Today’s youth encounter peers from a variety of different backgrounds, including many multilingual and multicultural students whose families have recently arrived in a new home country.  Journeys in Film teaches receptive young minds to respond to diversity with openness and empathy, rather than with negative attitudes and behaviors.

Students seldom need to be coaxed into watching films– it is a media that evokes emotion and provokes stimulating discussion both inside and outside of the classroom.  Films can also make other cultures come alive in a way that no other media can.

For these reasons we offer:

• Curriculum Guides based on age-appropriate feature-length foreign films
• Professional Development Workshops for educators
• A proven, Results-Based Methodology
• Additional Teaching Resources to help educators develop global competency

These tools are important to help youth prepare for an increasingly interconnected world and marketplace, as well as to promote cultural understanding and acceptance in the classroom setting.  Middle school students are at a particularly impressionable age – deciding what they believe, forming stronger opinions about the world around them, and exploring beyond their parents’ views and ideas.

During this critical developmental phase we believe that:

• Students need to be exposed to other cultures in a meaningful way
• Students should be able to put people of other nations into a real life context
• Students should be passionately engaged in academic subjects, with innovative materials to promote literacy
• Students must be educated for a global economy and future

We also recognize the needs of educators:

• Educators need effective classroom materials for today’s media-centric youth
• Educators want creative classroom tools for teaching basic skills in reading, writing, math and science
• Educators seek innovative professional development opportunities that are relevant to the needs of their students