Resource Details

It's All Connected can be used as a central teaching component for a semester or year-long course, as a short unit on global issues, or as an engaging contextual framework within which core subjects are taught. It's All Connected is often compatible with existing curriculum requirements and topics and extends students’ learning through an interdisciplinary approach to issues.

• Why use It's All Connected?
• How to use It's All Connected

Why Use It's All Connected?

It’s All Connected provides a thorough overview of a full range of global issues, as well as in-depth explorations of particular topics, debates, and solutions. Each unit contains thematically related chapters. Unit 1 includes an introduction to global issues and sustainability as well as definitions for some important concepts. Units 2–6 address specific global issues, such as food, water, forests, oceans, poverty, culture, education, health, and conflict. The book concludes with a final unit on ideas and tools for addressing global issues, including a curriculum activity for students to study a particular global issue or region. Units can be read separately, sequentially, or in any order to fit particular curriculum needs.

Each unit begins with an introductory chapter that frames the scope and purpose of that unit. Introductory chapters include Essential Questions on issues and concepts that are explored in the unit, a relevant Story from the World, and a Youth in Action! feature highlighting the creativity and enthusiasm of young people taking action. Subsequent chapters within each unit address specific global issues and include definitions, concepts, challenges, and sustainable solutions. Important terms are introduced in bold print and are defined in the Glossary at the back of the book.

It’s All Connected combines information, concepts, and inspiring real-world examples. Alongside the main portion of the text, numerous Features emphasize interesting and important aspects of global issues. In addition to the essential questions at the beginning of each unit, Curriculum Connections offer topical explorations in math, literature, science, and technology. Each unit concludes with suggestions for Facing the Future Activities linked to the unit and a Further Information listing of relevant texts, websites, and videos. Extensive Endnote references for each unit can be found in the back of the book.

How to use It's All Connected

It’s All Connected can to be used as a stand-alone text for a global issues course or as a supplemental text for other classes, including social studies (history, civics, economics, and geography), science, environmental studies, mathematics, and language arts. Ideally, this book will be used in tandem with the curriculum guide Engaging Students Through Global Issues, which features engaging hands-on activities, thought-provoking discussion questions, in-depth research assignments, easy-to-use, standards-based lesson plans, reproducible handouts, and additional resources to add depth to classroom discussions.

State Standards

Curriculum Funding Toolkit

Use this toolkit to help find funds to purchase Facing the Future curriculum for your classroom. The funding opportunities listed below have been screened by Facing the Future staff to ensure that they are easy to apply to and that funds from these sources can be used to purchase our curriculum.

Learn more about:

• Current Funding Opportunities
• Federal Funding
• Grant Writing Resources
  

Do you know of other funding opportunities that would enable educators to purchase Facing the Future curriculum? Contact us to help spread the word.

Current Funding Opportunities

Adopt-A-Classroom

Eligibility: Teachers, Schools, Districts

Amount: Varies  |  Deadline:  Open

Adopt-A-Classroom partners donors with teachers so you can have funds to purchase critical resources and materials for your classroom. By registering, your classroom will be posted on the Adopt-A-Classroom website available for donors to select. When adopted, you will have full discretion to purchase items that meet your unique classroom needs. FAQs

DonorsChoose

Eligibility: K–12 public schools

Amount: Varies  |  Deadline: Open

Teachers can post a project or curriculum they would like to fund. Donors can make an online donation for any amount toward the cost of the project or curriculum. When the item is fully funded, DonorsChoose purchases the item and sends it and a thank you kit to the teacher.

The Lawrence Foundation

Eligibility: U.S.-based IRS 501(c)(3) qualified charitable or public schools and libraries

Amount: Varies  |  Deadline: April 30 and October 31

The foundation is focused on making grants to support education, health, human services, and other causes, with the opportunity to support other diverse areas on an occasional basis.

Learn and Serve America

Eligibility: Local Educational Agencies, public or private schools, nonprofits, and higher education institutions

Amount: Varies by state  |  Deadline: Varies by state

Do you have an idea for a service-learning project that will impact your community? Learn and Serve America provides grant support annually (primarily through intermediaries) to diverse partnerships to develop and sustain service-learning projects. Generally, grants are for a period of three years, renewable annually contingent upon performance and the availability of funds.

Note: Funds are allocated to each State by a formula that considers each State’s school-age population and Title I allotment. Grants are awarded on a non-competitive basis to States through State Education Agencies (SEAs) that then provide sub-grants to Local Educational Agencies, public or private schools, nonprofits, and higher education institutions that implement programs.

Examples of State Learn and Serve Programs: FL, NY, TX, IL,CA, WA

Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

As the largest volunteer child advocacy association in the nation, Parent Teacher Association (PTA) reminds our country of its obligations to children and provides parents and families with a powerful voice to speak on behalf of every child while providing the best tools for parents to help their children be successful students.

Student Achievement Grants - NEA Foundation

Eligibility: Applicants must be practicing U.S public school teachers in grades PreK–12, public school education support professionals, or faculty and staff at public higher education institutions

Amount: $5,000   |  Deadline: Open

The NEA Foundation Student Achievement Grants aim to improve the academic achievement of students in U.S. public schools and public higher education institutions in any subject area(s). The proposed work should engage students in critical thinking and problem solving that deepen their knowledge of standards-based subject matter. The work should also improve students’ habits of inquiry, self-directed learning, and critical reflection.

Verizon Foundation

Eligibility: Schools and 501(c)3 organizations

Amount: Grants average between $5,000 and $10,000  |   Deadline: January 1 and October 31

The Verizon Foundation seeks to improve literacy, knowledge, and readiness for the twenty-first century. Its four core areas are education, literacy, Internet safety, and domestic violence.  Eligible organizations seeking grants from the Verizon Foundation must be prepared to track and report program outcomes and specific results that demonstrate measurable human impact. In the grant application, organizations must indicate what outcomes are targeted through programming and what results, as specified on the grant application, the organization will measure.

About Federal Funding

Federal funds tend to be large grant awards and most often are open to schools, districts, or state governments. Individual teachers are not typically awarded small grants through Federal Grant Programs. You can search all federal funding opportunities at grants.gov or Department of Education funding opportunities at their Discretionary Grant Application Packages page.

Information About Programs

Use the Guide to Education Programs to learn about federally funded programs. Below are direct links to specific programs for which funding opportunities may arise or may be available through your state:

• Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA)
  • Title III
• Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE)
  • Title I
  • English Language Acquisition State Grants
• 21st Century Learning Communities (under the OESE)
  • Check the State Contact List to find out about current opportunities in your state.
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• LEP Partnership
  The LEP Partnership is a U.S. Department of Education initiative to improve assessments of English language proficiency, reading, and mathematics for LEP students.

Grants Forecasting
The ED.gov grants forecast can help you identify grant competitions within some of these programs that may open soon.

Tips and Resources

• Grants Alert Resources
  Find additional grant opportunities
• Grant Wrangler
  Find grants and awards by grade level, subject area, or deadline
• Great Source
  Discover more funding opportunities and grant writing tips
• How to Write Grant Proposals
  Learn more about grant writing
• SchoolGrants
  Includes a compilation of grant-writing tools and tips, a sample grant proposal for curricula purchase, and ten "hints" for writing a grant proposal

Don’t let a lack of funds keep you from using our curriculum resources. If you teach at a Title I school or have a high percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch, please contact us.

Classroom Examples 

The classroom examples below show how It's All Connected can be used to address a variety of classroom challenges and increase student involvement. Learn how It's All Connected has impacted Delaney Evans, the winner of the 2010-2011 Student Essay Contest for San Diego high schools.

Darrellene Canada

• School: Lakes High School, Lakewood, WA
• Grade: 12     Classroom Size: 30
• Subject: Contemporary World Problems

Joanna Forge't

• School: Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School, South Easton, MA
• Grades: 9-12     Classroom Size: ~15
• Subject: Environmental Science and Studies

David White-Espin

• School: Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center, Seattle, WA
• Grade: Level 2 - ages 11 to 21, based on students' speaking ability
• Classroom Size: ~20
• Subject: Literacy and Reading

Professional Development

Facing the Future offers the following workshops to help you learn more about It's All Connected: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions:

Bridging the Achievement Gap through Global Education

Improve achievement for ALL students, regardless of class, race, or ethnicity, by equipping yourself with well-tested strategies that help students become active participants in their learning, make meaningful connections between academic abstractions and socio-cultural realities, and improve their critical thinking skills. Join us in taking a fresh look at closing the achievement gap with global issues curriculum that is relevant, cognitively rich, and standards-based.

Building Bridges over Troubled Water: Cross-curricular Resources and Action Opportunities for Teaching about Water

Make a splash in your classroom! This workshop introduces local and global water issues. Using graphs, trends, and fact sheets we explore connections between water and other global issues such as population, poverty, consumption, conflict, and the environment. Participants will engage in hands-on activities to bring water alive in the classroom. Lessons include an investigation of everyday items and their water inputs, a water walk, and information about water quality and conservation. 

Hands-on Lessons on Global Equity and Quality of Life

How can we help our students see the connections between scarcity, prosperity, and equity in the world – and understand their own role in fostering quality of life and well-being from the local to the global level? We'll look at basic graphs and walk through activities that allow students to experience the effects of inequity and examine the effectiveness of traditional economic indicators like GDP. Students have an opportunity to develop their own criteria for measuring classroom, community, and global well-being – in ways that account for the environment, people, AND economics!

Additional Professional Development Opportunities

• Educational Workshops, Inservices, and Consulting
  
• Keynote and Plenary Speeches
• Online Professional Development
• Webinars

To learn more about our upcoming workshops, webinars, and conferences, please visit our Workshop Calendar. If you are interested in having Facing the Future present at your next event, please contact us.

Supplementary Materials

To complement It's All Connected: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions, this section contains background information and additional resources to help educators and students learn more about global issues and sustainability.

Action Project Database
Links to organizations that provide service learning opportunities for students

Climate Change Action Project Database
Links to organizations that provide opportunities for students to participate in service learning around climate change

Fast Facts and Quick Actions
Information on a variety of global issues and simple actions that students can take

Global Issues and Sustainability Resources
A collection of books, magazines, videos, websites, and reports related to global issues and sustainability

Global Issues Resources
An overview of various global issues such as biodiversity, climate change, and human rights

Newspapers in Education
Written for grades 5-10, the series can be used in full or in part to study specific topics. All articles include a student activity and "take action" idea.