Germantown Friends School is excited to venture into the realm of online instruction this year. Along with Sidwell Friends in Washington, D.C., and the Lakeside School in Seattle, as well as seven other leading independent schools across the country and abroad, GFS is participating in the launch of the Global Online Academy, a not-for-profit organization offering world-class online courses—including Media Studies, Urban Studies, Math for the Computer Scientist and Global Health—taught by passionate and gifted teachers.
The mission of the Global Online Academy is to replicate in online classrooms the intellectually rigorous programs and excellent teaching that are hallmarks of its member schools; to foster new and effective ways for students to learn; and to promote students’ global awareness and understanding by creating truly diverse, worldwide, online classroom communities. Global Online courses will be limited to 18 students per class, who will work independently as well as collaborate on projects using Skype, the Internet and the telephone. The courses, for students in eleventh and twelfth grades, are meant to supplement, not replace, traditional classes. Upper School English teacher Meg Goldner Rabinowitz will offer her Media Studies course and Biology teacher Alyson Solomon has been selected to offer a bioethics course during the 2012-13 year.
As a founding member of the Global Online Academy, GFS can now offer courses that would not otherwise be available to our students, as well as share our own teachers’ expertise with students beyond our campus and make our signature courses more widely available. The Global Online Academy program brings together great teachers and great students in an interactive, rigorous learning environment; provides a wide range of courses that challenge, motivate and stimulate students; and creates classroom identities that represent global perspectives by tapping into geographical, cultural and ethnic diversities made possible by a rich online environment.
In addition to GFS, Lakeside and Sidwell Friends, the Global Online Academy’s participating schools include Albuquerque Academy (Albuquerque, NM); Catlin Gabel School (Portland, OR); Cranbrook Schools (Bloomfield Hills, MI); The Dalton School (New York, NY); Head-Royce School (Oakland, CA); King’s Academy (Madaba-Manja, Jordan); and Punahou School (Honolulu, HI).
"Online Global Academy Expands Students' Horizons" Go»
"The goal is for participating schools to offer their challenging courses online and show that they are taking a cutting-edge idea into the next phase of education."
Dick Wade
Head of School