Intro to Global Awareness: The Dominican Republic
Take the first step in your journey towards Global Awareness by connecting with a group of students in the Dominican Republic.
There are four lessons in this course.
Watch the introduction below, then just keep scrolling to go on to the next activity!
Welcome to Intro to Global Awareness!
Lesson One:
Global Awareness Overview
Watch Video Lecture
Fill out "Where I've Been" Worksheet
Take the "Global Awareness" Quiz
Congratulate yourself and keep going to Lesson 2!
Watch this Global Awareness Overview Video Lecture (14 minutes)
Lesson Two:
Understanding Culture and Values
Watch Video Lecture
Fill out "Who I Am" Worksheet
Take the "Culture and Values" Quiz
Congratulate yourself and keep going to Lesson Three!
Watch this Culture and Values Video Lecture! (16 minutes)
Lesson Three:
Learning from Others
Read the BTB in the DR Viewing Guide
Get comfy and watch the educational travel documentary Beyond the Block: The Dominican Republic
Fill out the BTB in the DR Video Response Worksheet
Congratulate yourself and keep going to the FINAL lesson: Lesson Four!
BTB in the DR Viewing Guide
It's time to get to know some kids and teens who live in the Dominican Republic by watching an educational travel documentary video. The video is about 35 minutes, so grab a snack and settle in. I promise you will love it!
While you watch, take out a piece of paper and keep notes on the thoughts, feelings, and questions you have while you are watching. Or you can click here to download a notetaking page I made for you. This will help you keep track of what you learned during each part of the video. After the video, you'll be able to share these thoughts and feelings and send me any questions you might have.
Remember also to keep in mind the 4 aspects of Global Awareness: Understanding Others, Understanding Ourselves, Critical Thinking, and Creating a Better World for Ourselves and Others. I will ask you about those after the video!
I hope you enjoy getting to know these awesome kids as much as I did.
See you after the video!
Beyond the Block: The Dominican Republic Educational Travel Documentary Video
Lesson FOUR:
Becoming a Better Global Citizen
Read "What Does it Mean to be a Global Citizen?"
Fill out the Dreams and Goals Worksheet
Wait for your course feedback and Certificate of Completion to be emailed to you!
What Does it mean to be a global citizen?
Congratulations!
You are very close to completing Beyond the Block's Intro to Global Awareness course! If you have made it this far, then we know you have used your critical thinking skills to learn more about yourself and others. You have increased your global awareness! But there is one more part of global awareness that is important to understand, and that is your role as a global citizen.
What is a global citizen? Well, let's start with the basics. Did you know that there are 7.7 BILLION people on Earth (and that number is growing!)? How connected do you feel to those 7.7 billion people? When you started this course, maybe you didn't think about them much. But now you've been introduced to a group of students in the Dominican Republic who you didn't know before. You learned about their lives. They shared things with you. You may have discovered that you have things in common with them. Do you feel connected to them now?
A global citizen believes that even though you don't know all 7.7 billion people in the world, if you had the chance to, you would probably learn something from them just like you did with the kids in the DR. And they would probably learn something from you, too! As a global citizen, you understand that you are not only a part of a family or a friend group. You are not only living in a neighborhood, in a city, in a state, in a county. You are living on this planet, Earth, just like those other 7.7 billion people. A global citizen believes that we are all connected in our shared experience of living here on Earth at this very moment.
A global citizen:
Cares about people they know and people they don't know.
Cares about how people live on Earth and whether or not they are suffering.
Knows that the choices they make and the actions they take in their own lives affect other people's lives.
Believes that we are all responsible for each other.
Are you a global citizen?
Dreams and Goals
At this point, maybe you are wondering how you can become a better global citizen. Maybe you don't know where to start. Well, you are already well on your way because you took this course! But there is something else you can do to become a better global citizen, and it might surprise you:
You can focus on yourself.
What?! That doesn't make sense...global citizens should focus on what's going on with others, right? True. But don't forget the third point above: we are all connected, so your choices and actions have an effect on others.
Even if it's the smallest ripple effect, like a pebble being thrown into a huge lake, your life still makes an impact. It's up to you whether that impact is going to be good or not so good.
What kind of an impact does your life have on others right now?
What kind of an impact do you want your life to have on others?
More than anything, the world is negatively affected by people who don't really think about the impact their lives are having on others. Why does this affect the world negatively? Because the world needs all 7.7 billion people to live their best life in order to make this thing called humanity work. If you, a pretty typical person, aren't fulfilling the potential your life has because you think it isn't important, you can bet that millions, maybe billions of people in the world are doing the same.
How might all of our lives be better if we all lived our best lives possible? If we all lived with good intention and strong purpose?
How much suffering could we end? How many great ideas could we invent? How much more fun could we all have together?
When was the last time you let yourself dream about what your life could be?
Sometimes we don't dream about what our life could be like because we think our lives don't matter. But now that you are a global citizen, you realize that your life does matter. Everyone's lives matter. All 7.7 billion of them!
Sometimes we don't dream about what our life could be like because we don't think we have a future. Through difficulty and struggles, we've learned that tomorrow is not guaranteed. If that is true, then that is even more reason to make this present moment, the only moment that we have, count for something.
Allowing ourselves to dream can help us figure out how to make the most of the present moment.
Having dreams and goals can help you become a better global citizen!
Through this course you have learned a lot of information about yourself and others. Now that you have learned all this information, you get to take the next step:
Turn your knowledge into action!
The following assignment is your last and it will guide you through dreaming some dreams and setting some goals that will allow you to create a better world for yourself and for others as you move forward in your life. Take your time with it. Really think about the impact you want your life to have while you are here on this great big Earth. Follow your feelings and go with what feels good to you, what feels true. After you complete the last assignment, I will personally email you your well-earned Certificate of Completion!
Thank you for learning with us and we hope to offer you more courses soon!
COngratulations!
You have reached the end of the course Intro to Global Awareness: The Dominican Republic! If you submitted all of the assignments and quizzes and provided us with your name and email address, you will be receiving an email with a formal Certificate of Completion from Beyond the Block!
THANK YOU for choosing to increase your understanding of yourself and the world around you. We hope you enjoyed the course! THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO LEARN! So please keep checking back on this website for more courses and stay updated on Beyond the Block at our main website: www.beyondtheblock.org.
We appreciate you and are so proud of the wonderful impact you are now going to have on the world around you! We are sending you love and strength on your educational journey!
With love, Debbie and all your friends at Beyond the Block
PS I would love to hear from you! Message me at debbie@beyondtheblock.org