I recall, from my classroom days, students consistently asking what the 5 Olympic Rings represent. Do you know? Here is the explanation taken from the Olympic website:
The rings are interlocking and arranged in a trapezoid shape in colors blue, black, red, yellow, and green.Pierre de Coubertin first proposed this symbol at the1914 Olympic congress in Paris. Upon its initial introduction, de Coubertin stated
“…the six colors [including the flag’s white background] thus combined reproduce the colors of all the nations, with no exception. The blue and yellow of Sweden, the blue and white of Greece, the tri- colours of France, England and America, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, the yellow and red of Spain next to the novelties of Brazil or Australia, with old Japan and new China. Here is truly an international symbol.”
5 continents or 7? Remember this great cold-war era soccer gold medal match?
The Olympic flag flew for the first time in an Olympic stadium in 1920 during the Antwerp Games. If the number of rings represents the continents, the colors (six of them, counting the white background) were chosen to ensure that every country would have at least one of the colors in its national flag included. Overall, the five rings that make up the Olympic symbol represent the universality of the Olympics and of athletes from around the globe.
For purposes related to this blog, I see the rings as an opportunity to share some “gold medal” global education programs. Check them out, share them, leave some comments, explore, and enjoy .
1) IREX: Teachers For Global Classrooms
The Teachers for Global Classrooms (TGC) Program provides a professional development opportunity for middle and high school teachers from the United States to participate in a program aimed at globalizing teaching and learning in their classrooms. TGC is a program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by IREX. Participants are selected through a national, open competition. Eligible applicants must be U.S. citizens and full-time secondary-level (middle or high school), teaching professionals with five or more years of classroom experience in disciplines including English as a Second Language, English Language or Literature, Social Studies, Mathematics, or Science.
2) Connected Educators Month:
Online communities and learning networks are helping hundreds of thousands of educators learn, reducing isolation and providing “just in time” access to knowledge and opportunities for collaboration. However, many educators are not yet participating and others aren’t realizing the full benefits. In many cases, schools, districts, and states also are not recognizing and rewarding this essential professional learning.For these reasons, the U.S. Department of Education’s Connected Educators initiative is launching Connected Educator Month in August 2012. Throughout August, there will be coordinated opportunities to participate in events and activities in dozens of online locations to develop skills and enhance one’s personal learning network.
Be sure to check out the webinar I am leading on August 20th at 11:00 am EDT on the AHA’s Tuning History project.
3) Google World Wonders Project:
The World Wonders Project is a valuable resource for students and scholars who can now virtually discover some of the most famous sites on earth. The project offers an innovative way to teach history and geography to students of primary and secondary schools all over the world. By using our Street View technology, Google has a unique opportunity to make world heritage sites available to users across the globe. With advancements in our camera technologies we can now go off the beaten track to photograph some of the most significant places in the world so that anyone, anywhere can explore them.
4) The Longview Foundation:
Founded by William L. Breese, the Longview Foundation for World Affairs and International Understanding has been helping young people in the United States learn about world regions and global issues since 1966. At the dawn of the 21st century, knowledge of other peoples, economies, languages and international affairs has become a necessity for every child. Eliminating global poverty, solving international conflicts, working in new markets, and addressing global health and environmental problems require international knowledge and cooperation. And in our increasingly diverse communities in the United States, knowledge of other cultures is essential to strengthening our own democracy.
5) Teachers Without Borders:
At over 59 million, teachers are the largest group of trained professionals in the world. As transmitters of knowledge and community leaders, teachers are powerful catalysts for lasting global change. However, teacher professional development is often irrelevant, inconsequential, or missing entirely. Teachers must therefore have a support network to provide the resources, training, tools and colleagues they need to fulfill their important role. Teachers Without Borders offers that support. We do not send teachers from the West to the East or from the North to the South; rather, we provide the space for teachers around the world to find and learn from each other.
6) OER Conferences (two events)
Open Education has come of age. The tiny movement that began in the late 1990s as a desire to increase access to educational opportunity has blossomed into requirements in national grant programs, key strategies in state legislatures and offices of education, content sharing initiatives at hundreds of universities and high schools, and a wide range of innovation and entrepreneurship in both the commercial and nonprofit sectors.
The Past: The presentations at UNESCO’s June 2012 conference in Paris are archived and can be viewed here.
The Future: OpenEd12, the ninth annual Open Education Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia “Beyond Content”
