My Teaching Award - devin beliveau

California Educator Receives Award for Global Understanding

Santa Ana, CA, November 16, 2015

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) named Devin M. Beliveau, a history teacher and department chair at Samueli Academy, Santa Ana, CA, as the recipient of the NCSS Award for Global understanding in honor of James Becker.

This annual award recognizes a social studies educator or a team of educators, who has made notable contributions in helping social studies students increase their understanding of the world. The award is underwritten by funding from the Longview Foundation. The winner receives a $2,000 cash award, a commemorative gift, a complimentary conference registration, and up to $700 in transportation or lodging expenses.

Beliveau, a social studies teacher for more than 10 years, believes broadening students’ perspectives through relevant cross‐cultural experiences is essential in establishing global understanding. He implements the “Go Global – Increase the Peace” curriculum (www.studentsgoglobal.org) to engage his students in establishing relationships with students in classrooms around the world and in exploring how we are alike to one another, how we are different, and what we can learn from other countries. He enables this powerful, real world communication experience by employing a variety of technology based communication tools, such as e‐mail, Skype, Google Apps, Weebly, Facebook, Twitter, Glogster, PowerPoint, Keynote, YouTube and Prezi. The curriculum motivates students and accommodates different learning styles by giving students a choice in defining the part of a pen pal’s culture they want to study and the mode in which (website, video, Google Slides, etc.) they want to use in creating their project and final presentation.

“This project facilitates citizen‐to‐citizen diplomacy allowing students to humanize each other by consulting each other directly as primary sources,” said Beliveau, and added, “just as our world leaders used to be students, soon our students will be the world leaders. And when they are, we need them to have positive relationships around the world, so when international disagreements arise there will be a better chance they will be solved diplomatically.”

Beliveau shared his valuable experiences in teaching for global understanding in an interactive session this past weekend at the 95th NCSS Annual Conference, Nov. 13-15, in New Orleans, LA. In addition, Beliveau has presented at the Maine and California Councils for the Social Studies conferences and has mentored and coached students through the National History Day competition.

Beliveau received a B.A. in Government with a minor in Music from Colby College in Waterville, Me, and a M.A. in Education and single subject credential in History/Social Science from the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA. Through the International Center for French Studies in Dijon, France, he lived with a host family and attended University of Burgundy for a fall semester.

The National Council for the Social Studies was founded in 1921 and has grown to be the largest association in the country devoted to social studies. The mission of National Council for the Social Studies is to provide leadership, service, and support for all social studies educators. ### National Council for the Social Studies 8555 Sixteenth Street, Suite 500 . Silver Spring, MD 20910 .301-588-1800 .fax 301-588-2049 www.socialstudies.org Preparing Students for College, Career, and Civic Life