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Connecting Students with a Global Audience

When I first heard about sharing with a global audience I was excited to do so, but like with some many things, the divide between great ideas and actions, was too big for me to jump across. I just didn’t know how to connect my students globally. Fast forward a few years, and now I realize I was taking the wrong approach. I was looking for an individual classroom in a certain area, like connecting a Spanish class with a class in Spain, to explore the exact same content together. A better way of thinking is to share to a broader audience, publish students ideas, and connect with an established group of people.  Here are a few ways to connect and share with a global audience.  

TED Ed Clubs

Just like TED talks, TED Ed has created a 13 lesson curriculum that teaches students how to design a TED style talk to allow students to share their passions and amplify their voice. Through the program, students are able to connect with other clubs around the world to share ideas and grow their global perspective. The lessons help them explore their ideas and craft their story in a way that is appealing to others. Animation lessons are also included. Students create and record their talk then it is published on the TED Ed youtube channel. Students can even earn a chance to attend TED Ed Weekend in New York City where they can give their talk on the TED stage.  Head to https://ed.ted.com/clubs to apply to run a TED Ed Club. 

 

Global Student News Network

Don Goble and his students have created a space called the “Global Student News Network” that allows teachers to submit student created media to be featured on the site. The goal is to spread positive student media to connect stories from around the world. You can find videos from the students in my district at “Youtube Playlist of Six-word stories on Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Infections.” Tweet your student work to @GlobalSNN to share to the site.

Global Math Task Twitter Challenge

Connect your math class to classes around the globe with the Global Math Task Twitter Challenge. Each week, you can connect with classes at the same grade level and share and solve math tasks appropriate for your grade. Students are able to share their thinking and learn how others would solve the problems. The chart of fall connection is already starting to fill up. Check it out at http://gmttc.blogspot.com. 

These three options offer a variety of ways to share your students’ voice and connect with a broad audience. I hope you will find something you are comfortable using!

Written by: Jenny Lehotsky

@JennyLehotsky

 

 

 

 

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Creating A Global Community

We always talk about opening our student’s eyes to the bigger picture and the world around them. How can we connect them to their learning? How can we let them see that there are bigger things out there beyond their own neighborhood and school?

More importantly, how can we keep our students interested in writing?  What can improve their skills in their daily writing? Social media is a great, easy way to peak students interests, create an authentic audience to motivate them to produce quickly writing as well!

Blogging is an easy, safe way to connect our young students across the global in an instant!  We have been using Seesaw within our school for ALL areas in the curriculum, but the new blogging feature makes it so easy for us to connect with other classrooms and share our learning with peers in other countries.

I used twitter to find other teachers looking to connect, and paired up three classrooms in our school to get us started.  We have only just begun, but the students are SO excited to share what they are learning, their likes/dislikes, etc.  They have an authentic audience, which makes them exciting and proud to write more and more each post!

They were so excited when we get started this week, and immediately made connections with their new “blog buddy” in Hong Kong!  We were so excited that they liked so many of the same things we liked, and we can’t wait to keep this excitement going through the year!  This week, we will be sharing photos from our classroom to showcase our favorite learning tool whether it be an anchor chart, word wall, iPad, SMART board, or classroom library!  We will ask our blog buddies to share their favorite learning tool, so we can compare and make even more connections across the globe!

What a fabulous, real-world connection to get our students using Social Media appropriately and purposefully!

By Lissa Blake @D60Holmestech