educating for a Flattened World.” Discover new approaches for teaching about global issues; gather new resources; and learn from distinguished speakers, panelists, and educators at Peace Corps headquarters on October 15 and 16, 2009.

Have a great school year, and we hope to see you at the conference!

Coverdell World Wise Schools is proud to kick off a yearlong celebration of its twentieth anniversary! Beginning in 1989 with then-Peace Corps Director Paul Coverdell’s vision, the Correspondence Match program has linked thousands of Peace Corps Volunteers and U.S. classrooms for an exchange of letters, cultures, and ideas. It didn’t take long for World Wise Schools to realize its unique ability to bring foreign cultures and environments to life through Peace Corps Volunteer experiences. Over the years, our resources have grown into a treasure trove of stories, slide shows, videos, podcasts, and case studies, all linked to lesson plans grounded in national standards and an Understanding by Design framework. During the past twenty years, World Wise Schools has helped to foster significant changes that recognize the importance of teaching about global issues, so that students can develop into responsible global citizens. World Wise Schools would like to celebrate those changes and our role in the future of global issues education by inviting you to its second global issues in the classroom conference, “Educating for a Flattened World.” Discover new approaches for teaching about global issues; gather new resources; and learn from distinguished speakers, panelists, and educators at Peace Corps headquarters on October 15 and 16, 2009. Have a great school year, and we hope to see you at the conference!			Q. What is the most important thing that your students have learned by corresponding with an overseas Peace Corps Volunteer? A: My students have learned that differences are not “weird,” but different. Every culture does what it does for a reason. Wendy Urquidez; Correspondence Match participant since 1998; Peace Corps Volunteer, Kenya, 1991 – 1993 More teacher responses

			In 1961, the same year that the Peace Corps was established, President John F. Kennedy also created the U.S. Agency for International Development. USAID is a government agency that was created to give a helping hand to those people overseas struggling to make a better life, recover from a disaster, or striving to live in a free and democratic country. Source: USAID



Presentations Want a preview of what you’ll see at the conference? Check out these experts’ global issues presentations from the 2007 conference.		Video What happens at the conference? Hear a colleague’s reaction to the 2007 conference,	Audio Be inspired by then-Peace Corps Director and former teacher Jody Olsen’s welcome to the participants at the 2007 conference!

If this is your first school year as a Correspondence Match teacher, congratulations! We hope that stories and lessons from your Peace Corps Volunteer partner will bring a unique perspective to your teaching. As a best practice, be sure to establish contact with your Peace Corps Volunteer before you set your students’ expectations for the correspondence. Find out your volunteer’s best means of communication, whether it’s letter, email, or another method, and work out a plan for how often you would like to correspond. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns: wwsinfo@peacecorps.gov.	Would you like to bring global issues into your classroom, starting today? Visit our “Global Issues: Working With Communities” resource page for multimedia resources your students will love! Let your students tackle critical global issues as a Peace Corps Volunteer with the Peace Corps Challenge online game. Subscribe and listen to stories written and read by Peace Corps Volunteers who addressed global issues around the world–from Bolivia to Uzbekistan. New stories arrive every month.