Do you ever find yourself preaching to your students about how grateful they should be to live in America? Do you ever find yourself trying to teach them life lessons like how people treat one another is more important than what kind of clothes, what kind of cell phone, or what kind of car he or she may have?
If you answered yes to any of that... Ask yourself if you display these same behaviors to your students. That's right, role modeling. Do you show your children what is happening in the world through use of your school technology? If not, you should.
Words are useless, especially to adolescents...unless in text form :-) If you are sincere in your desire for character development, it starts with leading by example. In other words... don't talk about it, be about it.
Children need to see their adult influences practicing life lessons taught in the classroom.
How?
Just a few ideas:
1. Use Skype as a tool to connect with teachers and students all over the world. You can take it a step further and use it to connect with willing local government or legal officals to discuss problems in other countries. Sometimes students need to create a sense of urgency and reality about just how fortunate they are to be alive and have the option to come to school. While I haven't utilized Skype, I have had students write letters. I think even that falls short of really creating a sense of empathy. If students can see... it makes it more real to them.
2. Use themes in your curriculum to match with current events. If you're a math teacher, figure out how much money would be needed to donate to the current number of refugees in Somalia in order to provide a family of four with a $70 food kit. If you're a Social Studies or Language Arts Instructor, this should be VERY easy for you. If you're a Science teacher, discuss the health conditions, the kinds of diseases, or the causes of the drought in Somalia.
3. Use google earth to view the country you are discussing. I found this especially helpful. I was amazed at the lack of geography knowledge of some of my students. I'm from Michigan and my California students would refer to Michigan as the "East Coast." I used that as a time to teach them what I considered common knowledge but what I realized they just hadn't been exposed to (blame the elementary teachers :-) Google Earth helped me to clarify just where my state is located. I'll let you in on a little secret, Americans are NOTORIOUSLY known for our sense of narcissism... we don't know where countries are located beyond Mexico and Canada. Let's help change that.
Educational technology has moved so far beyond the "Oregon Trail" game and using movies to create a sense of a world that is different than what are students consider "normal."
Be an advocate for changing the world in your classroom... just remember, you have to display this, and not just teach it.
Here's an easy way to start:
Show a clip (assuming you can unblock youtube on your campus) of an issue that's dear to you, then use paypal to donate money... yes, post it up on the projector screen. Students will be amazed at how much you really care. Putting pictures up and talking about it one day in your class won't matter. In our constant 24/7 information filled world, finding a topic to improve humanity that will resonate with your students should be easy.
Try it, I dare you.
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