30-Day Blogging Challenge: Day 23: Community Connections

Day 23: Write about one way that you "meaningfully" involve the community in the learning in your classroom.

Last year, we live-streamed some events in our classroom. One that was particularly meaningful was our World Water Summit, in which grade 5s represented levels of government and grade 6s represented international organizations and we presented and debated about what each group was doing to solve the issue of global water shortages.

By live-streaming the event (on Google+ Hangouts on Air), parents and friends were able to watch, comment and question. Other classes watched and got inspiration. A parent in the class watched and when she heard about an event in Ottawa for the UN Think Tank on Water, she scored us some invites. Students saw that they were truly members of a global community and could have an impact on changing the world. They were listened to, respected and consulted by real members of local government and international agencies.