Group 2 Presentation

Becoming a Globally Connected Educator

Carlos Aguilar, Caroline Greenberg, Alexandra Kaleel, Bianca Marcellus-Bucknor, Olena Sinko, and Victor Ruiz.

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Raising awareness

Making a commitment

Developing your competence with contemporary tools

Building your personal learning network

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Five Sections to Becoming a Global Connected Educator

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Making a commitment

#1 Raising Awareness

● Gain a global perspective: listen to, watch, read and stay informed about global news and issues on television, radio, newspapers and the internet

● Read authors from countries other than your own – Subscribe to blogs such as “Books Around the World” and “Around the World in 80 books”. (p.35)

● Read books about global topics – include books in your readings that inform you about global projects “Flattening the Classroom, Engaging Minds,”

● Start a conversation – make the effort to contact and engage with people who speak other languages, celebrate different traditions, Speak with colleagues who already has participated in global projects.

● Watch television show with a global perspective: choose a show filmed in or about a distant place.

● Watch foreign film – learn about difference in ways of life and points of view through stories

Strategies for Awareness

#2 Making a Commitment

Developing Regular Habits

● Regularly read news in foreign languages. Use an online translator if necessary. Subscribe via an RSS reader (for example Feedly, Flipboard)

● Participate in Global Oriented Conferences. Could be physical or virtual ● Share you own globally connected experiences as a learner and as a teacher.

Participate in platforms by blogging, tweeting, collaborating in a wiki, joining a Google Group.

● Use tools, platforms, instructional methods: Engage with colleagues on the other side of the world. Connect and expose your students to similar experiences.

● Model Global Connections ● Provide small, regular infusions of global connectedness: rather than giving large

projects once a year, infuse global connectedness learning as a part of everyday learning. Ex. Communicate via pen pals for letter exchange.

#3 Developing your Competence

Extend your learning to contemporary tools that encourage and support connection and collaboration. Dig deeper into the tools, developing true competence beyond mere technical

know-how.

Contemporary Tools

● Skype (2022: Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet): Video-conferencing tool for class-to-class communication in real time.

● Twitter (Instagram or TikTok): Social Network microblogging platform for global communications.

● Google Apps: A family of tools that globally collaborating educators use to organize, plan, share and document.

● A wiki: Develop collaboratively by a community of users. Allows users to add and edit content. Also allows relatively easy creation of information hub that includes text, video, images, etc.

#3 Developing your Competence

#4 Build Your Personal Learning Network (PLN)

– Student blogging challenge

– Teddy bear around the world

– Flat-classroom project

– Video conferencing

– Twitter

– Curriculum 21 network

Strategies for Incorporating a Global Network into the Classroom

#5 Amplifying Your Curriculum

World languages: Students reviews a foreign language vocabulary app on their blogs, including suggestions on how to improve it. The teacher tweets about the student’s blogs with links of the reviews provided. The developer considers the reviews and makes updates on the next release of the app. This shows the student that their opinions matter and have value.

Math: Students create video tutorial on difficult topics. The teacher connects with other educators in another country via twitter and creates collaborations between the two student groups in the creation of the tutorials. Students compare different methods and perspectives used in their unique cultures.

Social Studies: Students go beyond the textbook to learn about Christopher Columbus. They create a survey to collect their own data on global perspectives about this historic figure. Students disseminate the survey on their classroom via Twitter to collect hundreds of responses from around the world within a few days. Students analyze the data from the survey to learn about how perspectives differ based on geographic location. Students interview a Native American via email and a teacher from South America via Skype to learn about their unique perspectives about Columbus.

Amplification Examples

Discussion Questions

1) What are some ways you can become a globally connected educator in your school? How can you amplify your curriculum and embed international activities into all learning?

2) What are some ways that educators can build their personal learning networks? What strategy will you use in your classroom?

Thank you!