Elementary school teacher Christina Mesk has garnered a 2024 Big Apple Award from the New York City Department of Education for her work promoting global education experiences. Photo Credit: New York City Public Schools

Whenever an outstanding educator earns recognition for their work with young people, I am excited. Today I am excited about New York elementary school teacher Christina Mesk, who has garnered a 2024 Big Apple Award from the New York City Department of Education.

Christina teaches Special Education to fifth graders at Public School 1, The Bergen School, located in Brooklyn. She has worked at the school for 20 years. In her self-contained classroom, Christina has create a nurturing and supportive learning environment that is student-centered. There she places emphasis in which risk-taking is encouraged.

Most especially, though, Christina’s curriculum incorporates exchanges with students in other countries. “My students have used virtual exchange to speak with travelers and experts in Colombia, Cambodia, Mongolia, Bolivia, and Antarctica,” explains Christina. “These virtual exchanges have enriched our classroom experience and helped my students to understand that people in different parts of the world have different feelings and perspectives,” she continues. “The relationships they have formed with these travelers and experts have resulted in an understanding that there is more than one way to live life and be a human,” she concludes.

Christina earned her Bachelor’s degree in English and Language Arts from the University of Mount Saint Vincent in New York in 2004. She earned her Master’s degree in Special Education from Hunter College in New York in 2008.

To learn more about Christina’s work with the Fulbright Global Classrooms Program, click on this link to an article published by the University of Mount Saint Vincent.