The Global Learner

Global connectivity has become an essential component of a modern teacher's curriculum. As teachers, it is imperative that we expose our students to many cultures and ways of life, so that we can move away from the notion of  American exceptionalism.  When students are taught compassion and understanding, they are more likely to become life long learners who will find value in cultural diversity.
It is becoming clear that the future of education must embrace technology and join the global community. There are many resources online designed for teachers to incorporate a global component to their curriculum. Some of these are  Taking it Global, iEARN, NEA, Global Education, and of course,POV on  PBS  for wonderful documentaries.
The site I focused on was epals. They feature a "Global Community Project", which encourages students to upload a video showing what it means to them to be a global citizen. This type of project can be integrated into any classroom, quite easily.
These websites can also be used in a diverse classroom, to teach understanding and acceptance. It can also help a student feel more comfortable and instill pride in their own culture when they have a chance to share it in school. In an ESL classroom, I could see using the feature on epals called 'country investigation'. This could be used as an interactive classroom project to explore the students' home countries while practicing writing facts on a map. The site also had world language activities and information on bilingual blogs. An interesting idea for a project outside the classroom is called 'my community" where students are asked to look around their world and find influence from other cultures, examples being food or architecture.
With so many resources available it is easier than ever to educate and instill passion in our students for the world around us.