Since I am going into the education field, goal 4 is near and dear to my own personal goals of providing quality education. In the targets and indicators section of the United Nation’s website on SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals) there are specifics into what this goal aims to do by 2030. Target 4.1 is getting students to complete primary and secondary school, 4.2 is quality pre-primary care and 4.6 where all youth and a substantial portion of adults both achieve literacy and numeracy.

There are ten targets in total, and I implore you look the other targets and explore the other goals at this site. There are 17 goals, ranging from ending poverty to affordable energy to even preserving wildlife. No matter what your are passionate about, there is a SDG for you!

Now you might be wondering “How has Covid-19 effected the SDG’s?” When looking at Goal 4 there has been an extreme drop in literary in countries that were on the rise before the pandemic.

This graphic above displays just how much literacy rates decreased during the pandemic. Not only did it drop in developing nations, but even in Europe and North America there was a severe decline. The need for Quality Education is now at the highest it has been in years. And with the end of the pandemic possibly insight, I believe there will be an explosion in education around the world.

But there is progress on Goal $ happening as we speak. Teachers across the world, and people without degrees, are helping those in need. According to the global goals website all you have to do donate to charity, take some online courses or even just donate your old books. Any educational material is welcomed. Teachers are helping by providing online classes so that students around the world can have access to language and math learning. In this day and age anyone can help, even with just a click of a button.

About halfway through my first high school orientation day, the guidance counselor made us download an app called quizlet to our iPads, one I had never heard of before. I was not a fan of it at first, there was nothing giving me a reason I should use it, so I dismissed the app, thinking it would be something I would never use to help me study. Yet here I am, 6 years later, blogging about it, as well as creating study guides for myself and the students I observe for my fieldwork.

Quizlet, in a simplified form, is an application that is geared toward creating and using all different sorts of study tools and habits for students and teachers alike. While one can create study sets for themselves, the site contains an innumerous amount of study sets from anyone who publishes them. The site contains content from all subjects of all grades, the depth and variety is huge. This can provide an opportunity for students to work together by building a study set the entire class could use. Quizlet uses study sets that can test the user in various ways like multiple choice, true/false, and short answer. This testing is a feature called Quizlet Learn. But perhaps Quizlet’s most prized study tool is Quizlet Live.

Quizlet Live is the most classroom-engaging study tool the site has. I did not know it existed until my mentor teacher used it on his classes, and the response from the room was amazing. Similar to Kahoot, another fun classroom tool, Quizlet Live is in real-time, pairing the students against each other in a race to complete the study set they are using.

It can be individual or teams, and the latter is where the most collaboration is seen. It is competitive and all about the coursework in the study set. This encourages the students to learn the material and they end up pushing each other to understand it in order to win. The best part about Quizlet Live is that everyone has an equal chance to play and win. It does not matter if the student is an athlete that competes regularly or if it is a student who favors Drama and clubs. The reason Quizlet Live is such a great tool is because win or lose, the students understand how to learn and work together, which provides them with great experience of teamwork.

If you enjoyed this blog let me know on Twitter: @schnick0414

Want to see Quizlet Live in Action? Check out a few of these clips below from teachers on Twitter as well!

@EThorntonGHS

@Mr_Casta

@JudHartmanEdu