“What's the locus of control? How do we connect all of our classrooms to be globally connected so that we can have authentic conversations?" Alan November reminds educators of our job to help students ask the most pertinent questions when researching and to help them be critical users of technology.

Follow the link here to access a wealth of digital literacy resources. One benefit of my Fulbright TGC experience was gaining access to curated lists of sources, which I continue to access, learn from, and incorporate into my curriculum. 

Quick Link: SIFT - The Four Moves: How to Sort Truth from Fiction. Here's a helpful overview from The University of Chicago's Library.

Quick Link: News Literacy Project's Checkology for the 23-24 school year! Strengthen your students' media literacy skills!

I love using StoryCorps when teaching Speaking and Listening skills with my English classes because doing so provides students with the opportunity to discover the global history of their own families. One of my students discovered that his grandfather marched with Mahatma Gandhi during one of India's salt marches. Another learned that her grandmother lived on an army base in the pacific during World War Two. Most come away with new perspectives about their own family's global connections, making the activity a gateway into larger discussions of their global connections and potential impact.

The Great Thanksgiving Listen blends all of the Global Competencies into one assignment: Students investigate the world through their own families; they learn the value of listening in order to gain a new perspective with someone they already know (or think they know); they then communicate what they learned through a presentation to our class; and thereafter, they take action by creating a project for a wider audience that communicates what they discovered about their own families. 

Tips: Our Sophomore English team created a Padlet for additional references and information that students and parents can access throughout the initiative. The unit as a whole provides an authentic audience for ELA CC Speaking & Listening Standards.

Using Google Earth, Flipgrid, Skype, WhatsApp, & Padlet to connect classrooms around the country & world to investigate, recognize perspectives, communicate ideas, and take action to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Making connections with fellow educators across the country and globe and bringing our students together is one of the most immediate and enjoyable ways to develop students' global competencies. The audience with whom they're working and collaborating now has a name and a face, and students attend to their work in a more authentic and invested manner. Everything they do, say, and create occurs in real time and with a real purpose, so the end results go well beyond a grade. 

I've worked with partners in the Czech Republic and new friends in Pennsylvania on various classroom projects, one of which was to study how one UN SDGs manifested itself in our respective communities. Students researched a specific goal, created an infographic, made and posted videos on Flipgrid, analyzed similarities and differences, and communicated their learning towards the goal of taking action to address that UN SDG goal in their local and global communities. Students used Google Earth and various means of communicating across countries and time zones - Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, etc. - to collaborate with fellow students, all of which work to deepen their global competencies.

For further information on incorporating the UN SDGs into your curriculum, access the SDGs Teaching Guide & Resources.