Noah Zeichner
Congratulations to Noah Zeichner, the World Affairs Council’s 2013-14 World Educator! Each year, the Council honors a local K-12 teacher who demonstrates leadership in connecting students to the world and contributes to the development of new programs and resources that enable other teachers to do the same.
For almost a decade, Noah has taught Social Studies and Spanish at Sealth International High School. He works diligently to keep each of his students engaged on a global level. For the past six years Noah has taught a class called Global Leadership in which students learn to work as a community as they learn about contemporary global problems. His students then take their knowledge to a nearby elementary school and teach 5th graders lessons that they develop together. For the past three years, he has facilitated a student-led, school-wide festival called World Water Week. This year he helped organize an interdisciplinary 9th grade project (world history/language arts/science) at Chief Sealth. Three hundred students studied water issues and created action projects based on research done during a field experience day. The ten 9th grade classes were connected with ten classes in Kenya with whom they shared their findings. Currently, Noah is deeply engaged in the development of the dual language/Spanish immersion program at Chief Sealth, the first of its kind in the region (content area classes in Spanish).
One of his former students describes Noah this way: When I had him as a teacher, he led by example. His lessons were always meaningful and fulfilling, and we were asked to view issues in ways that challenged our preconceived notions of history and perspective. I often find myself being the only one in my college classes who has ever heard of Jane Addams, who has studied the effects of climate change on the tiny country of Tuvalu, or who intimately understands the annexation of Hawai’i from a native Hawaiian perspective. Coming into this university with a conception of myself as a global citizen has given me a leg up on my peers, because my view of the world is more nuanced. This is all thanks to Noah Zeichner.
Outside of the classroom, Noah wears many “world educator” hats. Last year he was chosen by the Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to be a Teacher for Global Classrooms Fellow. Since 2004 he has served as a Global Visionaries Curriculum Team Member and Lead Teacher. For the last six years he has served as a Classroom Partner Teacher and Program Committee Member. Since 2010 he has served as a Teacher Consultant for the Washington New Millennium Initiative for the Center for Teaching Quality. Global Classroom is proud to have him as one of our Teacher Liaisons – and now our 14th World Educator recipient!