While reviewing my pre-work for my upcoming conference on Global Education this passage in particular resonated: “Developing global competence is a multi-faceted process that requires several resources:
high quality instructional materials in a variety of media, skilled teachers (particularly in
foreign languages), professional development for teachers, and time set aside in the
curriculum. The workshops and discussions over the next three days will explore these
issues.”

Introduction: Why Global Education? What is Global Competency?.

Global Education

Only one in every six people in the world live with a free press

A writer can conjure up images in his/her mind simply by the process of imagining but..when given a visual many more words and descriptive sentences can be generated.  Whether you are a Catholic, a Christian of another denomination, a member of another religion or even an atheist, certain ideas may come to your mind when thinking of the Virgin Mary.  If the subject is her very existence or her assumption into heaven, a writer can convey thoughts fairly easily.

Now, take a look at two of Salvador Dali’s famous works from the later, scientific, religious time in his life:

I’m willing to bet that after these two visuals, the creative descriptors will increase exponentially because  a).vision trumps all other senses and b).  after seeing someone else’s story, a subjective, unique interpretation occurs allowing the viewer to organize in their mind how they would tell this story back using the printed word.  (My favorite is this one below, the Assumpta Corpuscularia Lapislazulina)

What does a painting have to do with literacy?  What does a composition have to do with literacy or even more, what do these have to do with brain development and the top levels of Bloom’s taxonomy?  Consider what Brown University is doing in their Education department:

The Arts Literacy project is “dedicated to developing the literacy of youth through the performing and visual arts”.  To create an innovative approach to literacy via teachers, international collaborators, college students, youth, and many others is the goal of this organization.

Take a look also at a school in Ecuador and it’s focus on the arts:

First we must teach our children the words themselves, THEN…..over the years, we as librarians, teachers, parents must facilitate the child’s use of that word for dialogic purposes…not just “blah, blah, blah”.   We are obligated to allow the child to discover the true power of the word and to use it in such a way that they cannot be oppressed by even such a thing as a simple advertisement.  Take a look at one of my favorite scenes from the movie “Monthy Python and the Holy Grail”…

This is exactly what the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire had in mind when he observed his fellow citizens not fighting back against a system of government that oppressed them because they could not express themselves.  They did not know how to read so that became his first goal, to eliminate illiterates from the lower classes..he developed a system of teaching adults to read that only took a few months and the Brazilian government was threatened by this.  At the time, if you couldn’t read, you were not allowed to vote.

This may be an extreme example of how the printed word, both read and spoken benefits the world as a whole but if we as citizens of the free world don’t continue the emphasis on the printed word and how it does way more than just tell a story then we too may fall into the same trap.  The library has been and will always be a center for the expression of the word itself, a place for people to come and think and then all things are possible!

For more on Paulo Freire go to –  http://www.freire.org/

Unfortunately I could not embed an image of Freedom House’s or the Newseum’s 2011 Freedom of the Press map but this video should let you know where we are in the world when it comes to our freedom of speech.. I thought it was interesting that the clustrmap attached to my blog is only showing tags from countries with a free press..

My college classmate Steve Bertrand is a WGN (Chicago) radio news anchor and host and has spoken to hundreds of writers throughout his career.  Today he posted an interview with author Mike Lupica and everything the author said resonated. Especially in middle school the propensity for children, particularly boys to not read increases dramatically.  To get a middle school boy to read has always been one of my biggest challenges, but I have been known to do it!  So whenever something comes up that I can do to facilitate a young boy’s interest in the printed word, I jump at it.

One thing the author wants to be known as is the “guy who got kids to want to read”!  And what could be more important than that?

Here is Steve’s interview with Mr. Lupica:

http://dai.ly/o6y8Dz

(you will have to cut and paste).

For more on Steve Bertrand on Books visit his website,  www.stevebertrandonbooks.com

I was checking my map attached to this blog which tells me where people are in the world when they log onto my blog, when I came across a town I didn’t know followed by the initials “PL”.  Turns out the place was a small town in Poland; when I researched the town, the first thing that came up was a memorial to a number of Jewish residents who has perished during World War II at a concentration camp I had never heard of before.

WARNING:  The testimony contained in the link below is from Mr. Pobchlebnik  (pictured above) who was one of only four survivors of the Chelmno concentration camp in Poland. 300,000 Jews perished at this camp,  please exercise discretion before reading. (cut and paste into your browser)

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/survivor/podchlebnik.html

His recounting of the events at this place are another example of how the printed word has a power like no other. This testimony is one of many that will help make sure nothing like this happens again.

I am currently taking a multiculturalism in education class and even though I have always known this intuitively, this class is making me more profoundly aware that culture can be best described, expressed and investigated via the written word.  As Chekhov believed, if a writer can state a problem correctly, then the reader can make inferences, understand better and make changes in his or her society, workplace, culture, etc.  One of my favorite authors who bears witness to the Latina/latino experience is Julia Alvarez.  A 2010 Pura Belpre’ award winner, Alvarez has been writing books that reflect the Latino culture for both the adult and young adult audience.  As she states in the interview below, books are a way for her to create a lens that not only the Latino culture can view through but other cultures as well.  It is important not only for her own culture to understand the changes the Latino culture has gone through by coming into the United States but for the rest of us as well.  To read is to understand – Kit McKeon.

Below Ms. Alvarez talks about how in the United States our “consumer” culture takes traditions and “sells them back” to us at a higher price, as she writes about in the book “Once upon a Quinceanera”..quality isn’t the best but she has some wonderful things to say!

This chart shows iPad applications that correspond to the various levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.  Everything from teaching the student basic information, facts, meanings, all the way up to apps that facilitate story telling is here.  Every child has a story to tell and by giving them different ways to tell their stories we are facilitating brain development, understanding of the printed word, higher test scores, better writing skills, all the way up to challenging and changing the world.

The possibilities through technology to achieve the highest levels of cognition are endless!

Special thanks go out to this great blog I found from the Classroom 2.0 Ning :http://educationaltech-med.blogspot.com/.  The author posted a Bloom’s hierarchy chart as it applies to the iPad particularly..