ECI 524 Theory and Research in Global Learning

Question: How can I collaborate with other educators to help keep my teaching current and relevant to the 21st century?

Collaboration Between Teachers Around the World!

I chose this picture to represent ECI 524- Theory and Research in Global Learning because it is here I have learned the value of collaboration. Collaboration beyond my school. Collaboration beyond my school district. In this class we collaborated with people from all over the world. We found tons of online resources about education around the world. I conducted a comparative education study on the similarities and differences of education in the US, India, and China. To incorporate some of this learning into my teaching and the classroom I shared information I learned with my children. They were fascinated with hearing what the schools were like in these countries and how different they were from our system.

Great Website That Teaches Global Awareness

Teaching folk tales-

I chose to use EDSITEment for teaching folk tales to my first grade students.

This is a great site that can incorporate art and culture, foreign language, history and social studies, and literature and language arts. I have chosen to focus on language arts and the topic of folk tales.

In first grade one of the standards states that students should be exposed to many different genres of stories (including folk tales).

The website has a layout of the lesson plans you can use to teach this unit.

Students will be able to identify the traits of a folk tale as well as recognize a story as one (and be able to tell the different between them and other stories). It will also help students identify how these stories use traits to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the characters.

There are a lot of examples of folk tales you can use on the site. For first grade I would choose to focus on Aesop's Fables or Ananse's Stories. They are fun stories that the children will be exposed to for years to come.   2 particular folk tales that I would use are The Lion and the Mouse and Mr. Buffu and the Snake. The students will learn to identify the story elements, the characters, the problem/solution, and the moral. In addition to being exposed to folk tales students are learning to break apart a story.

Teaching morals (author’s message) within a story is tricky with young children. This website gives great examples of how you can do this with your students as well as specific folk tales that are easy to do this with. It also gives charts and frameworks you can use to help your students organize their thinking as they read/reflect on their reading.

So much of a teacher’s time is spent creating lessons and figuring out ways to tie together the different standards we much teach. This is a great website that basically does it for you. It gives objectives, guiding questions, preparations, activities (many!!) and extensions.

This site also strikes me as a great site for high school teacher. There are so many links for activities on upper level language arts, history, and anthropology.

There is also another activity that I found particularly exciting. It is called In My Other Life. In this activity students will learn what life is like in another country. There are website links on EDSITEment to various places in the world. Students can learn about their culture, how they dress, things they like to do, things they eat, etc.   After researching their area they will share their findings with the class. This will help students learn from each other about lots of different places (not just one!). The students will focus on comparing their life right now to a person in that country (their same age). To culminate the activity they will imagine they are growing up in this particular place. They will write a letter to a US pen pal describing what their life/country is like. Not only will the students learn about life in another country, they will become more globally aware as they reflect on how their life is different as a citizen of the United States.

Learning Through Experience

link to video-http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/video/2008/dec/11/women-and-childbirth
I found a video about a woman, Sister Josephine who lives in Katine, a sub-county of Uganda. Here, one in ten babies die and one in two hundred mothers will die giving birth. It amazes me that this woman, birthed 8 children alone. She literally had each baby at home by herself. Because of this, she truely learned on her own. In countries like Uganda where access to health care is scarce, women like her are all they have. She is deemed the town's delivery expert. No one taught her anything about this; she learned everything from her own birthing experiences. It was interesting to see how she cupped her hand to listen to a mother's stomach and pressed down on her stomach to feel for the baby's head. I suppose it's a bit of trial and error and with every baby she delivers she learns a little more. She mentions that there is a local hospital, but that it is very expensive and somewhat unreliable (they were currently out of pain medicine and some supplies). She feels like she trusts her judgment and experiences enough to help others in her community.

I also enjoyed watching the section where a nurse teaches expectant mothers and fathers about having a healthy pregnancy. One of the points she discussed with the students was how the women ride their bikes on the rough terrain. The shaking and turmoil can cause harm to the placenta, which in turn harms (and can kill) the baby. There were a few posters the nurse referenced, but most of the lesson was done through talking. The people in the class sat on benches and watched the teacher as she shared her knowledge. All of the information she shared she learned through experience and school (she is a local nurse). The people seemed very engaged and paid close attention to her as she spoke.

Obviously people learn in so many different ways- hands on, reading, listening, musically, artistically, interpersonally, intrapersonal, etc. Here in the United States we are lucky that we as teachers can cater to all of our students and provide them with a variety of activities and lessons. We know that there are so many different learning styles. If I only lectured to my students many of them would become restless, confused, and frustrated (myself included). It’s important to figure out the different learning styles of your students and tap into their strengths. A great reference is Garner’s Multiple Intelligences. He explains the different learning styles as well as the types of activities that these types of learners would enjoy.

But in impoverished countries like Uganda most learning comes through experiences and "show and tell". They don't always have access to books and materials, so they are forced to learn with who and what they have.

Obviously this particular topic isn't relevant to teaching first grade, but it relates to my thoughts that 21st century must be relevant and practice based.