The Global Educator Toolkit

The Tools of the Trade

    As an educator it is important to have a wide variety of tools at your disposal to be used for your classroom learning environment. Some of these tools may cover a wide range of needs while others are highly specialized for certain situations. Keeping these tools handy can help both yourself as an educator as well as the students in your classroom.

What Tool is Best?

    Out of all the tools in the Global Educator's Toolbox the one I found to be the most useful is Learning for Justice. I chose this tool because it aligns with my goal for my classroom to create a welcoming environment that is inclusive to all of my students. This tool offers research strategies to address issues such as racism, bias, and social justice. Each of these issues being addressed are critical to understand in today's educational environment. With this information educators can be equipped to help students develop the skills necessary for navigating a diverse world.

Image Source

What I Found Useful in this Tool

Image Source

    One of the most beneficial aspects of Learning for Justice is its wide variety of available lesson plans that are categorized by grade level and topic. These lessons provide content that can be adapted to suit different classroom settings. Learning for Justice also offers professional development resources that help teachers become more culturally educated educators by including action guides and toolkits to help with discussions on equity and justice. The student texts and perspectives portions featured highlight diverse voices and experiences, ensuring that students engage with materials that reflect a wide range of backgrounds. The site also includes unique content such as film kits and teaching strategies that encourage critical thinking and active engagement with social justice topics. All of these aspects combine to make a highly effective tool for an educator looking to improve the quality of their learning environment.

How I Would Use Learning for Justice in My Classroom

    There are several ways that I would use this resource to improve my classroom. Since so many lesson plans are provided by Learning for Justice I would look through each one and decide which ones to incorporate into the curriculum. Doing this would help include ideas such as diversity, identity, and equity into my classroom. In addition to the lesson plans provided I would also include some of the student texts on the website to help introduce more diverse voices into my classroom. The inclusion of all of these diverse and sometimes complicated ideas can help facilitate respectful discussions of these heavy topics in a safe environment.