Design For Change

CHANGE PAKISTAN 2010

The idea is simple: any group of 5 students from any school across Pakistan can identify a problem in their environment or community, think of ways to solve it, and take action that they then share with everyone else, inspiring others to make a difference!

Feel, Imagine, Do, Share!

In Pakistan, one of the biggest obstacles to development has been the lack of civic sense – at least for the next generation, Design for Change may well help fix this problem! In addition it’s a great activity as well – better have kids trying to fix their communities. 

The contest is about making children believe that change is possible and that they can be the change. I really like this video because it shows the importance of helping other in needs. 

In the video; " and then you grew older, and forgot about the power of your imagination, so just for awhile imagine, imagine changing lives, a few, a 100, or even a million"  

imagine the difference of saying " I can" instead of " Can I?" 

YOU CAN CHANGE THE WOLRD 

                   http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jUwUr8tG0m8

DESIGN FOR CHANGE

Design for Change, is a global movement that empowers children to be the change they wish to see in this world. Design for change DFC gives children the opportunity to express their own ideas for a better world and do something about them. Design for Change is founded by Kiran Bir Sethi. 

This movement has spread to over 35 countries in three years. Kiran started this global movement with a conviction that if children are empowered and made to feel that they can take matters into their hands, they will change the world for the better.

Based on a simplified design thinking process, this initiative asks students to FEEL any problem that bother them, IMAGINE a way to make it better, DO an act of change and SHARE their story of change with the world.

KIRAN BIR SETHI

This link is about the founder of Design For Change. She talks  and give examples about children and adults learning through Design for Change. She explain that "I Can" are the two most powerful words in the world. 

TEACHING TOLERANCE

I found this interesting site http://www.tolerance.org. It was founded in 1991 by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Teaching Tolerance is dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences for their nations children.
We view tolerance as a way of thinking and feeling - but most importantly, of acting - that gives us peace in our individuality, respect for those unlike us, the wisdom to discern humane value and the courage to act upon them.

On youtube.com I found some of their videos: http:Teaching Tolerance - Laurence Tan

Laurence Tan: 

122nd Street Elementary School (5th Grade), Los Angeles, Calif.
Five pillars of learning inform Tan’s teaching—engage, educate, experience, empower and enact. He values each student’s identity and celebrates diversity. 

Tan says his students succeed academically—and he accomplishes this by using a social justice curriculum. “The development of youth into socially critical and responsible individuals is of the highest importance,” says Tan. 

How can you as a teacher value each students identity? 

TOLERANCE - METHODS

This week's theme is tolerance. 

What tools can we use to stay tolerant and be empathic and open-minded?  Tool boxes, different methods – string method, peer method, picture to gain

We played different and great activities - " the web" , " The known unknown settings" 

1. Game: " the web". 

We had to describe our culture shock in one word only! The foreign exchange students in the class had to write their culture shock in Denmark in one word. Us Danes had to write our culture shock in another country also in one word. For me it was actually kind of difficult to remember what was a culture shock for me in another country, because Im a really open-minded person, and I have it very easy to adapt to a different environment. 

We stood in a circle, raising our paper. The teacher began explaining why he had wrote his word, and then he
combines his word with another word, and then he/she explain why he/she wrote their word. 

The teacher had the thread, so when he had found a word that matched his word, he throws the thread to the person. At the end, when all words match each other, it looked like a cobweb.

2. Game: " The known Unknown settings" 

This games was a group work. On the first picture, it describes what we had to do. Picture 2, we had 3 posters: Laos, Denmark, Eritrea. We had to look at the 3 set of pictures and identify what is " familiar" and what is "unfamiliar". 

Then we had to prepare questions we would like to ask to the person(s) on the picture to gain a better understanding of what we had identified as unfamiliar. It was a really good group work. In our group we were 3 totally different people, but we could relate to many of the "unfamiliar" things that were on the pictures. Ssome of the unfamiliar things we asked ourselves " why" but many of the things we saw on the pictures, we could say that we also have this in our school. It gave me a better understanding of other school system. 

 

We are all equal, so were's the love?

I found this amazing song. The singer named Trevor Hall sings about " Where's the love?".
It gets you thinking. How can we wage it when we are under the same sky. What are we fighting for? Why are we still at war? We are all equal, so were's the love?

Listen and enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYioy5aYixw

Multicultural Education

                                      WHAT IS MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION?

I found some really interesting pictures describing multicultural education. It is at least 3 things: 

1. An idea or concept, 

2. An educational reform movement, 

3. And a process