Global Education Resource Guide: An Introduction
Global education is infusing global concepts into your classroom on a day-to-day basis to encourage students to think with a global perspective, develop empathy, and expand their knowledge of the world. The educational climate today is based heavily on standardized testing, as students are pressured to pass these exams to graduate and teachers’ livelihood depends on the success of their students. In the day-to-day time crunch of covering all the content necessary, I sometimes lost the reason I became a teacher: my love of history, my interest in world issues, and my desire to share this with young people. My participation in the TGC Fellowship has given me the opportunity to begin to do both. My purpose in creating this guide is to share these resources and tools with other educators, while having an organized space for these resources myself. I believe these tools can be used in any classroom, but many of my examples are more relevant for Social Studies or English. Is it my responsibility, and the responsibility of all educators, to challenge our students and help them become active members of their immediate community, the community of their country, and to become global citizens. These tools will help students learn 21st-century skills that will prepare them for college and/or the professional world.
My best advice to teachers planning on using these resources is to practice and be ready to try something several times before it works. I experienced many lessons where some of these ideas fell flat, I implemented them poorly, or I attempted blogging with my students through different mediums that were not successful. I always reminded my students that I was also a learner, and that I wanted to try new things and needed their help. Although we experienced our setbacks, we finally got there in the end. I think it is important to take risks and try new things, and although one of the outcomes of this is often failure, it can also be an extremely rewarding experience for both yourself and students.
Below, watch Chimamanda Ngozi explain “The Danger of a Single Story” as she captures why it is important to incorporate a variety of perspectives in our classrooms.
My best advice to teachers planning on using these resources is to practice and be ready to try something several times before it works. I experienced many lessons where some of these ideas fell flat, I implemented them poorly, or I attempted blogging with my students through different mediums that were not successful. I always reminded my students that I was also a learner, and that I wanted to try new things and needed their help. Although we experienced our setbacks, we finally got there in the end. I think it is important to take risks and try new things, and although one of the outcomes of this is often failure, it can also be an extremely rewarding experience for both yourself and students.
Below, watch Chimamanda Ngozi explain “The Danger of a Single Story” as she captures why it is important to incorporate a variety of perspectives in our classrooms.