Students worldwide

After teaching in four different schools, Yousey said the profession requires a balance of different approaches. Depending on students’ needs, she said exposing students to a multitude of learning styles is most effective. 

“I’ve always asked myself that question – ‘What is the best way to teach?’” Yousey said. “It depends what your goals are, and if our goal is communication and cultural competency, then I think a combination is good.”

Yousey said she has found similarities between students in different school systems, despite every student being unique.

“They have a lot of the same needs in all those places that I’ve taught,” she said. “They’re motivated by interesting material, some students learn more quickly, others learn more slowly.”

Ganeshananthan said connections in education systems are a global way for the students within them to thrive.

“Through the six schools that I’ve worked at, the most important thing is relationships,” he said. “Schools are very delicate, you know, ecosystems that can fall apart, and ultimately that is really going to be underpinning any kind of progress, or growth or development for any students or the school.”

Similarly, Waltz said one consistency through his teaching experiences in different environments is the parallels of student growth in different locations.

“Students are students everywhere,” he said. “I mean, I’ve spent most of my career teaching in rural middle-of-nowhere places, and now I’m in a metropolitan city at ASL. It’s really interesting to me, the similarities that I see.”

Moreover, Densley said there will always be correlations among students, despite being at schools with various people, environments and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“Some facts of just being a teenager are sort of universal to an extent,” she said. “That’s something I’ve seen a lot of, is that at the end of the day, kids are kids no matter where they are.”