Australian Educators Visit US

On Monday, October 30, 2006, a group of 14 educators from across Australia visited 2 School District of Philadelphia schools: Blankenburg Elementary School in West Philly and the High School for Creative and Performing Arts, Downtown.  The Australians visited a number of schools in selected cities across the United States.  In Philadelphia, their hosts were the architects, Ed Kirkbride and David Anstrand, and John Sole, Founder of Guerilla Educators.  At Blankenburg, the educators saw a magnificent 30 foot by 10 foot tile mosaic created by students in 6th and 7th grades.  The mosaic was done under the auspices of world class Community Partner, NetworkArts.  The students first learned about such issues as about water use and conservation, alternative energy, sustainable architecture, and greenspaces then they reimagined Philadelphia as a Green City.  The mosaic was the culmination of a 2 year Service Learning initiative.  In the first year, 4th grade students learned about sustainable design then, working in small coppoerative groups they designed and built 6 models which reimagined their school as a Green High Performance facility.  This project had SchraderGroup Architects as their primary Community Partner. 
The Australians were met by Dr. Christina Spink, Principal of Blankenburg.  Chris invited the educators to interact with students and teachers in the classrooms.  The Australian educators had an invaluable, unvarnished snapshot of a typical school day in an inner city  public school in Philadelphia.  They saw at Blankenburg that world class education is possible despite the challenges of urban education in a building constructed in 1923.  They also saw the end product -the magnificent mosaic- of a world class Service Learning project.