The Globe is the news update from the Global Dimension website, a free online library of global teaching resources that is produced by Reboot the Future. Reboot’s output for March focuses on respect and dignity. It says, find great conversation starters and classroom resources below to help you enrich your teaching this month and foster connection and compassion amongst your students.
You can visit their online calendar to see all the Global Days coming up. But here are five to highlight this month’s theme:
14th March
International School Meals Day Food is fundamental brain-fuel for learning and the development of young people in school. It is good to highlight the importance of nutrition and encourage engagement and curiosity around food systems at this crucial life stage. Raise awareness, also, about the fact that many students around the world, including in the UK, go to school hungry and what impact that might have on their ability to learn. Take a look at this Food and Farming activity created by us here at Reboot the Future to get your students thinking about food in a broader context of the Golden Rule.
22nd March
World Water Day Water is vital for all forms of life and yet we have both directly (through pollution and mismanagement) and indirectly (through climate change) caused major disruption to the water cycle and thus also to the reliable supply of healthy drinking water and sanitation. Help your students understand various water systems and how they impact different people and ecosystems around the world. Explore educational resources from a water company near you and much more through WaterAid.
7th April
World Health Day World Health Day was envisaged at the first World Health Assembly in 1948 and first celebrated on April 7th 1950. The day is intended to mark the foundation of the World Health Organisation and to promote the ideals of global cooperation on health issues. Every year the WHO focuses on a different health theme to highlight particular issues. Past themes have included the health effects of climate change, universal health coverage, and support for nurses
12th April
International Day for Street Children This was launched on 12th April 2011. It aims to raise awareness of the millions of street children all around the world and support the vital recognition of their rights. All countries (except the US) ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and have a legal obligation to work towards ensuring that all children’s rights are integrated into national law. However, the rights of street children are often overlooked
15th to 24th April
Fashion Revolution Week This occurs on the week around the 24th of April every year to raise awareness about the human rights abuses and environmental degradation caused by the fashion industry. The week was started in the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza Collapse. On the 24th of April 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1,100 textile workers and injuring a further 2,500. Many of the world’s top brands were having clothes made at this factory, but through opaque subcontracting agreements, many barely knew they were implicated in one of the largest industrial disasters in history.
18th April
World Heritage Day This day, also known as the International Day for Monuments and Sites, was established by UNESCO in 1983. It aims to raise public awareness about the diversity of the world’s built monuments and heritage sites, their vulnerability and the efforts required to protect them. World Heritage Day is a day to understand how culture and history can be embodied within a place and how we should preserve these places so that we can learn from them.
22nd April
Earth day International Mother Earth Day (also known simply as Earth Day) recognises that the Earth and its ecosystems provide its inhabitants with life and sustenance. It also aims to raise awareness that humans have a collective responsibility to promote harmony with nature and to balance the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations. Originally inspired by an oil spill off the coast of California in 1969, Earth Day was founded to demonstrate support for environmental protection and promote love for the planet. Set at the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere the first day was held in 1970 in the US, with the day going international in 1990.
25th April
World Malaria Day The aim of this day is to provide education and understanding of malaria as a serious, but preventable global problem. Originally called Africa Malaria Day, in 2008 it was changed to World Malaria Day to recognise the fight to eradicate malaria internationally. It now forms one of the WHO’s 11 global public health campaigns. The day is becoming increasingly focused on countries that have achieved or are close to achieving malaria elimination. Recently these include Sri Lanka, Morocco, El Salvador, Argentina and China.