Interview with Greg Johnson

I first met Greg Johnson several years ago at Pine Valley Elementary School in New Hanover County, where he worked as a paraeducator. Previously, he'd graduated from UNCG with a degree in Literature, and he had worked as a Flight Attendant. This past December, he graduated from UNCW with his degree in Elementary Education. He did his student teaching at Blair Elementary and in Kuwait at The American Creativity Academy of Kuwait. He taught a second grade class at Blair and taught first grade boys in Kuwait. Since graduation from UNCW, he received a job at Pine Valley Elementary as an intervention specialist with a focus on reading.

In the past, Pine Valley has strongly encouraged cultural studies. The ESL department used to hold a World Cultures Fair, the students participated in a school-wide Flat Stanley project, and the school donated books to the Home of Hope in India. "21st Century Skills" is a buzz word that is promoted by the administration at Pine Valley, and all measures are being made to try and outfit classrooms with projectors, mimeos, webcams, and multiple computers. As a teacher, Mr Johnson's goal is to "instill a love of travel and a curiosity about other cultures." The student population at Pine Valley is very diverse, and he feels it is important for teachers to create a global awareness of other cultures.

While student teaching at Blair, Mr. Johnson taught the 7 continents' map locations by taking the students on a flight around the world to visit each continent. He said that the student interest was high, and Greg made it engaging by giving each student his/her own passport and his presentation about each continent encouraged the students to imagine flying on an airplane. Mr. Johnson also used an interactive globe that the students tapped with their departure city and arrival city. The globe "told" them how many miles they traveled and how long the flight took. While in Kuwait, the students there seemed more interested in Mr. Johnson's experiences, but not so interested in the American children back in Wilmington. Due to time zone differences, Greg was not able to get the classes to do a live Skype. His students in Kuwait were very wealthy and well traveled. Two of his students were Kuwaiti Royalty. The school seemed to work in two ways: 1)It followed traditional Arabic tradition in that boys were on one campus and girls on the other. The class received Arabic and Islam from Arab teachers. 2) The core subjects of math, science, language arts, and social studies were taught by Americans or Canadian and taught in English. The curriculum was modeled after the Minnesota standard course of study.

As mentioned above, time zone differences impeded the two classes from having a live Skype session with each other. I found it interesting in our interview that the conflict between Jewish Isreal and Palestine plays in important role in education in Kuwait. Teachers cannot teach WWII with a focus on the Holocaust or the death of Jews, but must teach about all those who died in WWII. While he was there, a popular TV show bleeped out the word Jew like American TV bleeps out curse words. Another constraint felt by Mr. Johnson in US schools is the strong emphasis on End of Grade testing prep that makes lessons more streamlined and somewhat limited in depth.

Mr. Johnson feels that his education at UNCW did a wonderful job of bringing global awareness into his class, especially in language arts and social studies classes that integrated using children's literature as a way to integrate global studies. His opportunity to travel abroad to Kuwait further opened his mind to global issues and to how children learn.

I feel that Mr. Johnson's experiences in his life and education will always be reflected in his teaching and impact student learning in a positive and engaging way. Our interview lasted forever, because I was fascinated with his experiences overseas and we shared some fantastic ways to teach children empathy to improve classroom cooperation. This cooperation can then be applied to working with others in the job force no matter what culture they belong. All of Mr. Johnson's 2nd graders can identify the 7 continents, and I bet many of them will keep their passports forever. Some may even be inspired to get a real passport to enable them to see the world their own way. This interview was encouraging. The more educated and global our teachers are, the more positively they impact students to become global thinkers.