This is a short but powerful video explaining Global Citizenship so teachers can better understand it. (It could also be used for upper grade students, but it seems too abstract for the little ones.) It explains what Global Citizenship is and why it is important.  It starts out by saying that citizens of the world are all connected through humanity.  I think so many times we talk about how our students are citizens of their town or state or even country, but I have never explained it this way before.  It talks about how stories of people on the other side of the earth can now be viewed as stories of our neighbors since we are all so connected.  It goes on to talk about how problems that we used to think of as "world" problems now need to be thought of as a common responsibility and people from all over the world should be looking for solutions together since we are all members of the human race. I had two main takeaways from the video.  1) "In an interdependent world, education aimed at peaceful coexistence is fundamental. 2) "The future generations who will shape our future will hae to approach solutions from a global citizen's perspective. This will be the first step toward global peace."  Both of those were very powerful statements to me as a teacher.

This is a great video to share with students so they can see what it is like to communicate with students around the world and get them excited about being Global Collaborators.  This particular video is one made about students in a rural Vermont town who were connecting with students from Mexico.  They appear to be skyping with each other and talking about everything from sports that they like to play to foods that they enjoy eating.  The students even realize that they can learn so much more by talking to same aged peers in another country than they would learn in a book. In a world that seems so big to our younger learners, connecting with students in other cultures helps the world seem a little bit smaller as they say in the video.

While this article has some great ideas about the benefits  of Global Collaboration, most of the things they talk about require money to get them started.  I went ahead and included this as an article with a resource because I do think the idea behind it is still a good one. They mention by connecting with students from other cultures around the world, students are able to use inquiry-based learning, appreciate diversity by finding similarities among cultures, and develop empathy for other students.  While the programs do cost money, if I were at a school that had extra funds to do a project like this, I think it would greatly benefit my students.

This article is a great resource to give teachers ideas of how they can connect their students globally to students of different cultures.  It begins by giving the reasons why we should want our students to be globally connected:  working with students from other cultures motivates students, sparks their curiosity, encourages problem solving, and helps them to become more worldly. Then they give links to 3 resources to get your class started in becoming global collaborators.  One is through penpals, one is through video conferencing, and the last one is a website that connects youth around the world.  I love that this is a free website with free resources and that they provide links so you can immediately get started on it.

This is a great lesson that you can use with your students to explain to them what a Global Collaborator is.  It is set up like a Quest that students go through to show that they understand this topic. It starts with an introduction video about the topic and explains why it is important for students to be Global Collaborators and how learning how to do that now will help them in the future.  This lesson includes videos, notes to follow along with the lesson, real world connections, and lessons on collaboration and active listening.  I think it is a lesson that I would assign to Google Classroom for my students to complete the Quest.

This is an amazing website that focuses on getting our students involved in Global Collaboration.  It has so much great information on it! There is a section for learning all about what Global Collaboration means and why we should be doing these types of activities in our classroom.  Then there is an entire section on how to make those connections with others around the globe. It allows you to search for a project that fits your class goals and interests. The third section is all on resources that you can use with your class to teach them about Global Collaboration and to get them involved in projects globally.  Lastly, there is a section where you can submit a global project or resource that you think could benefit others.

I can't think of a better way to explore around the globe than by doing it through a field trip!  Discovery Education offers virtual field trips as well as on-demand field trips once they have premiered.  The best part of these is that they are all completely free! Discover Education also offers a companion guide packed with standards-aligned, hands-on learning activities for teachers and students. I actually used some of these virtual field trips the year we switched to learn from home during Covid when my students were disappointed that they were not going to get to go on their field trip and they loved it!  Now when we are learning about different countries and traditions or about different habitats, this will be a go-to for me to assign these virtual field trips through Google Classroom.

This is simply a Google Doc that has a list of projects that you can use to encourage Global Collaboration in your classroom using the 4 C's.  It has the name of the projects, a short description, the intended grade level interest, and the timeline for the project.  It just seems like an easy way to get started on this by just reading about one of them and clicking right on it!  The two that caught my attention were the e-pals (like old fashioned pen pals but through email) and using skype to connect, and Global School Net where you can easily reach out to other schools to find teachers who are interested in connecting with your class.