Zooming Out for a Global View

Wondering Where to Get Your Students Started?
The following websites will help you and your students explore current global issues and brainstorm possible project topics. If you have additional resources, please share them with other Texas teachers by posting a comment on this article.

Globalization 101 provides a student’s introduction to Globalization, as well as background information on several global topics, such as trade, technology, the environment, energy, and human rights (Click on the Teacher tab for global topic information). www.globalization101.org

Teaching with the News: The Choices Program sponsored by Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University provides online curriculum materials and ideas to connect the content of the classroom to the headlines in the news. Topics cover a range of foreign policy and international issues. Link to Scholars OnLine to bring university scholars into secondary level classrooms. Videos of scholars who have contributed to the development of curriculum units or participated in Choices professional development programs are provided in an interview format. http://www.choices.edu/resources/current.php

The Global Education Website is designed to increase the amount and quality of teaching of global education in Australian primary and secondary schools, but US schools can certainly benefit from the resources. The objective of the site is to raise awareness and understanding of international issues, development and poverty, and to prepare students to live in an increasingly globalised world and to be active citizens shaping better futures.
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/cache/offonce/pid/178

Learn about climate change and global warming on the Global Issues web site. http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GlobalWarming/Intro.asp

The Concern Worldwide website offers several classroom guides for teachers to download that cover current global issues such as child labor, hunger, women’s rights, and water.
http://concernusa.org/Public/GCP/ClassroomGuides.aspx

Find a project idea for secondary students about global warming and climate change on the KIDLINK website: http://kidspace.kidlink.org/start.php?HoldNode=16019

The You Think website is sponsored by the World Bank and provides information and research on various global issues in today’s world, such as education, development, the environment, globalization, health, trade, and urbanization. http://youthink.worldbank.org/

The National Peace Corps Association provides A Global Issues Toolbox for Educators. http://www.rpcv.org/pages/sitepage.cfm?id=219#Water

Read Going Global 101 by J. Michael Adams and Angelo Carfagnaon the Inside Higher Ed website. This article provides an introduction to globalization, ideas for teachers to incorporate global issues into their classrooms, and links to global resourses.
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/07/16/adams

BBC International website provides up to date international news including One-Minute New videos. http://news.bbc.co.uk/

CIA Factbook provides maps and information resources about countries. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

United Nations website offers information about UN affairs and world issues and links to the Cyber School Bus, the United Nations Global Teaching and Learning Project. http://www.un.org/