CIEE Global Educator Institute
Merida, Mexico: June 21-28, 2025 | Lisbon, Portugal: July 19-26, 2025
Think Global, Teach Local!
Join us in Mexico or Portugal with a small group of U.S. high school teachers to observe CIEE study abroad programs in action and further develop your own instructional practice and global competency.
This professional development experience will help you gain insights into the benefits of teaching a subject in a real-world context and across disciplinary lines. By design, CIEE study abroad programs immerse students in a topic and within a particular cultural and sociological context, making them a perfect setting to reflect as a group on interdisciplinary teaching.
Together with teachers from multiple disciplines from schools around the U.S., participate in daily professional development sessions on interdisciplinary and global learning, and follow students in class and on excursion as they learn about Spanish Language & Mexican Culture and Leadership & Service in Youth Development in Mexico, or Portuguese Language & Culture or Aquatic Ecosystems & Sustainability in Portugal. Meet with CIEE instructors, local cultural experts, and community members. Develop as a group an interdisciplinary unit, lesson(s), or project that you’ll implement in your US-based classroom next fall.
Come home with a Certificate of Completion for 40 hours of professional development, reenergized, and inspired to cultivate a more global mindset at your school.
See what it's like!
Our first Global Educator Institute ran in 2022 in Costa Rica. Check out this video to hear directly from our participants.
What to Expect
The CIEE Global Learning Institute incorporates a blend of structured on-site experiences, including interactive Professional Development sessions, pedagogical discussions, class observations, excursions, CIEE facility tours, and meetings with CIEE instructors, local experts, and students. The PD will center on real-world, interdisciplinary teaching and learning, and departmental collaboration as a driver for K-12 student engagement. This year, participants will have the opportunity to choose between two captivating destinations—Merida, Mexico or Lisbon, Portugal.
Key Learning Outcomes
- Deepen your understanding of global education frameworks, language, and resources (ex. The Global Educator's Benchmark Group, Asia Society's Global Competencies, Project Zero Thinking Routines, etc.).
- Deepen your understanding of relevant instructional strategies and frameworks (ex. Project-Based Learning, Place-based/Experiential Learning, etc.).
- Engage in experiential activities that exemplify and reify understandings of aforementioned strategies and frameworks.
- Deepen your understanding of assessment design that is interdisciplinary and informed by global competencies.
- Examine multiple case studies and leave with a variety of examples of units, lessons, and projects.
- Leave with a drafted overview of a project, lesson or unit, utilizing the Understanding by Design Framework.
Sample Cultural Activities and Excursions in Merida, Mexico
- Enjoy the brightly colored colonial buildings along Paseo Montejo, the tree-lined street known as Mérida’s “Champs Elysees”.
- Discover amazing geological formations like the sacred cenote (swimming hole) and then swim in its crystal-clear waters.
- Explore the Uxmal ruins, an ancient Maya city considered one of the most important archaeological sites of Maya culture.
- Observe a Spanish Language and Culture class and a Leadership and Service class.
- Judge student entries in a guacamole making contest after going with them to a local market to buy ingredients.
- Tour an historical agave farm.
Sample Cultural Activities and Excursions in Lisbon, Portugal
- Get creative at a Portuguese tile workshop and museum tour
- Explore the city of Setúbal and visit the local fish market
- Go dolphin watching!
- Enjoy a traditional Portuguese dinner with live Fado musical performances
- Take a tour of the city of Lisbon
- Visit the Cape Verde Association and enjoy a traditional meal
Deliverable
Exchange ideas and collaborate throughout the PD sessions, with the goal of developing and implementing a globally-focused and interdisciplinary unit, lesson(s), or project in your own US-based classroom.
- Unit plan: A two-week unit plan in French class that focuses on the Tour de France and connects to other disciplines such as geography and math (e.g., topography, routes, distances, conversions), social studies (e.g., cities, historical significance), health (e.g., fitness and training, biking), etc.
- Lesson plan: A science class lesson on climate change and the impact of government policies that integrates history, politics and government, climate science and current events.
- Globally-focused and interdisciplinary project: In a world language class, students select a global issue of interest to them, derived from the UN Sustainable Development Goals, research the issue in depth, and propose an informed action plan to solve the problem, presented in the form of a live Ted Talk.
What's Included
7-day Professional Development Course Price: $3,000
- 40 hours of globally-focused and interdisciplinary learning course
- 15 hours of professional development sessions
- 15 hours of field experience
- 10 hours of program observation
- Seven hotel nights (hotel to be booked by CIEE)
- Any CIEE-planned cultural activities that are included in the group itinerary
- Group ground transportation in country to attend CIEE classes and activities
- Group dinners on some nights of the trip
*Airfare not included
Apply Now
Please fill out this form by March 14.
Consider asking other teachers from different departments in your school to apply, as you may collaborate on an interdisciplinary lesson plan you could execute in your school next fall.
