Chaos Alert for Northern Half of the Western Hemisphere

Great, AP. I'll set my alarm for that.

It's that time of year again.

I'm not talking about Halloween. I'm talking about the End of Daylight Saving Time, the evil twin of the Beginning of Daylight Saving Time. Oh, who am I kidding? They're each other's evil twin. 

The Weekend of Confusion is at hand for us in the Northern Half of the Western Hemisphere (minus parts of Mexico, which suffered through this mess a week ago). If you live in most regions of the NH of the WH, before you go to bed on Saturday night, you must turn your clock back one hour.

Or, if you're a real purist, turn the clock back one hour at 2 am Sunday morning.

Back. One hour. Not forward. Back. As in "Let's live this hour all over again."

Of course,  if you live in Hawaii, most of Arizona, parts of Alaska and Indiana, parts of Canada, and selected Caribbean and Latin American countries, you must do nothing, this or any other weekend. Somehow, this turns out to be even more confusing. (Believe me, I know from experience that Bloomington, Indiana will spend the next couple of days wondering about back an hour or forward an hour, just like you will be.)

Why do we do this Daylight Saving Time spring-ahead fall-back business twice a year? Yes, it's confusing, but it's got to be worth it, isn't it?

Well, isn't it?

At least it's comforting to know that we NH WH-ians are not alone in the horological horror show. Many Europeans were wandering around confused last Sunday.  Australia suffered through time madness earlier this month (only it was the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, because, well, yes, exactly).

But you may be interested to know that many Asian, African, and South American countries just skip the whole business. Russia, for instance, doesn't go through this nonsense in any of its twelve time zones. So it's not as if the world will collapse if we don't mess with our clocks twice a year.

If you're looking to see who's in this clock-changing situation and who's not worldwide, you can browse here.  And if you're a NH WH-ian, take a deep breath before calling your friends in any other world regions this weekend. Remember, you're probably just a little on edge.

Thanks, Cleveland Plain Dealer, for making things even more complicated. I understood there would be no math.

Not that it's a contest . . . .

Best communication of Nobel Week?

Malala will make her first statement after school at 16.30/UK on her and @k_Satyarthi being honored with #NobelPeacePrize. #IDG2014
— Malala Fund (@MalalaFund) October 10, 2014

Frameable.

What Is It?

Quick--what's this?

If you grew up in the United States, you'll say the Big Dipper.  I mean, what else could it be? It's got a bowl (those four stars on the right) and a long handle--can't you see it?

Except it could be a wagon. Or a plough. Or a saucepan. Or a salmon net. Or a canoe. Or a parrot.

It all depends on where you grew up and what you were told it was.  Whatever you saw as a result of that cultural training, you'd be just as sure you were right about it, and that everyone else must just be squinting a lot.

I love how even the patterns of the stars are culturally significant.  This one would have been noticed by people all over the world, not only because it's so bright, but because it  points to several other important landmarks, including the one we call the North Star.  And its shape, well, it sure looks like something, doesn't it? That quadrilateral summons up all kinds of possibilities that people saw and talked about thousands of years ago.

Human imagination is a powerful force. And so is culture. Depending on culture, each of us is more or less locked into a different default view on this pattern, and each of us assumes ours to be the "true" and "right" and "best" view. When, of course, none is more valid or invalid.than the rest.  They're just seven stars that appear to us to form a pattern.

I've got Big Dipper on the brain for good unless I make an effort to 1) find out what other cultures see when they look at this pattern and 2) try, at least, to see that saucepan or the parrot.

Pretty sure I can see the saucepan. Still working on the parrot.

Wait. Doesn't it look like a wifi router?

Linked to the My Global Life Link-Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com

Linked to the My Global Life Link-Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com - See more at: http://www.smallplanetstudio.com/2014/09/26/september-mygloballife-link-up/#sthash.WEFKbCCv.dpuf

Hurricanes Are Global, 2014

When I was in elementary school in New York, the beginning of school was associated in my mind with the possibility of hurricanes.  It's not unusual--New York is frequently the target of what we called "the tail" of hurricanes roaring up the East Coast just about this time every year.  And usually we heard that the big bad storm had first come ashore at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Now I live in North Carolina, and I've got a different perspective on those hurricanes. Yes, the jutting point of Cape Hatteras is frequently the first landing.  But the storms come from much farther away  They usually form off the coast of West Africa, and churn their way across the Atlantic, where some of them menace the Southeastern coast before making their stormy way northward.

So I've come to understand that the East Coast storms of early fall are indeed global.  I ruminated a bit on this point, as well as memories of Floyd and Fran, in this blog post from awhile back, at just this time of year

While Marie and Cristobal churn up the waves on both coasts, and we wonder about what our season might bring in the way of tropical storms, give a thought to the global nature of our weather. (One update from my original hurricane blog post. I'm happy to say that WRAL continues with its great hurricane tracking, but the link has changed.  Here it is:  Interactive Hurricane Tracker Map)

Linked to the My Global Life Link-Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com

“Linked to the My Global Life Link-Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com” - See more at: http://www.smallplanetstudio.com/2014/08/29/august-mygloballife-link-up-add-your-blog-post/#sthash.YhIJKTRK.dpuf

“Linked to the My Global Life Link-Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com” - See more at: http://www.smallplanetstudio.com/2014/08/29/august-mygloballife-link-up-add-your-blog-post/#sthash.YhIJKTRK.dpuf

“Linked to the My Global Life Link-Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com” - See more at: http://www.smallplanetstudio.com/2014/08/29/august-mygloballife-link-up-add-your-blog-post/#sthash.YhIJKTRK.dpuf

In the Mall

You may have seen this video of a little American girl hearing the Muslim call to prayer for the first time in a mall in Dubai.





If you don't speak three-year-old, you may have a bit of difficulty understanding her first two comments ("That's a good voice."  and "That's a good one.").  You'll probably recognize the American cultural reference she makes (Muslim friends think that one's pretty funny).    

Well, who doesn't love seeing children being "totally adorbs," as one commenter put it?  

But I say the appeal goes deeper than that. Here's a very young person experiencing a culture not her own, and giving it all the attention and consciousness she's got. The real appeal here is the complete, rapt immersion, the opening of eyes and ears and heart. What wouldn't we give, as adults, to experience a new (to us) culture in that intense and beautiful way?

We can try.  Let's resolve at least to try. 

Linked to the My Global Life Link-Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com

Study Abroad--Y Not?

Last week, I went to a two-day orientation at the college my youngest will be attending in the fall.  Of course everyone was subjected to a deluge of information, most of which we're still numbly paging or scrolling through.  (Meal plan decision when? And they register for courses--how many courses again?)

But I particularly perked up when they came to the study abroad presentation.  Impressive.  So many opportunities and ways to make study abroad happen for all students. So much enthusiasm on the part of the staff.  And such a big change from a generation ago, when I (for one) had to make arrangements for a year abroad on my own, because there was no Study Abroad Office at my college.

The number of US students studying abroad has tripled in the last twenty years.  So now everyone goes abroad sometime during college, right?

No, not quite everyone.

Y should I study abroad? 

Anyone who's worked with college students realizes (and struggles to overcome) the many remaining barriers to study abroad for students--lack of funding, unfamiliarity with travel, the challenge of majors (particularly STEM) that require specific courses at specific times, the feeling that "people like me (minority, LGBT, first generation college, with disabilities, low income) just don't study abroad." 

I understand how those barriers can seem insurmountable, and I've worked with colleagues in the ongoing project to eliminate them. But one underrepresented group puzzles me.

Guys.

Really.

Male students fall far behind female students in study abroad by a wide margin.  Even given the fact that there are more women in college than men (about 7%), the numbers are still shocking.  According to a study by the Institute of International Education, in 2011-12 the breakdown by gender across the US for students studying abroad was 65% female and 35% male. That's almost a 2 to 1 ratio. And in some colleges and universities, the difference is much greater.

Is it genetic?  Does that Y chromosome mean "Y should I study abroad?"  

Okay, that's just silly.  But the gap may indeed have something to do with how young men perceive gender identity.  If study abroad is (mostly) associated with female students, especially those in the humanities, male students may (falsely) determine that it's not for them. They fall into the "people like me just don't study abroad" fallacy.  And they lose out.

But there's hope. The University at Texas at Austin is examining how messaging about study abroad can better acknowledge what male students value in education.  Duke University is determined to involve more male students in study abroad by offering more international opportunities in engineering and the sciences, disciplines that include a larger percentage of men, and working on recruiting for foreign language studies, which is a strong predictor for study abroad.

These are good strategies, and a good start.  If we believe that study abroad is a valuable, life-changing experience, then we should make sure that all students can see that "people like me study abroad."

Y not, guys?


Linked to the My Global Life Link-Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com

Free EU online course

We're at it again!

The UNC European Union Center of Excellence and LEARN NC will be offering The European Union – An Introduction for Teachers, an online professional development course. The course, which runs for four weeks (June 25-July 22), provides two CEUs and lots of online resources for learning and teaching. The goal of this course is to introduce in-service teachers to the history and the function of the European Union, as well as to digital resources and methods for student learning. By the end of the course, teachers will understand the EU as an essential part of European history, government, economics, and culture, and will be able to facilitate learning about the EU through use of technology. The final project is a standards-based technology-rich lesson plan incorporating online EU resources for each teacher’s class. Lesson plans will be submitted to the UNC European Union Center of Excellence for possible inclusion in the online lesson plan database. For more information, contact Dr. Regina Higgins.

Register here.

Human Family

We lost a great poet this week.  Maya Angelou, whose brilliance in writing, activism, and just plain straight-out living left us gasping in admiration, has been described as a "global renaissance woman."

And how.

Worthwhile to take the time to trace that extraordinary life through Stamps, Arkansas, to Egypt, to Ghana, and beyond.

And even more worthwhile to listen to the poet's voice, her testimony to what she learned about our humanity through her world travels and her extraordinary gift for living.

You can read the poem, "Human Family," but I suggest you listen instead.

Peace be to her valiant spirit.

Linked to the My Global Life Link-Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com

Africa is Not a Country, But It Has Only One Book Cover

Right now you're dashing for the end-of-the-year finish line.  But make some time to take a look at this great post on the Africa is a Country site and the follow-up article by Michael Silverburg in The Atlantic, "Why Every Book About Africa Has the Same Cover."

Well, perhaps not every book about Africa has the same cover. But Simon Stevens of Columbia University collected and offers as evidence quite a boat-load here, enough to make you ask why Africa's design short-hand has to be an acacia tree against a dramatic sunrise/set just . . .  so many times.  And it was his brilliant graphic and comment that got this discussion going most recently.

It's not the first time publishers have been called out for stereotypical images on their book covers. (Take a look at this post about how publishers package translations of Middle Eastern books.)  Nor will it be the last. But is there anything we, as teachers, can make of such a discussion?

Don't judge a book by its cover, we've been told. But the cover (including the title and author) is the first piece of information a book offers us. That cover is intended to have an effect on us--i.e., "ooh, I must buy this book!" The images publishers choose are meant to connect with us emotionally and aesthetically as well as intellectually to produce this "ooh, I must buy this book!" effect. So the question the Africa is a Country post raises is, do publishers actually think that "Africa" can be positively linked in our hearts and minds to only one image (h/t @meowmusiq) ?

It's time to include book covers in book discussion. Not as an add-on or extra credit option, but as an essential part of coming to terms with a literary work. Maybe whenever we give students a book (especially a popular one) we should assess that book's cover, ask ourselves and our students why that particular design might have been chosen. What does it tell us about the story inside, even before we've opened the book? Do they think the image works? Or would they have chosen a different design?

Teachable moments.  There are just so many of them.

The World's Fair--Or Is It?

Lately, we've been inundated with images and memories of the 1964 World's Fair in New York. Understandable, since it's the fiftieth anniversary of "the Fair" (as organizer Robert Moses insisted everyone call it in his hearing).  As a predictor of the future, it was so-so. Yes, we're all tapping away at computers (then imagined as necessarily ginormous), but no jet packs. Not yet, anyway. (Too many Belgian waffles, maybe?)

Despite the publicity, it wasn't even officially a World's Fair. Because the Fair violated several international guidelines on the length of the exhibition, scheduling, and fee charging, the Bureau of International Expositions in Paris refused to sanction it. And on top of that (probably because of that), a disappointingly low number of countries actually participated. The Soviet Union declined (okay, it was the Cold War). Indonesia came, but withdrew (again, political tensions).  But Canada and Australia didn't show up, and most of Western Europe gave it a pass. When both Germanys gave the Fair the cold shoulder, a "West Berlin" exhibit suddenly popped up. Guess that showed 'em.

Oh, well.  The party went on anyway. And the international theme was carried forward most memorably by America's number one showman, Walt Disney, in the exhibit "It's a Small World."

Here's the charming story of how it happened. Pepsi-Cola, overwhelmed with respect and love for the world's children, hired Disney to create a ride/show in honor of UNICEF.  The promise--to celebrate the children of the world in each culture, and globally.

And here's the result.

To be honest, I have to admit that when I recall seeing "It's a Small World" at the Fair as a child, all I remember is the experience of total sensory overload. That, and the child seated in front of me, who kept asking "when can we get out?"  At one point, she leaned toward a nodding and dancing animatron and screamed "I hate you!"  So much for peace through understanding.  But I'm sure they sold a lot of Pepsi.

Now, of course, all I can see is the almost unbelievable cultural craziness in this round the world tour.  "The wooden-shoe children of Holland"?  Really?  And "exotic Asia," of course, with its mish-mash of China and Japan, followed up by flying carpets over the Taj Mahal. And "the mysterious dark continent of Africa." And let's just stop there.

Because we could go on and on about how clueless we all were fifty years ago.  The point it, where are we now?  How do we introduce our young students to their peers around the world?  Is it any deeper and more authentic an experience than a ride through a tunnel populated by animatronic dolls?

Still not there yet.  Jet pack, anyone?

Linked to the My Global Life Link-Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com  

Get Moving and Get Global

So grateful to our First Lady Michelle Obama for the strong support of global education during her visit to China. Here's what she said at Peking University:  

"Studying abroad isn’t just a fun way to spend a semester; it is quickly becoming the key to success in our global economy. Because getting ahead in today’s workplaces isn’t just about getting good grades or test scores in school, which are important. It’s also about having real experience with the world beyond your borders -- experience with languages, cultures and societies very different from your own." 

 
You can watch the video of the First Lady's talk here. And let me ask you--when will "global education" finally be just "education"?

Linked to the My Global Life Link Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com

Multilingual "Let It Go" Says "Bring It On" to World Language Learning

Alright, I'll admit it. I've had a hankering to be one of those Disney Princesses since I was three years old. (This despite the face that I nearly fell down the stairs in the clear plastic Cinderella shoes I'd pleaded for.)

Of course, I had my reservations. Don't we all?  But here's a video that may bring even the most reluctant Disney-disapprover into the fold.

Yes, that's Elsa from Frozen, singing her "I'm-going-my-own-way" song in twenty-five different languages. Play this one at home or in your class for young girls and then casually mention taking a closer look and listen to one of the languages Elsa is singing. I'll bet you get some interest.

If you're a teacher or a parent (or an aunt!) wanting to use this fun for global learning, you'll find some great ideas for research and discussion at Nat Geo's Blog

And ten years from now, watch out for the Daughters of Elsa world language students and speakers.

Linked to the My Global Life Link-up at SmallPlanetStudio.com 

Come, come, whoever you are . . .

If you'll be in or around Chapel Hill on Wednesday, February 26, come and join us!

Free and open to the public.  Just as Rumi would like it.

A Really Global View

A brief message from your planet.

Hi. Good to be in touch. Listen, I'm not going into all the global warming business right now (although I do wish you'd pay a little more attention to it).  Today I have one very simple but very vital reminder for you.

There is no up and down in space.

Okay, so what does that mean?  Lots of things, but most important to what I'd like to think about today is that you're thinking of the way I look in only one way instead of many ways.

Don't get me wrong--I'm really flattered that you think of me so often, and create such beautiful images of me.  That Universal Studios logo at the beginning of their movies?

Fantastic. Love it. But you know it's kind of Western-hemisphere centric, right?  Yeah, we covered that a while back. But also--well, something you may not have thought of.

How shall I put this, because it may be pretty strange to hear.  Ummm.  There is no up and down in space.

So . . .   Well, that North Pole is at the top stuff?  Not really.  I mean not all the time.  And don't get me wrong, I love the NASA photo of Earth from space.

But.  It could have been the other way (I mean "upside down") and been just as accurate. 

Yeah, freaky.

Take a look at this beautiful map of a region I know you're very familiar with.  Muhammad Al-Idrisi created it in the 12th century.

 

Can't place it?  How about if we turn it "upside down."

Now you see it.  Well, both are equally accurate.  You see? 

Just promise to think about it.  And happy new year!

Linked to the "My Global Life" Link Up at SmallPlanetStudio.com

NC Social Studies Conference

Don't forget that the NC Social Studies Conference is coming up fast. Make your plans now and we'll see you in Greensboro, February 20-21.

Lots of great sessions, and a wonderful way to network with some of the best teachers in the state.  I've been known to call it Vegas for social studies nerds. And I can't wait to get there!

I'll be offering this session:

The Middle East and the Common Core
Come learn how to find and use primary and secondary sources, including text, video, and maps, to deepen students’ understanding of the Middle East. Free resources and information about workshops, online teaching materials, and curriculum support.

Register here. And I'll see you there!