Session+9

=9.1 - Global Education Opener=


 * How would you define global awareness?
 * Global awareness is just what its name suggests - an awareness of the world around us and our interconnectedness within this world. I think of it as having two main elements: 1) actual, literal knowledge of the issues and realities affecting the global community (i.e. being up to date on world events, understanding diverse cultures, etc.) and 2) a general world view that we are all connected, and what happens in another community is important and relevant to ones own life. Global awareness involves a multicultural outlook and an appreciation of the fact that there is a wider world beyond one's immediate surroundings and daily concerns.
 * study of how cultures interact, human conflict & cooperation, the interdependence of systems
 * fostering cross-cultural understandings, such as the development of empathy & perspective-taking
 * global perspective
 * skills required for living in a globalized society


 * To what extent would you say global awareness is an important 21st century skill? Please explain your answer.
 * In my opinion, global awareness is an absolutely essential 21st century skill. I think it has always been important, but is even more so today. In the 21st century we live in an increasingly globalized world and thanks, in part, to technology, we are more immediately connected to the rest of the world than ever before. Whether our students want to succeed in business, work for human rights, tackle climate change, or even just understand fluctuations in food and gas prices, they will need this global awareness. However, even though technology makes it easier than ever, and even in a school district as diverse as our own, many of our students come to us lacking in this area. Whether they know it or not, our students are already global citizens, and so an awareness of how to approach this reality is definitely a skill that should be stressed in the 21st century classroom.
 * The world is increasingly interdependent.
 * G.A. enhances students' abilities to work collaboratively and to understand/seek solutions to global issues.
 * Research shows benefits of focusing on social and emotional learning needs.
 * Success in a global society depends on it!

Read the article: [|"Fostering Students' Global Awareness: Technology Applications in Social Studies Teaching & Learning"]

=9.3 - Use of Google Maps= media type="googlemap" key="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=218229227434361966789.0004a9c12be16dee072fb&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=42.406722,-71.1196&spn=0.064081,0.047436&output=embed" width="425" height="350"

Reflection:

I give my ninth graders an assignment (inspired by //Our America// and //The House on Mango Street//) that involves creating a map of their neighborhood and composing autobiographical mini-essays about several of the most important locations within that neighborhood. This is the first thing that came to mind when I thought of how to use Google Maps in my classroom.

In terms of increasing students' global awareness, I could imagine doing something similar to the Cold War hotspots assignment (identifying locations and pairing them with written explanations). Students could create maps of locations from a specific text, or a variety of texts within a genre or theme. I used to do an "immigration project" for which students read independently selected books about an immigration experience and create presentations based on both literary analysis and research into the country of origin. I have been thinking of revisiting this project, and could imagine incorporating Google Maps by creating one as a class, marking the various countries students researched and providing information on each. It could also be cool to have students complete something similar based on their own backgrounds. There are many options, and I think it's always a good thing to get students looking at maps!

=Scribble Maps:= []

=9.4 - Use of Blogging=

Blogger: [|www.blogger.com]

Perspective blogging asks students to blog from someone else's point of view. This helps build empathy, an important aspect of global awareness.