Learning with a Global Perspective

Fifth and Sixth Graders: Global Citizens

You are not just a Memphian, an American, or a member of a specific ethnic group.You are a part of a global community. As learners, you are developing skills to participate as global citizens. Take some time to read over the quotes and statements written below and comment in your own words, stating what it means to be a global citizen and what are some ways that you can begin thinking globally/internationally today. 

"No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main"

- John Donne 

A Global Citizen is someone who:

* Is aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen

* Respects and values diversity

* Participates and contributes to the community on a range of levels

* Challenges social injustice

* Works to make the world a more equal and sustainable place 

* Takes responsibility for their actions 

Deadline to post is March 9th

Sixth Grade: ¿Que lleva Pippi?

Sixth Graders: Leave a comment describing what Pippi is wearing in Spanish. Remember to use the verb llevar and colors! Deadline to post: February 27th. 

Las Noticias: Womack Group 3

Las Estaciones, El Tiempo y Los Deportes 

Las Noticas: Anderson Group 3

Las Noticias: Anderson Team Four

Weather, Seasons and Sports Broadcast

Current Events: Ecuador

Fifth and Sixth grade students:


Clink on the link below and watch the video about the deforestation of the rainforest in Ecuador. Leave a comment on what steps you think the indigenous people can take to stop this. 

Please comment by January 30th, 2012. 


http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ecuador-a-model-of-green-enterprise

Learning Spanish is hard!

Have you ever said or thought that? Or how about "Spanish is so confusing! That sentence doesn't make sense to me". I have heard statements such as these made by students over the years. One response I have for this is "If you think Spanish is hard and confusing, you should try learning English as a second language!" We are blessed to have English as our native language. Learning to read, write, and speak English as a second language is harder than you think! Let's take a look at a few example of just how confusing English can be. As you read, imagine being a native speaker of another language and trying to learn some of these concepts for the first time.

Learning Vocabulary and Phrases

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? Why do we say that your house can burn up as it burns down or that you fill in a form by filling it out? In the English language, why does an alarm clock goes off by coming on? Why is it said that people recite lines at a play and play at a recital? Why do we ship by truck and send cargo by ship, have noses that run and feet that smell, and park on driveways and drive on parkways?

Analyzing Sentences 

1 ) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2 ) The farm was used to produce produce.
3 ) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4 ) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5 ) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
6 ) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
7 )  A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
8.) After a number of injections my jaw got number.