Global Awareness & Au Pairs
Hi, I wanted to know if anyone knows about a program called global awareness? My sister told me about her son's classroom who had an au pair come in and do a program on Brazil, where she was from.
She told the class about the food they eat, some Portuguese words (they don't speak Spanish in Brazil, I didn't know that!) and what the au pair program was about. The boy came home with art work he did with the au pair and his classmates, it was a drawing of Brazil.
Is this something all the agencies do? Does the school do this and invite the au pairs? My sister does not know and it sounded very interesting to me.
Curious host mom from NYC
Au Pair in America's Global Awareness
Hi Curious Host Mom from NYC,
Thanks for the good question - we have never discussed this program before here on the Clearinghouse. What you are referring to is a volunteer program developed by Au Pair in America, as a marketing device, that takes place in the public (or private) schools.
The program's definition (from their Global Awareness Website) reads:
What is Global Awareness?
Global Awareness is an educational program designed to promote multi-cultural understanding and appreciation in elementary and middle school classrooms
The agency's counselors are primarily responsible for getting this program in their local schools. It is not mandatory, and the majority of Au Pair in America's counselors do not utilize this marketing method on a large scale because it requires a major time investment on their part. Au pair counselors are pretty busy people and they are not eager to tackle a major cultural presentation several times a year!
From the Au Pair in America's Global Awareness Website:
Au Pairs, who have been selected and trained by their community counselors, participate with children in their classrooms by either supporting the existing curriculum or by presenting age-appropriate modules aimed at enhancing multi-cultural knowledge.
Au pairs are asked to "volunteer" to work on a presentation to be made to a classroom - they must put together posters, handouts, possibly arts & crafts, samples of their country's cuisine, music, etc. It sounds wonderful and it is when done well.
The main problem has been getting au pairs to invest their time in a project that nets no tangible benefit for them, other than teaching children about their country. Most au pairs cannot see the value in this and are instead looking for volunteer jobs to help them earn their required educational credits for the year, or to gain experience in their future career choices: nursing, business, psychology,accounting, computers, etc.
Au Pair in America's hope is that the children will bring home the Global Awareness brochures (with Au Pair in America's marketing information on the au pair program) and parents' interests will be ignited and they will call the agency.
How many host parents do they recruit by using Global Awareness? It is hard to say since they don't collect data on this and the program is underutilized. However, I would say, if you have an au pair with Au Pair in America and you would like her to share her culture in your child's class, contact your counselor and check out their website: http://www.globalawareness.com/about.asp
au pair global awareness was a dud
When we were with Au Pair in America (less than a year, we were not very impressed by the quality of their au pairs or staff), we did try and get our au pair from South Africa to present through the Global Awareness program. The au pair was interested and did want to do this but we could never get the counselor to help her.
It is a big deal and the au pair needs help organizing it and getting access to the school. Someone from the agency has to call the teacher and principal to get permission to do these presentations and our counselor just never "got around" to it. Was she busy? Yes. Was she supposed to do this? I don't think so, which is a big part of the problem. But, to be fair, we were not with the program long enough to farily judge this program, it is possible that our counselor would have gotten to it, as she kept promising to do so!
Re: Global Awareness and au pairs...
One of our previous au pairs was a preschool teacher in Mexico before she came here and she asked us if she could volunteer in my daughter's classroom. We approached her teacher, his was kindergarten, and the teacher loved the idea. Our au pair read and did games and songs in my daughter's class once a week for about 15 to 20 minutes, and it was always scheduled on a day she did pick up, just before picking up the kids. The kids loved it, my daughter, of course felt special having her au pair there, and having everyone know she lived with us. We are with Cultural Care, and while there is no formal program in place, we did it in our own way, if that makes sense. If it is something you are interested in doing, ask your au pair or preschool teacher if you can do something and there maybe something that could work that will be enriching to both your au pair and your kids.
Great Experience for both Au Pair & School Children
Thanks kaliforniafamily for sharing - it sounds wonderful. If you can get your au pair in the school, it can be a very satisfying experience for the au pair and the school children. I hope someone taped it!
Yes, it does make sense - you did it your way without the 'formal program.' Sometimes things work out better this way, when you don't have too much red tape and a script.
Edina
Global Awareness and Au Pairs in the Schools
The program sounds great and their website is nicely done. I work in the school systems (public) and I wanted to remind all those parents and au pairs who are interested in doing something like this - schools now are very wary who they let in to do a presentation. Security is the main issue, but also, teachers really don't have a lot of time to give an au pair to do an hour's presentation.
I would think it would be difficult to get in and get permission from the school's prinicipal to do this unless you knew someone.