Connecting Your Students Globally

Students learning from Steve from South Africa

I believe that one of the biggest impacts we can have on our students today is to expose them to the world around them. Especially if you are from a small, rural community like I teach in. I love to connect my students with teachers and students from other countries. They jump at the chance to learn about other cultures...what they eat, the languages they speak, what their schools are like...and I love to see the excitement in their faces as they learn.

Doing a Mystery Skype with Govinda from Nepal

My third graders are studying cultures and comparing and contrasting them to our American culture. I'm a hands on kind of teacher, so, of course, we couldn't simply learn about cultures through books and the Internet...no, we had to talk to someone from that culture first hand! This week I am connecting each of my third grade classes with teachers from around the globe using Skype and Google Hangouts!

These are staples in my classroom! Skype and Google Hangout are tools that we use constantly to learn and share! How are you using them in your classroom?

Christmas Around the World

My 5th graders do a unit each year entitled Christmas Around the World, where they learn about the different beliefs, traditions and symbols of Christmas in different countries, including Russia, Germany, Italy, Canada, Mexico, etc. This year I would like to up the bar and have them connect with someone from each country that they are studying! This would give them an opportunity to get a first hand description of Christmas in different countries! So what did I do??? I created a Skype in the Classroom, of course! Click below to join my project and connect with my students!