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Showing posts from August, 2020

Creating Hacks for COVID19

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  Creating Hacks for COVID19 With the current pandemic and social distancing still affecting our society and the way we use to conduct meetings, workshops, and events, many organizations were forced to look at other options and modes to carry out their day to day operations.  Zoom and video conferencing have become the norm in order to keep in touch and share ideas with each other.  The same applies to the UNESCO Center of Peace.  For the past 13 years, this organization has been providing enrichment opportunities for students all around the globe.  They have organized and have put together amazing face to face conferences and spread their mission globally.  When the pandemic hit us this year, just like many other organizations, they too were forced into a world of virtual learning and meetings in order to continue the organization's mission.  The thought of running a conference virtually can be an overwhelming and daunting idea to many not used to zoom and virtual meetings, the or

Global Goals: Linking SDGs to curriculum lessons

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  Global Goals: Linking SDGs to curriculum lessons If you aren’t familiar with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), I suggest reading the previous blog  “The Global Goals: Bringing the world into your classroom” which explains the SDGs and some of the benefits to students.  With the wide range of SDGs topics and themes, connections can be made to all curriculum areas from K-12. It is not just about students learning content and thinking about it, but providing opportunities for them to take action: at your school, the local community and even globally. The SDGs can also be used as an avenue to combat the negativity of images, stories, statistics with positive human stories, case studies, and the progress and change that might not be found in the media.  Before teaching through the SDGs, you must identify if any of your students are directly affected by any of the inequities that could be discussed. These are potentially sensitive issues and in order to discuss them openly, you ne

Creating spaces for students to connect and learn

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  Creating spaces for students to connect and learn  by HIVEXR Influencer: Rachelle Dene Poth With so much technology available to us today, finding the right platform or tool to use in our classrooms can present some challenges. How do we know which tools will benefit our students the most? What purpose will each specific tool serve for our students and our own professional growth? How can we leverage technology to help us to provide more for our students?  There are always a lot of concerns when it comes to technology, thinking about access for students, any potential cost involved, making sure we know the privacy and security settings and also how any data that might be collected will be used. We must consider all of this when thinking about bringing digital tools into our schools.  So what are some options to have students communicate and share learning beyond the traditional classroom space and time? Here are three options to get started with that can promote student choice, foste

Global Goals: Bringing the world into your classroom

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Global Goals: Bringing the world into your classroom “It is essential that learners have access to education, evidenced information, and ‘real’ news that enable them to engage with, consider, and understand global issues.”* How do we as educators do that? Perhaps it's the Sustainable Development Goals that can provide the framework. Never heard of the SDGs? What about the Global Goals? More importantly, do your students know what they are, and how they can use them to begin to make an impact. What are the SDGs? The SDGs are a set of goals and targets aimed at making the world a better place. Citizens around the world face significant social, economic, environmental, and political challenges at both a local and a global level. In 2015, in order to address many of these issues, all the member states of the United Nations (UN) committed to these 17 goals, which, if achieved, would make the world’s environments, economies and societies significantly better by the year 2030.  Even thoug

What If Tomorrow Holds a Mirror to Today?

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What If Tomorrow Holds a Mirror to Today? Time: how do you pick it up and turn it around?  What are you learning today that you could use tomorrow? Technically, everything. A better question might be: what are you intentionally learning today that you’ll use tomorrow? Probably, a lot less.  What if it’s a quick fix? We often talk about true learning not being linear, what if we actually practiced it?  Even the most innovative educators still approach learning through a lesson plan that follows a sequence of actions from the start of class to the end of class.  What if we removed the chronological bookends of our standard approach to learning by finishing each day with a list of 1-3 things that could have made the day a greater success: 1-3 things that need to be explored, investigated, and learned? That way, you will always be equipped with and aware of something you need to learn to bring you greater success in the future. This awareness of learning, collided with your naturally occur