Their "SprooseJoose" presentation has been viewed by hundreds of educators from all over the world and the response has been enthusiastic.

"The Joose presentation was brilliant. I can't wait to talk to my teachers about it," said Lisa Domeier de Suarez of Canada.

"What is outstanding about the presentation is the learning activity that the students were involved in - it was authentic, required strong problem-solving skills, critical and creative thinking, was dependent on the students working well together, and allowed for unique abilities and talents of the students to shine. Incredible," said Donna desRoches of Canada.

They are absolutely astounded at the level of professionalism of all the products both text and items, such as merchandise and graphics of the "SprooseJoose team". "SprooseJoose", a juice franchise that the students presented as their own choice of English assessment task, has taken them from the classroom to the office of small business, to collaboration with people in Canada and back to their juice bar at Concordia Lutheran College.

The students developed a franchise from the ground up, beginning with market research around Toowoomba and then internationally, to discover what makes a franchise tick, to the final product, a walk-in virtual online juice bar with floor plans and a complete brief that could be used in the industry.

Their "SprooseJoose" director, senior English teacher Rebecca O'Grady, developed the English unit as a collaborative enterprise.

PRENZLAU State School was built in 1894 and offers old world charm, with new world teaching.

With a safe and supportive small school environment of two air-conditioned classrooms, allowing teachers to cater to individual needs of students, from Prep - Year 3 and Year 4-7.

Computer studies are an integral part of the curriculum with high quality programs used throughout all key-learning areas, which all students actively participate in.

The information communication technology facilities are combined in a computer lab at a ratio of two students per computer.

Students have weekly lessons by visiting specialists in the areas of physical education, music and languages other than English.

Other extra curricular activities include: school camp for Years 4-7 every second year, life education, interschool sports, arts council, oral hygiene program, school excursions, small school athletics, swimming, cross country and instrumental music.

At Prenzlau, the students follow a social skills program called 'You Can Do It'. Students in Years 4-7 work throughout the program towards developing skills of success in confidence, organisation, getting along, persistence and resilience.

The school has an active P&C association that meets regularly and supports the school.

For further information, phone 5425 7333.

Educational institutions around the world can now meet the growing challenge of serving foreign students with a new International Payment solution from Custom House, a leading foreign exchange and international payments company.

Increasingly, higher education students are choosing to enrol in Universities and Colleges outside their home countries, creating a new and growing market for educational institutions. In 1999, 1.68 million students worldwide enrolled in foreign institutions. That number climbed to more than 2.7 million in 2005, and is expected to reach 7.2 million by 2025. The United States remains the most popular destination for international students, but other countries are also reporting increased interest from across the border.

Although foreign enrolment levels are on the rise, international students often pose expensive and time consuming administrative problems for many institutions because of language problems, fee invoicing, payments, and currency exchange rates. At the same time, international students often suffer because of fluctuating exchange rates, service fees and the inability of institutions in host countries to accept foreign currency payments or accommodate language differences. These challenges can sometimes be so serious as to influence a student's decision to study abroad.

Custom House's innovative International Payment solutions offer powerful foreign exchange and payment processing capabilities that solve these problems by integrating with existing software to automate the payment process. This simplifies and streamlines the entire international student payment and reporting process from start to finish.

"The Custom House payment proposition almost sounded too good to be true - a modern online payment system at virtually no cost to the University," said Wayne Morgan, Chief Financial Officer, Victoria University. "We implemented the student friendly, simple and effective system with no hassles and no investment. The students and staff love it."

In four easy steps through Custom House's secure online payment website, students can pay tuition fees in a choice of 12 different languages and in their own local currency. Institutions can then reconcile payments quickly, accurately and automatically.

The recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai raise four questions for an educator. First, how did the education of these perpetrators shape such hatred that they could take the lives of hundreds of unarmed civilians? Second, how were the individuals who enabled these perpetrators' actions educated, and why would they turn a blind eye or enable these terrorists to plan their attacks? Third, in what ways do the teachings of history and geography foster limited and intolerant views between India and Pakistan? As the responses of ordinary citizens in both of these countries demonstrate, biased national views constrain the options for leaders to pursue negotiated avenues of cooperation and perhaps increase the risk of military conflict between these nations. Lastly, to what extent has the education of citizens worldwide prepared us to understand the sources of these attacks, their potential consequences, the likelihood of growing global instability, and the appropriate courses of action for the international community?
Schools and universities around the world are not adequately preparing ordinary citizens to understand the nature of global challenges, such as terrorism, climate change, human-environmental interactions, world trade, demographic change, and global conflict. Because of the growing interdependence of nations, resulting from trade, increased frequency of communications, and migratory flows, the ability to understand these modern global challenges is critical. The failure to develop this skill of global citizenship will contribute to growing conflict and undermine the economic competitiveness of nations in which the global competency deficits are most acute.
Political violence is prevalent around the world. Much of this violence stems from people's inability to tolerate those with different views and interests or to work out their differences in peaceful ways. Most of these conflicts have a global dimension, and the international community's reluctance to stage appropriate and effective interventions enables the continuation of these conflicts. In a recent study of the major episodes of political violence from 1946 to 2007, the Center for Systemic Peace documented that during the last decade, 98 conflicts took the lives of 3,565,000 people around the world. Two-thirds of those conflicts persisted longer than a year. The number of people affected by conflict is a multiple several times higher than the number of people who have lost their lives in them.

Thoughts and experiences of educators related to quality and change

ASQ's ImpaQT Training(TM) Brings Continuous Improvement to the Classroom, School, and District" Automobile mechanics know the importance of having a car's wheels in alignment, precisely adjusted so that they are parallel to one another and perpendicular to the road. Proper alignment enables a car to run straight towatd its destination, with minimal steering corrections and sure braking. Poor alignment can cause a car to drift to one side, making handling difficult, even dangerous - especially if you're traveling at a high speed.

"Similarly, successful execution of business strategy requires that all aspects of an organization be aligned with that strategy. The more difficult the challenge the steeper and rockier the road to success, the faster the speed demanded - the greater the importance of alignment." (Zomparelli, 2007)
The Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence also support the importance of strategic alignment, stating, "The term 'alignment' refers to consistency of plans, processes, information, resource decisions, actions, results, and analyses to support key organization-wide goals. Effective alignment requires a common understanding of purposes and goals. It also requires the use of complementary measures and information for planning, tracking, analysis, and improvement at three levels: the organizational level/ senior leader level; the key process level; and the program, school, class, or individual level." (Baldrige, 2008)

Educational institutions around the world can now meet the growing challenge of serving foreign students with a new International Payment solution from Custom House, a leading foreign exchange and international payments company. Increasingly, higher education students are choosing to enrol in Universities and Colleges outside their home countries, creating a new and growing market for educational institutions. In 1999, 1.68 million students worldwide enrolled in foreign institutions. That number climbed to more than 2.7 million in 2005, and is expected to reach 7.2 million by 2025. The United States remains the most popular destination for international students, but other countries are also reporting increased interest from across the border. Although foreign enrolment levels are on the rise, international students often pose expensive and time consuming administrative problems for many institutions because of language problems, fee invoicing, payments, and currency exchange rates. At the same time, international students often suffer because of fluctuating exchange rates, service fees and the inability of institutions in host countries to accept foreign currency payments or accommodate language differences. These challenges can sometimes be so serious as to influence a student's decision to study abroad.

Park University, an innovative institution of higher education, joins America's other innovative colleges and universities in creating and shaping a new interconnected world by preparing global learners through cultural awareness to lead, communicate, and conduct business in a world marketplace. This is made clear in Park's strategic plan, Explorations & Transformations 2012: Access to Excellence and guides me in my service as Park University's president. I accept the duty and responsibility to uphold the university's promise to provide access to academic excellence, both faceto- face and online; and to maintain its commitment to prepare learners for serving an everchanging world.
Since 1875, Park's classes have been filled with student learners who study, live, and work side by side with those from other cultures, as they prepare to embark on career paths that take them into fields such as the arts, education, and business. More recently, Park University has benefited enormously from its participation in the ACE Internationalization Collaborative. Our faculty and staff have engaged with colleagues at peer institutions, sharing best practices and exploring new areas of collaboration worldwide.
I consistently hear from corporate leaders who express frustration about the need to reorient their new hires to think globally. We view international education both as a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. Throughout its history, the university has served international students on its campuses, guided by its mission and vision to prepare learners to serve the global community through lifelong learning. Our core values call upon each of us to reflect on our purpose as a community of scholars and learners to remain engaged in our communities throughout the world.

Founded by actors and philanthropists Jane Kaczmarek ("Malcolm In The Middle," "Raising the Bar") and Bradley Whitford ("The West Wing"), the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation hosts online charity auctions showcasing celebrity attire to raise funds for programs improving children's lives across the globe.

"We were impressed with the quality of World Education's work and were happy to be able to make a meaningful contribution last year to something as important as girls' education in Africa," says Michel Schneider, Clothes Off Our Back Executive Director. "Clothes Off Our Back's focus is to raise funds for children's charities and we continue to raise money and awareness for these kinds of critical efforts."

The organization selected World Education as a nonprofit partner in 2008, and their generous donation has immediately gone to work in Mali and Benin supporting 300 adolescent girls, who would otherwise not be able to attend secondary school. The Batonga Girl's Education Program, a partnership between World Education and Angelique Kidjo's Batonga Foundation, combines educational scholarships with mentoring from successful community women, and tutorial classes to encourage girls' academic achievement.