TeachUNICEF

Promoting global citizenship among my students was one of my most important goals as a classroom teacher. One of my favorite, top-notch resources for infusing global education into my classroom has always been TeachUNICEF, which houses a rich wealth of units, lessons and multimedia tools that are all available to teachers and parents. The best part of this resource is that every single one of  the beautifully and thoughtfully crafted resources is free. Not only have I used these tools in my classroom, but I have had the opportunity to meet some of the small but incredibly talented and passionate team behind TeachUNICEF. Each TeachUNICEF person I have had the privilege to speak with is not only passionate about global education, but also has a background working with kids both in and out of classrooms and understands the environments for which they are creating their resources.

The resources are designed to be cross-curricular, and all align with current educational standards. This means you will find a variety of social studies, math, science and language arts content on the TechUNICEF website. Furthermore, most topics are broken down into grade specific ranges which allow you to select the appropriate resource for your population. We have written before about how the best way to bolster students' reading and writing abilities is to simply have them read and write often. Furthermore, to develop vocabulary we need students to read and write about a variety of topics across multiple genres- including fiction as well as non-fiction. However, motivating reluctant or struggling readers and writers can be a challenge for any teacher or parent. What I have found to be so valuable with the TechUNICEF resources is that they use authentic, true stories from real world events to get their message across. The high quality photographs, diagrams and videos further bring the content to life to offer multiple means of engagement for each student. I have found that even my most reluctant students engage with the TeachUNICEF content, as they are inspired by the tales and activities to make a meaningful difference on their global community. In my experience, these tools not only help cultivate a sense of global citizenship in students, but also get them avidly reading about current events while learning new vocabulary and non-fiction text features. So, go explore the TeachUNICEF materials, and if you are interested to see what U.S. Fund for UNICEF is doing beyond the TeachUNICEF program check out their website as well.