 This Food and Culture project promises to be big! We need a team of Food and Culture ambassadors to help us ensure that this project is of the highest quality and success. We need various types of ambassadors:
For additional information ,and to register as an ambassador, click here. In the Comment box please describe what role you would like to play in the project!
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Can you imagine how excited and motivated your students will be as they collaborate with students in classrooms in other countries? We will provide you with many ideas for class, whether you're PK, high school or university. This entry point - food - has been the common factor in socialization and community building for thousands of years. But we don't have to stay focused just on food. This project will expand into many directions, and you and your students will choose which possibilities to explore. While younger students will focus on getting to know and love nature, gardening, cooking, nutrition and fitness, as well as cultural studies, the development of multiple literacies (such as financial literacy, media literacy, ecoliteracy and many more) older students will also be able to explore McDonaldization, Media Literacy, evolution of the supermarket (from small shops to Whole Foods), health issues, hunger, cultural similarities and differences, traditions, economics, agriculture, food production, law, environmental studies, cookbooks, literature, celebrations of life and death and everything in between - all these topics and many more are connected to Food and Culture. This project is designed to integrate, support and develop the items in our 3 Compasses - Critical Attributes of 21st Century Education; Multiple Literacies for the 21st Century; 7 Survival Skills for the 21st Century. Common Core? You bet, and much more! You choose your particular topics and student learning goals according to what you teach. But EVERY CLASS will contribute to: 1. The Global Kids Cookbook - each class submits at least one recipe, accompanied by images and essays. 2. International Student-Produced Video Database - each class will submit at least one student-produced video. 3. Global Children's Literature Database - each teach will submit at least 3 titles of children's literature authored by writers in their country. Everyone eats. People around the world differ in many ways, but dinner unites us all. Explore here then register your class to participate!  Becoming a 21st century educator or school? Join us in NYC!The 2015 Spring Institute is comprised of two cutting edge workshops offering you strategies and tools that, if implemented properly, are guaranteed to increase student motivation, attendance, graduation rates, and test scores!
We love going to New York City! Join us there to enjoy not only two very powerful workshops, but to enjoy the gorgeous Spring flowers, Central Park, great entertainment, history, culture . . . The city itself is our learning environment!  The Physical EnvironmentWhen designing a physical learning environment intentionally designed to support 21st century learning you must consider the design of the actual school facilities and the schoolyards. There is much more to the physical environment than beauty, although aesthetics are very important. The designs you will learn about here, both for the facilities and the schoolyards, incorporate features which support the 21st century learning paradigm as well as physical, mental and emotional health. As my favorite architect says, we have to "lose the cells and bells"; they are obsolete relics of a bygone era - the factory model of education.
Check out these two pages for total information and inspiration! Facilities Design and Schoolyards Contact us to help you create these awesome, 21st century learning environments at your district or campus! Note: the facilities you see, designed by Fielding Nair International, are the best in the world, literally, and although they are incredibly gorgeous they actually cost about half the price of traditional facilities. Contact us to find out more.  Intentionally designing the Emotional Environment is the first thing to do when creating a 21st century classroom and/or school.
21st century curriculum and instruction must first be embedded within the context of the Learning Environment, of which there are three facets - the Physical, the Emotional and then the Academic environment. Read here about how to create a supportive, excellent emotional environment! Please share your thoughts, suggestions, comments or praise for this article! And share it with your colleagues. Thank you! Sugata Mitra is a member of the Advisory Board for 21st Century Schools. This is another excellent opportunity for professional development. Watch, then discuss this video from the WISE Ed.Review with your faculty or PLC, Sugata really gives us pause to think about how we define learning, teaching, school and education in the 21st century. How can we escape the factory model paradigm? Also see my analysis of and reflections upon the work of Sugata Mitra in this letter to James Stanfield at Newcastle University.
Also see the Sugata Mitra page here.  Sugata’s School in the Cloud is the next step in the evolution of humanity. A letter from Anne Shaw, 21st Century Schools to James Stanfield, Newcastle University
May 2013 When I first heard about Dr. Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” project I was astounded and delighted that such an ingenious project was taking place. In today’s globalized society – the world as an interconnected community – Dr. Mitra’s vision is exactly what is needed in the global education community. All children must have access to knowledge. The gaps between the “developed” world and the “developing” world must be closed. The Hole in the Wall project provides an opportunity for children to make a quantum leap forward in their education. I am fond of quoting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who said, “Teachers are the one and only people who can save nations.” Education is the key to success for individuals as well as their nations. Sugata’s philosophy, methodologies and pedagogy, when applied, will open the door to success for so many. When anyone, anywhere, is successful, it benefits everyone, everywhere. Sugata’s plan for the Hole in the Wall, if extended to all children who otherwise would not have access to the tools of the Internet and the information therein, will certainly lift these children, and with them, their nations, to greater success and a higher quality of life. Get ready to be inspired! Meet three new members of the 21st Century Schools group on LinkedIn. These 3 educators are excellent examples of what 21st century education looks and sounds like! Collectively, the members of this group represent a veritable gold mine of sheer talent, knowledge, passion for education and expertise in a variety of fields. Join us! Note - This group is not designed to be a bulletin board, or a disconnected "bunch o'posts". Our goal is to support meaningful dialogue, a sharing of ideas and knowledge, and a place where members may develop long-term professional relationships. Here is an excellent activity for a professional development discussion with your faculty or colleagues. Using our 3 Compasses to 21st Century Education, analyze these exemplars. Watch the relevant video, and visit the web sites and blogs of these three educators. What evidence do you see of the points on each compass? Discuss each example in relation to the compasses. Also, if you do not see a particular element, discuss how this piece is probably there. For example, maybe you do not see specific references to incorporating multimedia, but discuss the possibilities for where and how it is probably present in this project or at this school. I will get you started by reflecting upon one or two of the points from the compasses . . .
This program epitomizes the global classroom and globalization, hence, the development of global competencies and multicultural literacy - a "must have" for 21st century citizens.
This project is completely Relevant, Rigorous and Real World! Students actually utilized all the 7 Survival Skills of the 21st Century as they investigated the situation at the hospital and then created and presented a plan to improve operations in the Emergency Department. In my opinion, almost every point on all 3 compasses was addressed - integrated seamlessly! How could this project have expanded to be a global project?
Obviously, the school is an American school in Brazil; the faculty and students represent 44 countries, so we definitely have global classrooms and globalization. Even if your school does not have a culturally diverse population you can provide experiences for your students to develop their global competencies and multicultural literacy. The best way to do this is through global, collaborative classroom projects in which your students actually collaborate and work with students in a classroom in a country other than their own. Tools such as Skype and Google Hangouts make it easy and free!
Another option is a program involving actual travel to other countries. There are public and private schools in the United States that have these programs, even at the elementary level, such as the Nativity School cited above. Cost? It is not just those with wealthy parents. They find ways to make it happen. That's another post. Let's look at Barry's post entitled Relationships and Learning from May 16 of this year. He describes how the students were engaged in collaborative projects which involved experiential, hands on learning. One of the things the students learning through their project was the critical importance of relationships, Here you have the following points on the compasses: Project-based learning, Real world and relevant, Rigorous, Emotional/Social literacies, Influence Across Networks and Leading by influence, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving . . . Now, discuss in your faculty where you see more of the 3 compasses for education in the 21st century. Finally, what are some things you can do at your school to make this type of experience possible for your students? These three compasses were created to serve as a quick glance tool for use when developing a 21st century unit of curriculum. The first two, Critical Attributes of 21st Century Education and the Multiple Literacies for the 21st Century, were developed years ago; recently the third compass was added, 7 Survival Skills for the 21st Century. These were articulated by Tony Wagner, Ph.D., in his book, The Global Achievement Gap.
Let's look at the points on each compass. These are equally useful in the boardroom and the classroom, from policy planning to lesson plans. . . .  I recently posted my response here to a blog on Edutopia in which teachers discussed "techniques" for keeping students quiet. No one seemed to consider whether or not keeping students quiet was the best thing to do. All these teachers want is to maintain control, and for them, this control means keeping students in their seats and quiet. I posted another comment there two days ago. Obviously, I am in the minority when it comes to opinions regarding classroom management, how children learn and how children should be treated - and in regard to intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation. The image above is from the first article below. It is exactly what I witnessed, and experienced, when observing a full class period in a middle school in Houston. It was horribly boring. The classroom was a mess (teacher's mess). Some of the students had just pulled their hoods up over their heads and put their heads down on their desk. Teacher just kept right on droning. This makes me sick, and if one of my children was in such a classroom I would be in the principal's office and getting my child out of that school, or at least out of that classroom. Today I came across an excellent article related to this topic. A therapist goes to middle school and tries to sit still and focus. She can't. Neither can... washingtonpost.com You may also be interested in the articles below: Why so many kids can’t sit still in school today The right — and surprisingly wrong — ways to get kids to sit still in class Teacher spends two days as a student and is shocked at what she learns Please watch Sir Ken Robinson's talk/video/art below. Notice the map of the United States in Ken Robinson's video and compare it to the one in the article above, Why so many kids can't sit still in school today. Even if you have seen this before, it is an excellent reminder. |
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