Global Connections in the Classroom

Connecting educators and classrooms around the world allows students to learn, question, create, and engage in meaningful, authentic opportunities. There is a whole collaborative, world-wide community out there involving students, educators, and organizations at all levels with a goal to increase opportunities for connections around the globe that support cultural awareness and recognition of diversity.

Embracing a rapidly changing world, our job as educators is to empower learners to assume active roles in their communities, to face and engage global challenges, and to contribute proactively toward a more peaceful, just, inclusive, and secure world. This is one of the strategic goals in my district and so I collected these resources to help teachers find ways to support their students.

How can I integrate these connections into the classroom?

• Author Visits
• Content area experts (scientists, park rangers, historians)
• Book clubs or debates with other classrooms
• Mystery hangouts to learn about other places and cultures
• E-pals (electronic pen pals)
• Share/participate in projects
• Global Read Aloud

Need to connect? There are many ways to start reaching out.

Nepris
Nepris focuses on connecting classrooms with industry specialists around the world. The freemium version lets you create one live virtual session and join one live industry chat but gives you unlimited access to all past recorded videos/virtual field trips to use in your classroom.
https://www.nepris.com/

Epals
With participants in over 200 countries, this service allows educators throughout the world to connect with one another in meaningful ways and collaborate. Projects and challenges are available in addition to Epals to reinforce the connections made.
http://www.epals.com/#/connections

Mystery Skype
Mystery Skype (or Google Hangout) is a 45-60 minute session with a classroom in another part of the country/world. Students ask yes or no questions to guess where the other class is located. Once the locations have been guessed, the students can share information about where they are.
https://goo.gl/W1LBEP

You can also try these simple ways to get started:

Unicef Kid Power: Brain Breaks that Save Lives

Freerice.com: Answer questions and donate food to those in need

Belouga.org: Learn about the world, with the world

Global Read Aloud: Read aloud and make connections