Global Connections and Exchange Project

November2007
8th Annual International Education Week(Global): November 12-16, 2007 International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. IEW provides students with the opportunity to interact on a personal level, foster connections and share their ideas.

September 2007
My Community (Global): This lesson encourages students to think about the concept of a community and their own community membership. It also introduces the online exchange in which they will be participating. Ideally, students recognize that communities are not only defined by location, but also by shared interests or values. Similarly, they should come to understand that an individual can belong to multiple communities.

In this project students will collect their local newspapers document and some community organizations link, take their community photos such as: family members, classmates, teachers, houses, schools, place of worship etc and all will post online to share with their peers in the partner school.

August 2007
Child Labor: Child labor is one of the serious social problems in Bangladesh. It is estimated that the number of working children in Bangladesh is approximately 68, 00000. Through this project, students will research about child labor and will participate in a class discussion on the topic. They will try to find out causes and consequences of child labor in Bangladesh. Students will identify and visit some workplaces/homes in their community where children work as labor. They may also talk to some child workers and their employers. Based on their online and offline research, students will prepare a power point presentation.

July 2007
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)-In Country Project: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges such as poverty, illiteracy etc. The MDGs are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nation-and signed by 147 heads of state and Governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. In this project students will prepare a power point presentation according to their understanding about MDGs, goals, history, importance etc.

June 2007
Summer Fruits in Bangladesh (In-Country Project): Bangladesh abounds with a large variety of tropical and sub-tropical fruits. The summer (May, June and July) is specially treated as fruit festival season in Bangladesh when almost all the major and minor fruits are matured and available. In this lesson plan students learn about the food value of the fruits.Students make a power point presentation with the description along with food value of the fruits .

May 2007
Community Treasure Mapping: Students participate in a brief brainstorming activity focusing on typical summer activities in their community. After discussing the role global citizens take in their local communities, students will re-assess the types of institutions, organizations and individuals to which they would direct visitors in their community. In groups, students will create maps of “treasured resources” that work to support environmental, educational, and cultural and health issues in their community.

April 2007
Imagining the Future: Students will take part in a brief, class-wide reflection activity in which they will envision their community once the goal of “education for all” has been reached. In small groups, students will brainstorm the sorts of changes that must happen in their community in order for this goal to be reached – politically, economically and socially. Students will create “newspaper” articles written in 2015, by which time the UNESCO goal for primary education for every person in the world is intended to have been reached. Students will publish these articles on the GCYP “News from the World’s Future” wikispace sharing their communities’ needs and potential with their fellow students around the world.

March 2007
Youth Activism: Students will begin with a brief icebreaker activity that highlights individual skills and talents of students. After a discussion of these skills and talents, students will gather information about the three main methods of youth activism: education, advocacy, and fundraising. In small groups students will discuss how each of these methods may be used to take an active role on the community, national, or international level. Students will complete a decision tree, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of working on each level, and make a personal decision about which level in which they are most interested in working.

February 2007
The Right to Education: Students participate in a class discussion about the importance of education for their future. Emphasis is placed on four sectors: health, economic security, political participation/ representation and the environment. Students follow on initial brainstorming by looking at the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and analyze which rights require education in order to be fully realized. In smaller groups, students research and write one paragraph about the necessity of education for a positive future in each of the four sectors. Students are asked to research and cite three facts, statistics or quotes from reliable sources that support their opinions.

January 2007
The Right to Food: Students participate in a brief activity highlighting the difference between needs and wants. Emphasizing that rights are distinguished from needs because they are essential not only for survival, but for the ability of humans to live life with dignity, students will explore the role food plays in their family, cultural, spiritual and national traditions.