Keeping it global for a new school year

Welcome back to a new school year 😊  At a time where our role as global citizens is more important than ever, here are some inspiring news stories and links to global learning resources – something to use in the classroom, or ideas for positive actions at home.

Seaweed!

Anyone who’s been to Zanzibar with Global Action will have spent a day with a co-operative of seaweed farmers.  It’s here our teams learn first-hand how this alternative income source is contributing to women’s financial empowerment, while offering an alternative to fishing in this island nation.  ‘How Seaweed is Saving the World’ is a really interesting BBC World Service podcast, showing how seaweed has multiple uses as a vital tool to help curb greenhouse gas emissions – part of their inspiring series ‘People Fixing the World’.

Let’s think positive

Now that 40% of people globally avoid the news, many are rejecting how traditional media misuses their attention. Positive News offers a different choice: they show what’s going right in the world, so that you’re informed in a way that uplifts you and helps you take positive action in your own life. We highly recommend their weekly ‘what went right’ news bulletins – how else would you learn that a US-based biotech firm has developed a plastic-eating fungi, offering an eco-friendly solution to tackle the global nappy waste crisis! Read all about it here:  Spore and peace: fungi power a quiet revolution in nappy waste – Positive News

One for the Teachers

Are you looking for ideas of how to introduce global learning themes into the classroom? Try Reboot the Future.  They’ve published an online monthly calendar loaded with global days, how to approach it, a conversation starter around the topic, and links to resources, or suggestions for activities. You can find the calendar at Global Days › Reboot Education

Time for a clean up

20 September is World Clean-up Day, and it’s now been added to the official United Nations Calendar. There might be a locally organised litter pick near you.  Or you can just take a pair of gloves and a bin bag with you next time you’re out with the dogs, or walking to the bus.  It’s amazing what people don’t put in the bin.

If you need some inspiration, here are some pictures of our lovely Global Action teams cleaning up the beaches in Costa Rica and Zanzibar, and the jungle in Nepal.

Look at all those bags

All in all, the small changes we make as individuals, and the community projects we get involved in, all add up … global action for positive change.