Project based study for elementary children 1, 2, 3.

What does it mean to be a global citizen?

My purpose for this study will be to open students eyes to other cultures around the world.  By knowing about other people and how they live we start to realize that even though we are different in ways, we have many similarities and we are all valuable to the world.  Another underlying goal for this study will be to help children understand themselves better in a global world.   By allowing children to learn more deeply about the world we live in, I hope some might develop a more compassionate view.  I believe that through education we have the opportunity to become passionate about world and can make a huge difference in our world.

I am still in the planning process but I think that students will spend time learning about what it means to be a global citizen through a variety of instruction and discussions.  From there children will have time to explore this concept and what it means to them.  They will have assignments to guide this process and will create an artifact to demonstrate what they have learned and how they have made meaning of this topic.

Resources for young children-

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/places/find/
This site has very student friendly information about countries through out the world.  It would be a good place for children to look to make a choice on what they want to study.  I could give this as an assignment: go home and look up this site. Browse through the countries and select on or two that interest you and then report back to class.

http://www.epals.com/
Epals looks like an amazing resource.  It allow classrooms and students to connect with each around the world.  I am amazed at how many classrooms are wanting and waiting to connect with other students.  I am not exactly sure how I will incorporate this into our project yet but there is the option of posting a question and allowing others students to reply.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/correspond/about.cfm
Here is another resource, it connects a peace corps volunteer to a classroom.  Through a variety of correspondence students can learn in depth about another culture in the world.

https://media.iearn.org/projects
iEARN is a site that allows teachers to connect with another school and children to share ideas and work on projects.  There are so many forums and different ways to connect through this site.

http://education.skype.com/
Skype has a site to connect classrooms though out the world.  You can post your project and invite others to join you or you can connect with a class that has the same type project in mind.  This would be a great way to ask questions about students in other countries although I am not sure how we will make the time difference work.  It would definitely be worth a try.

http://www.timeforkids.com/around-the-world
This is a site by Time magazine.  It features many places around the world an might be a good starting place for children to research what they want to learn more about. The A day in the life option is really cools as it goes through a typical day that a child would go through.

http://www.ipl.org/div/cquest/africa/ghgames.html
This site has some resources to recipes and games from countries.  May be useful for some students but it doesn’t have all countries.

http://www.globalkidsconnect.org/classroom-connections/holmes1/
10 things that make us smile.  It appears that 5 classrooms of young children came up with a list of 10 things that make them smile. What a great way to learn about other children.  This site connects the US with Afganistan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_8Ozjb3QdY&feature=related
This is a video on what it is means to be a global citizen from an adult perspective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9y_b-VUkQA&feature=related
This is a video on a girls perspective of what it means to be a global citizen. Worth watching.