Education for Global Understanding
5 Jul
At Bon Education, we focus our work at the intersection of education, technology, literacy and global awareness. It is our mission to bring these vastly differently elements together through our creative endeavors. That’s why when we came across Primary Source World we were beyond excited to find others striving towards a similar cause.
The non-profit organization based out of the United States aims to promote history and the humanities by linking up teachers and educators to individuals from cultures around the world . It is all about making history books and world cultures come to life. Primary Source’s online resources bridge the gap between K-12 educators, scholars and the global community by issuing curriculum resources that introduce classrooms to diverse global content.
Primarily, the organization offers school-year seminars and summer institutes that can take qualified teachers on study tours to different countries such as China, Japan or Ghana, with over 40 schools and school districts participating in their programming.
The classroom ready activities incorporate primary resources such as audio and visual clips, artifacts and written documents in order to demystify misunderstood and under-represented topics and their histories.
For example, the Cultural Snapshots of Daily Life in Japan for Elementary Students lesson plan escorts students on a Japanese excursion, taking students beyond the stereotypes of Hello Kitty and sushi and into the realities of Japanese life. It is an effort to bring the unfamiliar and far away a little bit closer.
Some lessons adopt a more historical perspective and inspire students to look at past events through alternative viewpoints. Teaching the American War: Looking at the War in Vietnam through Vietnamese Eyes frames the conflict in an international context. The primary sources offered include Vietnamese anti-war music and literature and encourage students to consider the impacts of war on various cultures.
Human-Environment Interactions in India assess the country’s rapid industrialization and the repercussions on the natural environment. Video programming, interactive graphs and legislative documents give educators enough comparable data to have students draw independent conclusions.
The Africa unit, explores preserving culture and history in the continent by offering up engaging classroom activities, unique vocabulary and immersive elements that expose students to the vast cultures of Africa.
Their newest project will include a mini-lesson on the role and voices of women in the Middle East and is set to be available on the site shortly.
So for all of you teachers and educators out there, what are some of the unique ways you instill global awareness in your students? Share with us your international musings in the comment section below!
Keep Calm and Learn On,
Nora
Image available by CC Licensure from DonkeyHotey
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