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

Who am I?

IDENTITY - WHO AM I? 

Everything around us shapes who we become, and what we believe about others and about ourselves.
Race, family, sex, gender, age,class, sexual orientation, abilities, religion, social and political contacts, languages. All these factors are facts of who we are.
Who am I? Who are you? "The answer depends in large part on who the world around me says i am" -Tatum, 2003, p.18)

Could you answer this in 60 seconds " I am_________."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-h_fJFQcds  - this is a really interesting video, explaining what is identity.

Classroom activities

12

Game 1: " Take a step forward". It is really simple game. All the pupils stand in line, then the teacher ask different questions, and if you say yes, you take a step forward. For example: Do you have a brother? I have a brother, and therefore a take a step forward. And if you say no, to the next question, you stay where you are. 

Game 2: " Identity Pie Chart". It is a game that represents your identity. The game increase awareness of your own cultural background and how it compares with others. It raise awareness of the importance of self-identity based on affiliations with groups. The game consider the influence of self-identity on individuals' experiences. All the individual in the classroom create a pie chart identifying the importance in your self-concept. You can see a picture of my pie chart.

ÖRESUNDSKLASSRUMMET

The project Öresundsklassrummet - young people's participation in the sustainable society of the future 

http://oresundsklassrummet.wordpress.com/in-english/

The main aims of the project Öresundsklassrummet is to promote everyday integration in the Öresund region and to engage students and teachers in envisioning a new learning process for a sustainable society. 

It is to promote everyday integration in the Oresund Region. Around 25 teachers and 300 students from eight elementary schools in Lund, Malmö and Copenhagen are directly involved in the project, increasing the students’ participation in planning their education.

The main components of the project is: 

1) a cross-border collaboration between students in the age of 13-15 across the Öresund

2) learning circles, where teachers and researchers together can reflect on teaching and learning processes 

3) development of new methods and concepts of education for sustainable development.

The students gained a deepened reality-based knowledge about the themes of green mobility and technology, an insight into productions of goods and environmental consequences. They get a deeper understanding of how decisions are made and implemented in a municipality.

What are the problems and challenges in Öresundsklassrummet? 

- language 

- communication

- work cultures 

9/11 was a wake-up call for global education in the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9M8Pd1B3tI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I was watching this 30 minutes youtube clip and it really gave me a lot of thinking.

This videoclip shows the wake-up after the 9/11. 9/11 was a wake-up call - a stark reminder that the USA isn't isolated from the world. If we don't understand the world, it can have serious negative consequences. The american education system is not know by its global focus, but they reflect the national outlook.
From the age of the 10 upwards, pupils learn about the politics and the world trade network. The teachers give the pupils a better awareness of international affairs in the elementary school.
Schools teach world languages alongside art, and 15-year-olds use role play to debate African economic policy.
Global citizenship in the United States, the term was used by U.S President Barack Obama in 2008.
In the increasingly interconnected world, the actions and decisions of ordinary citizen are more likely to affect others across the globe than ever before. This can be extremely beneficial but can also be extremely dangerous. Within the educational system, the concept of Global citizenship in education        (GCE) is beginning to supersede movement such as multicultural education, peace education, human rights education and international education.
Many elements seen to spawn global citizenship, but one is noteworthy, the continuos tension that globalization has unleashed between local, national and global forces. While the world is being internationalized, at the same time its also being localized. The world shrinks as the local community
(village, town, city) takes on greater and greater importance.
Then I ask myself..
What if 9/11 never happened? Would USA change their way of looking at global education? What has to be done to truly make the world a better place?  

What are the challenges to teachers working with children in a globalized world

WRITE AND PAINT A GROUP POSTER

Language, communication, religion, words

Today’s students will need extensive knowledge of the world and the skills and dispositions to engage with people from many cultures and countries. They will need these to be responsible citizens and effective participants in the global marketplace of the 21st century. Few teachers today are well prepared to educate students for this new global context. 

(Teacher Preparation for the Global Age, The Imperative for Change by Longview Foundation) 

What did I expected from the course globalisation and professional change?

FIRST DAY

At first I didn't really have any expectation for the course. I had an idea of what we would be doing, but i did not know that the other students from different countries were attending the course and class.
I thought it would be a course where we talked about different cultures and countries and their pros and cons for globalization and professional change.

Overall I think it was a really good course today, we learned each others culture in a different way and talked about globalization in their country and what was so different from here to there.
We talked about the challenges in their country and how it affected their way of teaching. We had the time for talking to each other and ask questions about their experiences while traveling abroad. We got a bigger view of each countries way of seeing globalization.

About me

• Andrea Fatic
• 19 years old
• 1year student English International