One Globe Kids lets students meet new friends online or on their iPad or iPhone. The free Globe Smart Education app presents memorable daily-life stories from youth around the world to help children in kindergarten through grade 5 gain cultural understanding, learn about other countries, and make comparisons to their own lives. The stories reflect the lives of children in Israel, Palestine, The Netherlands, Norway, Haiti, Indonesia, New York City, Burundi, and more. Students can visit Valdo in Haiti right away and then travel the world via in-app purchases ranging from $1.99 to $15.99, per friend. Real stories from around the globe are told child to child, with full-color photographs and narration. Students can record themselves speaking and counting in their friend's language. They can choose an "Adventure" story and decide how they want to interact with their new friends, and they can record a conversation with the "Tell me about yourself" feature. Students also learn interesting facts about each country they visit and enhance their knowledge of geography by putting themselves and their friends and family on the globe and seeing where they are in relation to their new friends. The Globe Smart Education app also includes in-depth teaching supports that will get students moving and thinking.

There are 17 goals drafted to focus on the most critical universal issues that will affect us all over the next 15 years. These range from ensuring health and wellbeing, to building resilient infrastructure, protecting the biosphere to achieving gender equality. The goals and the issues they address are interdependent, and if fully realized they would see the complete eradication of extreme poverty by 2030 and ensure that urgent action is taken to deal with the threat and impacts of climate change.

Girl Rising provides teachers with a unique opportunity to introduce students to the issues surrounding girls' education in the developing world, and it's transformational power. To help teachers learn about the girls' education movement and effectively share the information with their students, the Pearson Foundation has created this standards-aligned curriculum.

In September 2014, NCDPI staff presented to the Board a framework in which a candidate for the Global Educator Digital Badge would work with his or her principal to create a professional development plan focused on embedding global education in instruction. Candidates for the badge would be required to complete 100 hours or 10 CEUs of global educational professional development and meet a Capstone Project requirement within two years (including acceptance into Home Base as a statewide resource). Upon completion of the requirements, a digital badge would be issued to the teacher at the state level and the designation would be documented in the teacher's Home Base Educator's Professional Development Profile.

How can states create and implement an action plan to support education goals? Over the past four years, the North Carolina State Board of Education has been analyzing and strengthening global education policies. This week, Helga Fasciano, Special Assistant for Global Education, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, shares their process, lessons learned, and advice.