EDT6035

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Comment by Ashley Grant on August 23, 2014 at 3:59pm

 

I chose to use Global SchoolNet because for me, it was the easiest site to navigate. What I liked about this particular website is that it had advanced search options that allowed me to search by age group, content and various other criteria. I chose to have my students research about The Day I Was Born activity because I found that it related the most to what my 6th grade students will be doing within their statistics and probability unit at the end of the year and also my students really love to talk about themselves. The goal of this website is to have students work collaboratively and share information about the day they were born. This fits perfectly with the assignment given to my students because they will be using this resource as a database of information and adding to that information.

Not only will my students be adding to the website, they will also be using the information and data from around the world to complete their own project. They get to chose their topic and develop their own questions regarding their own birthday or even trends around the world (we will develop these skills throughout the entire school year so it won't be as crazy as it sounds).

This is considered global awareness because the students will be researching about different countries and depending on the topic they choose they might end up researching the favorite song or food from a particular region. This project allows for the students to "take the information wherever they want to go".

As previously mentioned, this lesson will take place towards the end of the school year since much time will be needed to develop these thinking skills. In addition, it will need to take place after our statistics unit. I plan on having it be a project they complete in class towards the end of the school year.

  

Comment by Mr. Peterson on August 14, 2014 at 7:32pm

"Water World", by Hungry Teacher
www.hungryteacher.com
Let's talk water.
Mathematical Domains: Geometry, Measurement and Data, Numbers and Operations, Ratios and Proportional Relationships, The Number System

Standards: Grade Levels 6, 7, 8: 6.RP.3, 6.NS.1, 6.G.1, 7.RP.1, 7.RP.2, 7.RP.3, 7.EE.3, 7.EE.4, 7.G.1, 8.NS.1, 8.EE.3, 8.EE.4, 8.G.9, 8.SP.3

Topics: Percents, Ratios, Measurement, Fractions, Decimals, Area, Conversions

Comment by Kelley on August 13, 2014 at 3:07pm

This lesson was designed as a way for students to learn about other cultures by conducting research while connecting with students around the world. Students will improve their writing and reading skills by participating in iEARN’s The Teddy Bear Project. “This project aims to foster tolerance and understanding of cultures other than your own. After teachers register, the facilitator matches you with a partner class. Once paired, classes send each other a Teddy Bear or other soft toy by airmail through the normal postal system.  The bear sends home diary messages by email or through the iEARN Teddy Bear Forum at least once a week. The students write the diary messages as if they are the visiting bear describing its experiences in the new culture.” The essential question for this lesson is How are people and places alike and different? 

I chose iEARN’s Teddy Bear Project because I thought it was a really fun activity that would allow my students to connect with students around the world and get to know them on a personal basis. Simply by exchanging teddy bears, my students would have to think about their own culture to find a bear that represents our way of life and we could analyze the bear that was sent to us to grasp their culture. I also liked the idea of writing weekly emails to our partner country because it would allow my students to get to know their class on a personal level. I also liked the idea of going through iEARN because I felt safer connecting with another classroom knowing that they made a safe match.

This lesson is considered global awareness because my students will be learning about students from another part of the world and they will be learning about us. My hope is that the class will form a long-time bond with the partner class and we will continue to communicate globally as the years go on.

Comment by Brenda Tomeo on August 13, 2014 at 7:44am

This activity involved creating an assignment which promotes collaboration with other educators from another part of the world.  EPals, was the tool used to collaborate and create a lesson while embracing Global Awareness.   I wanted my students to be able to connect, design and discuss with people from across the globe.  My lesson focuses on creating logos and understanding the key terms associated with Registered Trademarks and Copyright logos.  The lesson focuses also on proper grammar, reading, writing and corresponding through email and eventually video chat.  The classroom I had chosen to work with was located in Russia.  The project listed on ePals was interesting as it related to items we currently do within our own classroom.  It clearly relates to what we work on and thought it would be a great project to continue to build upon.  Our class  has an ongoing lesson relating to logos and how they are created, what is the process, what a registered trademark and copyrighted logo entail.  It seemed that the project which was begun on ePals could benefit and relate to what my students learn in class.  It would be exciting to learn about different cultures and allow my students to learn more about life outside of Delaware.  Often students do not venture outside of the state let along the country.   It is a great opportunity for students to correspond with other people from different backgrounds.  I enjoyed searching the various projects which were already started and the ease of use was a great feature to search by location, topic and classrooms.  Using ePals is a great way for students to interact with those outside of the country.  Students then understand the differences and similarities between the 2 classrooms.  It provides a real understanding of the subject material as well as involves the students that no ordinary lesson could provide.  By capturing their attention, they would be more likely to retain new information and participate in the lesson more.   Students are more adapt at learning new things when the information or lesson is presented in a variety of formats.  I enjoyed researching about different countries and found that Russia proved to be the most beneficial. 

 

Comment by adfasedf asdfadsfa on June 20, 2014 at 8:18pm

Tom,

Your activity sounds very interesting. I especially like how students conference with each other via skype, instead of just blogging with them. I feel that Face-to-face interaction can help facilitate cultural exchanges easier and more meaningful than simply writing to each other back and forth (nothing, or course, replaces actual physical meetings). I think your idea is a great way to expose students to different writing styles. I also feel that your students may be more motivated to produce a quality product when they know that, in a way, they are representing their entire country. How do you plan on addressing the language barrier? Will your class be working with English-speaking students or will you students have to learn/translate Spanish/Portuguese? 

Comment by adfasedf asdfadsfa on June 18, 2014 at 8:03pm

Last week we learned about a variety of tools that could be used in the classroom to facilitate cultural exchanges. After exploring these tools, I decided to use ePals for my global curriculum instruction. Essentially, ePals allows students to email students from around the world and engage in international dialogue. I chose ePals because it services a large population around the world and offers many safeguards such as ensuring that student posts are moderated. Teachers also have the flexibility to increase or decrease the level of safeguards depending on the age of students. For my global instruction lesson plan, I had students introduce themselves to students from other countries with simple background information.
The purpose of this activity was to teach students how to use ePals and introduce themselves to students from other cultures. I envision using ePals intermittently for the entire year, so investing time in strong introductions is important. Eventually, my students will use ePals in order to strengthen their understanding of historical interpretations and cultural bias. Students will chose from a list of historical and current world events and begin dialogues with students from other cultures. These activities will help my students understand how history is often socially constructed and that a good historian must examine different pieces of evidence from different cultural lenses.
I believe my lesson relates directly to global awareness. First of all, students are stepping outside of their cultural comfort zone and engaging in meaningful dialogue with students from other countries. Additionally, they are researching important world events and analyzing those events from a non-Western point of view. I think it’s very important that students realize how drastically different other countries view the world, and that the interpretations of the United States are one of many different viewpoints that exist globally. Analyzing events from multiple perspectives will also help my students become less ethnocentric as they continue their social development
Finally, I envision incorporating ePals into the curriculum throughout the year, probably 1-2 times a marking period. I think it would be wonderful to globally dialogue about major world historical events as we learn about them in social studies class. Additionally, students can use current event topics to discuss modern current events. Students will need computers to complete the bulk of the research/ blogging, but luckily out team has a set of computers of wheels (COWS).

Comment by Emily June Hughes on June 17, 2014 at 12:41pm

For my Global Awareness assignment I decided to use ePals.  My seventh grade Social Studies class would be able to benefit from collaborating with students from across the world. I would have my students work in partners and then they would work with the students in the other class across the world.  The students would pick a global issue with their partners and they would attempt to solve it.  They would research and learn everything they can about the issue.  The students would then have to collaborate to make an action plan to help the social issue going on.  Who would the students involve?  What would the students do?  How could the students bring attention to the situation going on?  Why did the students chose this situation?  What is really going on in the situation?  Whose side are the students on?  All of the questions previously stated would be answered in their final project.  The students will have to make an action plan and write a reflection explaining all these questions.  The students will also have to give a presentation on their cause and their findings and what they plan to do.  This project would take at least half of the year.  I know that is a long time to work on this project but the project will entail a lot of research and work.  I want the students to take their time and I want the students to be able to focus on helping someone else and on how to achieve an end goal.  This project will force the students to learn about current events, become globally aware, compare alliances, analyze past events/situations/solutions and the students will have to think critically on what they are to do.

Comment by Deb Unruh Miller on June 17, 2014 at 12:28pm

I chose to do a lesson using ePALS for my kindergarten class.  I wanted to find something that I thought my young students could really understand, and something that they could do somewhat independently, or with teacher help, allowing for differentiation.  I would like to choose a class in a different region of the US, as well as a class from another country.  I would have my class keep a chart of things that are the same and different from their own experiences (i.e., traditions, holidays, customs, vacation days, neighborhood experiences, etc.)  In addition to communicating through email, I would have my students communicate through Kid Blog and have the other students follow and comment on each other's blogs.  The lesson is a global awareness lesson because it exposes my students to people from other countries, cultures and geographic regions of the world.  By getting to know other students their age, they can compare and contrast similarities and differences.  The overarching hope is that through this activity my students will learn respect for diversity as well.  This lesson can easily be incorporated into both my social studies block, and my writing time, as students will be using phonetic writing and other writing skills to email and create blogs.

Comment by Jillian Willey on June 17, 2014 at 12:23pm

I chose the Global Community Country Investigation on the ePals Community website. This activity requires students to research various aspects of a country (political structure, culture/social aspects, economics, physical features and any addition information students found) and share their findings with the class. I added to this by having students work in groups to complete their research, and then put together either a power point or a Prezi presentation which students use a means for sharing their information. I chose to incorporate this lesson into ELA. This activity lends itself nicely to the 3rd grade research standard, as well as speaking and listening. Students must complete a short research project as one of the standards. This lesson would not take much more than a week or two. Students also must report on a topic or text, giving appropriate details and speaking clearly. The presentation part of this lesson gives students practice with that standard. This activity is considered to promote global awareness because students are learning about various countries and sharing this with their fellow classmates. This will provide students with a foundation of what global awareness is and the fact that there are similarities and differences among different countries and cultures. 

Comment by Samantha Delfeld on June 17, 2014 at 9:48am

My global awareness lesson is based on a topic in my Anatomy class. I will first teach my students about the parts of the body and anatomical terms. I will provide them with a diagram to label the terms in English. Once they are learn these parts, I will collaborate with a Spanish-speaking class in Mexico through ePals Global Communication. I would like that class to teach my students the anatomical terms in Spanish. This is important because my students are future healthcare professionals and many patients speak only Spanish. My students will be better prepared to help these patients if they understand what they are saying. For the classrooms to connect, I will use the distance learning classroom and Skype with the class in Mexico. The Spanish-speaking students can help my students learn the terms in Spanish and speak them correctly. The class in Mexico will also be able to teach them about their culture and what happens in their hospitals. My students are learning about another culture during this lesson and this is the best way to help them in their future careers.

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