Global Lives - Unit One

I'm beginning my school year with a study on current societies. This means globalization and global trends such as urbanization and the development of nations. This is quite abstract for kids who are barely into grade seven and eight so I've spent a few days searching for resources I can use to bridge this gap to make this more real for students. These are some of the things I plan on doing and using in the first few weeks of school.

1.) Playing Simcity - I love Simcity and so do students. It helps students to realize the difficult realities of managing a population and attempting to put conditions into place that allow a society to grow. It also allows students to see the complex relationships that evolve between various factors such as taxation, education, public safety, etc. It is often like a "peek behind the curtain" for kids who have never taken the time in the past to consider many of these details.

2.) Start off the year's readings with a shared iGoogle tab - I keep a tab with just a few blogs on it that I want kids to read. These are what I call "required reading" and often stand in as our textbook. I've only chosen a few as I don't want to overwhelm kids with information. Currently sitting on this tab for the beginning of the school year are the Nata Village blog, Worldchanging.com, Jan Chipchase's Future Perfect, Afrigadget, and Dvice. I've chosen all of these blogs for their currency, their global outlook and their interest. As well, Each student in my class will subscribe to the feed from at least one country and one topic of their own choice from globalvoicesonline.

4.) Google Earth - Considering how people live in different parts of the world is much more possible with this great tool. In the past I've had students locate and look through specific cities in different parts of the world. I've wanted them to compare North American and European cities contrasted against those in Asia and Africa. With Google Earth students are able to look at specific things such as types of housing, the layout of the streets and other factors such as natural features nearby.

5.) Web Exploration - Over the last few days I've searched down a few websites that I want my kids to spend some time with. Among them are:

- Hungry Planet and Material World - Two sites built on books by Peter Menzies of the same names. In Hungry Planet, Menzies has collected photos of families around the world with all  of their food for a week. A great way to look at amounts of food available and what their diet actually consists of. Similarly, Material World has pictures of families with all of their possessions. Almost scary to contrast households in different parts of the world.

- Climates of the World - Basic climate data from around the world.

- Nation Master - A great source of data from around the world. Everything from the number of McDonalds restaurants to things like GDP. An interesting way to contrast different factors around the world

- Earth Album - A mash up of flickr and Google maps.

6.) Blogging - All of this playing and reading will lead us to reflection and writing. On the very first day of school, students will have a space of their own.

This is the beginning of my year. How are you starting yours?

Tags: classroom, globalization, unit, peter menzies, simcity, material world, hungry planet, nata village, jan chipchase, dvice, afrigadget, worldchanging, future perfect

Comments

[tasteach]

Hi Clarence,
What a great topic to start the year! Another good reference might be the book "If the world were a village" http://www.mapping.com/village.html Information can be found at that website.

Also if you want your students blogging to other classes round the world, I will be running a student blogging competition starting 21st September 2008. Just check out my class blog.

[Ann Oro]

I've been enjoying your beginning of the year photos and ideas. I find the green boarder at the top of the room really attractive. I'm rethinking my space, a computer lab. The floors still have not been polished, so I am on hold in that respect. I'll have to take a look at Hungry Planet and Material World. I think that those resources could be the basis for some work with my middle school classes. I'll look forward to seeing what you students do with those resources and I'll share what we do, if it becomes material for our classes.

[Clarence Fisher]

tasteach - I have the book If the World Were a Village in my classroom. It is great. Another I have is called One Well. Its about looking after global water resources. Both are great books.

Ann - Please do share whatever you do with your class. It would be great to see if we come up with similar or different ideas; how we and our kids approach these resources.

[Errin]

That sounds like an interesting start for you and your students! I'm just about finished "The World is Flat" (my summer reading - 60 pages to go!) and mulling over ideas on how to work some flatness into my classroom. One idea is to do a collaborative project through Epals. Have you done anything with Epals? The project is one that I've done collaboratively within my school, but I'd like to take it beyond. I'm in a small rural area too, so I think the students would love to make that leap.

[Patricia Donaghy]

Hi Clarence
I really like the idea of the shared iGoogle tab. Didn't know you could do that until now!! Many thanks.
Patricia

[john Oldham]

Clarence,

I read your blog and enjoy your postings. In your post titled Global Lives, I wanted to pass along the web site springwise.com as another source for teaching your students about the global world we live in. This site contains trends from all over the world, which i thought your students would be intereted in Enjoy!

John