C.M. Rubin’s Global Education Report
What is it like to be a child in 2019? A new OECD report, “Educating 21st-Century Children: Emotional Well-Being in the Digital Age,” says that while better support for physical and mental health has improved modern children’s lives, access to tablets and smartphones before you learn to walk and talk has consequences, good and not so good. 21st Century kids are more likely to be only children, increasingly pushed by “helicopter parents” to do more. As new technologies offer them limitless online opportunities, are new digital citizens finding a healthy balance? How are they dealing with new risks such as cyberbullying? How has parenting changed? What does a modern friendship look like? How can educators, parents, health professionals and psychologists work together to support youth? This month, The Global Search for Education discussed all these issues with Tracey Burns, an author of the new OECD report and a senior analyst in the OECD’s Center for Educational Research and Innovation.
Published by The Global Search for Education, the Top Global Teachers are pioneers and innovators in fields such as technology integration, school design, arts in education, special needs education, science instruction, global competencies, project-based learning and gender equity. These teachers have founded schools, published books, created learning models, and led classrooms in countries all over the world.
This month, the Top Global Teachers shared videos based on diverse themes, including digital teaching strategies, how to go paperless, UN SDG #3 — good health and well-being, and lesson plans for borderless learning.
Only 23% of the millions of displaced refugees around the world have access to a quality secondary education. How do we address the challenges and the opportunities involved in creating a quality education for refugees? Polly Akhurst is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Sky School, a non-profit conceived in 2016 in response to the gap in quality education for displaced youth. Sky School partners with local organizations (such as SOS Children’s Villages) to deliver a blended learning model which supports displaced youth, enabling them to get back into learning. The Global Search for Education welcomed Sky School’s Polly Akhurst.
What if all teachers were empowered with a stress-free learning ecosystem that supported their well-being and motivated them to love their jobs? What impact would this have on the teachers, their students and everyone’s learning? Vishal Sharma believes classrooms are losing their ability to be joyful, experiential and holistic learning spaces, particularly given the growing distractions of the Internet, social media and mobile phones. Sharma founded a holistic teachers training program called “SMILES in Education” in 2017. The mission of SMILES (a “Stress-free, Motivating, Inquisitive Learning Ecosystem”) is to create a wellness ecosystem by combining mindfulness with pedagogy, integrating well-being with classroom management, and igniting the inquisitiveness for learning. To date, Sharma’s SMILES in Education program has helped 4500 students and 160 teachers in low income schools in India. Additionally, schools in New Zealand, the United States, Finland, and Spain are integrating the model into their curriculums. The Global Search for Education welcomed Vishal Sharma to talk about the importance of lifelong well-being for all learners.
Thank you to our 800 plus global contributors, teachers, entrepreneurs, researchers, business leaders, students and thought leaders from every domain for sharing your perspectives on the future of learning withThe Global Search for Education each month.
C. M. Rubin (Cathy) is the founder of CMRubinWorld, an online publishing company focused on the future of global learning, and the co-founder of Planet Classroom. She is the author of three best-selling books and two widely read online series. Rubin received 3 Upton Sinclair Awards for “The Global Search for Education”. The series which advocates for Youth was launched in 2010 and brings together distinguished thought leaders from around the world to explore the key education issues faced by nations.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
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