Featured 7-9-2014: Global Writes

 

Global Writes works with schools and school districts to develop and implement programs integrating performing arts techniques with literacy programs.

 

Global Writes helps schools develop technology applications to share student-created work for publication and feedback. This includes the use of digital media, videoconferencing, podcasting, and blogging.

 

Schools and districts can get assistance in finding local arts partners as a classroom collaboration resource as well as in seeking local funding to sustain arts integration programs.

 

Global Writes helps schools around the world work together to foster communication and collaboration among students around literacy-based projects integrating the arts using technology as a resource.

 

 

Professional development opportunities focus on arts integration with existing literacy curriculum, providing teachers with opportunitites to develop an appreciation of the arts across the curriculum and confidence in using performing arts techniques in their classrooms.

 

 Watch a Global Writes overview

 

Global Writes provides both formative and summative evaluations to monitor student progress in their programs and supplies data to support increases in student achievement and teacher knowledge.

 

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Featured 7-1-2014: The GLOBE Program

 

The GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) program is a worldwide hands-on science and education program for primary and secondary schools.

 

The vision of the GLOBE program is to promote and support students, teachers, and scientists collaborating on inquiry-based investigations of the environment and the Earth system.

 

Participation in the GLOBE program is open to teachers in participating countries who become trained in GLOBE scientific protocols. These teachers mentor students in taking, reporting, and using high-quality data and using these data to perform investigations.

 

 

The GLOBE program works in partnership with NASA, NOAA and NSF Earth System Science Projects in study and research about the dynamics of Earth's environment.

 

 Visit the GLOBE program’s YouTube channel

 

Since its start on Earth Day, 1995, 112 countries have participated in the GLOBE program. There are more than 66,000 GLOBE-trained teachers representing over 24,000 schools around the world. More than 10 million students have participated and contributed more than 100 million measurements to the GLOBE database.

 

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Plus 6-20-2014: Global Read Aloud

 

Pernille Ripp, a 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, started Global Read Aloud in the summer of 2010 to expand the global collaboration of her students.

 

Participating educators choose a book to read aloud to their students during a certain time period during which they try to make as many global connections as possible.

 

 

Individual teachers decide how much time they would like to dedicate to Global Read Aloud and how deeply they would like to be involved. You can connect with just one class or go for as many as possible.

 

Tools such as Twitter, Skype, Edmodo, wikis, email, regular mail, and others have been used to make these global connections.  Last year more than 144,000 students in more than 30 countries on 6 different continents were represented.

 

The official start date for this year's project is October 6th, 2014. The book choices are:

• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
• The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm
• One For the Murphy's by Lyndy Mullaly Hunt
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

 

 Watch What is the Global Read Aloud?

 

You can sign up to participate in Global Read Aloud here.

 

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Featured 6-11-2014: School-2-School (AUA)

 

The School-2-School program, part of the America’s Unofficial Ambassadors* initiative, promotes goals related to education and mutual understanding at the  grassroots level in the United States and in the Muslim World.

 

Through School-2-School, an American school partners with a school in the Muslim World to design and implement a plan for their students to engage with and learn from each other. Further, the American school helps its partner school by raising money to purchase needed educational supplies.

 

 

Over the summer, an educator from the American school volunteers to travel to the partner school and work with the school’s students and educators. This teacher then shares the experience with his or her school and the local community.

 

School-2-School is a competitive program open to all American middle school or high school educators. Partner schools are carefully vetted to assure students and teachers have the appropriate English language skills and infrastructure to fully participate.

 

 See video profiles of AUA Volunteers and School-to-School teachers

 

Since 2005, School-2-School has benefitted thousands of students and their teachers in countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the United States.

 

* America’s Unofficial Ambassadors is a citizen diplomacy initiative aimed at developing mutual understanding and enhancing people-to-people partnerships between America and the Muslim World by placing Americans in volunteer positions in the Muslim World.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 6-4-2014: TeachUNICEF

 

TeachUNICEF is a collection of free interdisciplinary global education resources for grades PK-12.

 

 

The standards-aligned TeachUNICEF lesson plans, stories, and multimedia resources cover social studies, science, math, English/language arts, and foreign/world languages.

 

TeachUNICEF deals with many topics including Armed Conflict, Child Labor, Child Trafficking, Global Citizenship, Poverty, Water and Environment, and more.

 

 

The mission of TeachUNICEF is to "support and create well-informed global citizens who understand interconnectedness, respect and value diversity, have the ability to challenge injustice and inequities and take action in personally meaningful ways.”

 

TeachUNICEF strives to provide rich, engaging academic materials offering multiple viewpoints, thus stimulating the consideration of global issues.

 

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to save and improve children’s lives, providing health care and immunizations, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 5-28-2014: One Hen

One Hen provides educators with flexible curriculum resources designed to help students develop financial responsibility, personal initiative, global awareness, and giving back.

The motivation for One Hen comes from the children’s book, One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference. A young Ghanaian boy named Kojo who uses a small loan to buy one hen, which in turn lays eggs and hatches more hens, until he eventually becomes the largest chicken farmer in the country.

 

One Hen challenges kids in grades K-8 through a series of interactive lesson plans, an engaging storybook, and a website of games and activities. Teams of students face the challenges of running their own real-world small businesses. With the profits they earn, they repay their loans and make a donation to a non-profit organization of their choice, helping to meet a local or global need.

 

 

In the process, the young entrepreneurs learn necessary skills in business math, personal financial literacy, and social entrepreneurship.

 

One Hen is a non-profit organization whose mission is to "empower all kids to become social entrepreneurs who make a difference for themselves and the world.”

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 4-1-2014: Museu.ms

Museu.ms is an international portal to museums worldwide, collecting information and presenting it to the public in a searchable format.

 

Museu.ms is visited daily by thousands of users from all over the world. Users can register for free to mark favorites, write reviews and recommendations, and post to social networks.

 

Museum professionals can submit their museums and publish information about their institutions, such as visitor information, collections and objects, exhibitions and events, articles and more. It’s free.

 

The data submitted to Museu.ms can be quickly and easily transformed and distributed across different platforms and devices. The data is not available only on the website but also in mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows 8.

 

 

Museu.ms is designed and developed by Semantika, one of the leading museums documentation providers in Central Europe with over 10 years of experience in .collection management systems.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 3-27-2014: AirPano

Created by a team of Russian photo enthusiasts, AirPano is a not-for-profit project focused on high-resolution spherical panoramas shot from a bird’s eye view.

 

AirPano claims to be the largest resource in the world (by geographical coverage, number of aerial photographs, and artistic and technical quality of the images) featuring high-resolution aerial 360° panoramic photographs.

 

During next two years, AirPano plans to create aerial photo panoramas and virtual tours of more of the most significant places in the world. They currently have nearly 2000 aerial panoramas showing over 200 famous locations, including the North Pole, Antarctica, the Mariana Trench, and even the view of the Earth from the stratosphere. New virtual tours are published every week.

 

 

A spherical panorama can give you and your students a sense of being on location, where you can turn completely around and have a closer look at every detail. This can be especially effective when viewed on a large screen such as an interactive whiteboard. You can zoom in closer and examine objects of interest, or "fly" to a new location by simply moving your hand.

 

AirPano offers most panoramas in several different resolutions to accommodate the viewer’s internet connection speed and computer hardware. There are even panoramas suitable for mobile devices.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 2-26-2014: Gooru

Gooru is a free search engine for education that makes it easy for K-12 teachers to discover topic-relevant content aligned to Common Core standards.

 

With millions of online resources available, teachers can organize learning playlists called collections to use in the classroom or to assign to students in a flipped classroom concept. Teachers receive direct feedback on mastery and progress as students study collections and answer questions,  allowing educators to differentiate instruction to meet individualized learning needs.

 

 

Users can contribute to an active community of teachers and students by sharing collections and best practices. Over half a million teachers in 140 countries and all 50 US states use Gooru to help students reach their full potential. Free learning materials can be found, rated, remixed, and shared.

 

 Watch Gooru: Discover, Organize, Teach

 

Gooru, developed by a non-profit organization whose mission is to honor the human right to education, is free of cost and ads. 

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 1-6-2014 Big History Project

The Big History Project is a free, open, online social studies curriculum designed for secondary schools (students aged 14+). 

 

Big history weaves 13.7 billion years of evidence and insights from science and history into a single, cohesive story. The Big History Project asks the big questions about our Universe, our planet, life, and humanity. Students can consider our future path and be challenged to develop the skills and knowledge they will need. 

 

 

The aim of the Big History Project is to help "students develop vital skills, knowledge, and a deep, enduring passion for learning."

 

Some features of the Big History Project:

• Materials that are easy to download, print, and share
• Lesson plans, inline teaching guidance, and support
• Custom content including videos, texts, comics, and animations
• Easily tailored to state standards and instructional approaches
• Aligned to Common Core ELA standards for 9th and 10th grades  

 Watch Big History Project: A Story for Everyone

 

 

The Big History Project is a joint effort between a group of dedicated teachers, schools, and supporters. Bill Gates is providing ongoing support to establish the Big History Project and make it free and publicly accessible. 

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 12-17-2013 Children and Youth in History

Facilitating learning about the important roles of young people throughout history is the objective of Children and Youth in History.

Children and Youth in History helps teachers and students by providing access to information about the experiences of children and youth from multiple perspectives as well as changing notions about childhood and adolescence in past cultures and civilizations.

The free website addresses questions such as: What was it like to be a youth throughout history? How has childhood changed and how has it remained the same? What factors have shaped childhood? How did children shape history, society, and culture?

Key features:

• A Primary Source Database with guidance on how to use those sources critically and tools for annotating and organizing the sources
• Website Reviews that focus on online resources for studying and teaching the history of childhood and youth in world history
• Eleven Teaching Modules that provide historical context, teaching tools, and strategies for teaching with sets of primary sources
• Teaching Case Studies that model strategies for using primary sources to teach the history of childhood and youth

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and the University of Missouri–Kansas City received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create Children and Youth in History.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Special: 12-7-2013 Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

The inspirational story of one of the great leaders of our time, Nelson Mandela, is told in the film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.

The film provides educators with an important opportunity to help their students understand the story of this influential man. The classroom lessons that accompany the film examine this period in South African history, as well as providing an opportunity to explore current issues for Africa, America, and much of the world.

Some of the key themes explored include:

• The influence of cultural heritage
• The impact of apartheid and its relationship to racial segregation in America
• The paradox of the “liberator” versus the “traitor”
• The difficulty associated with change and transition
• The role of international media coverage and sanctions in the fall of apartheid
• Leadership and the role of the individual to make change

The main lessons are designed to be conducted in one to three class periods. The lessons contain clips from the film, as well as other exclusive primary sources, such as original audio clips, photographs, and documents. In addition, the lesson package also contains several shorter lessons that reflect the themes of the main lessons. There is also a film viewer’s guide of discussion questions for groups only viewing the film.

 Watch the official trailer

All Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom lessons align to current standard assessment models, including those of the National Council for the Social Studies standards and incorporate many Common Core skill areas, such as reading informational text, writing with purpose, speaking and listening.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 12-5-2013 Newsy

Newsy is a multisource video news service that highlights nuances in reporting from multiple media outlets around the world.

 

Newsy can enhance your understanding of a news story by allowing users to compare video news sources from around the world to see how a story unfolds.

 

Newsy conveniently brings you a broader view of news, in a concise format - when, how, and where you want it.

 

 Watch Introducing the All-New Newsy App for iPhone

 

 

In addition to the website, there are free Newsy apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows 8, and more.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0 

Featured: 11-19-2013 Spongelab

Spongelab is community driven global site offering science content and features to help you organize your resources, lessons, classes, and community.

The Spongelab library of remarkable free content includes games, images, animations, and lesson plans, screened to bring you the best digital learning resources. 

Features of Spongelab:

• Powerful tools for organizing, delivering, and sharing customizable lessons with your students and fellow teachers.
• Real-time data tracking metrics provide immediate feedback and insights into learning. Assess, track, and evaluate usage and engagement. 
• Award winning games and simulations to engage your students and promote their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 

 Watch the Spongelabtrailer

Spongelab is the product of a group of scientists, teachers, animators, artists, and programmers passionate about science education who believe that cutting-edge technology and stunning interactive media should be available to everyone.  

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 11-4-2013 ArtBabble

ArtBabble showcases high quality art-related video content from more than fifty cultural institutions from around the world.

ArtBabble brings art content from different places and perspectives together, where it can be easily found and accessed. People who love and are interested in art may find ArtBabble a unique and engaging place to explore and learn.

ArtBabble may prove particularly advantageous to educators who can use it as a way to support their classroom activities. The For Educators page helps teachers quickly and easily find what they are looking for.

Browse by Theme, Medium, Period & Style, Location, People, and more, or search by keyword.

Created in 2009, ArtBabble is the product of a cross-departmental collection of individuals at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

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