Mrs. Bailey's Class: Week 4

Rebecca, Gitsy, Maher, and I visited Mrs. Bailey's class on Friday. Since it is Wes' spring break, we had a slightly different group of WESTAND teachers. We also asked Maher to film the entire class, so we have some great footage that I will post soon! We divided the class into their groups again (What is genocide, History, Current Situation/International Response, and What you can do) and we provided each group with a new set of documents and worksheets. Each group discussed the previous week's homework assignment. The students were supposed to research a few questions that related to their group's topic. Each group leader delegated responsibilities to the students in the group and facilitated the discussion. After approximately 25 minutes we asked students from each group to present a few of the ideas or key points they addressed in their groups.

The "What you can do" described two ideas they came up. One of the students, Alexa, is contacting different local news stations in an attempt to bring a reporter to MHS's campus during the Voices from Darfur assembly and during the WW class visitations. Another student, John, is designing a s survey about the current situation in Darfur with the help of a fellow student. They plan to distribute this survey to the entire school. Once they analyze the data they will send the results to local newspapers, radio stations, and t.v. stations as evidence that there needs to be more media coverage of the current situation in Darfur. The "History" and "Current Situation/International Response" groups spoke about the conditions in refugee camps and IDP camps. One student brought up the civil war between the North and the South. He also expressed his desire to organize a food drive to help the refugees and IDPs. The "What is genocide" group talked about the difference between ethnic cleansing and genocide and also related the situation in Darfur to the genocide in Rwanda.

We finished class with a 4 minute movie created by New England high school students called Projections. Their homework assignment for next week is to read an article by Enough's policy advisor Colin Jensen. They are also collecting more information for their WW presentations.

Hope everyone is enjoying their spring break! This week we are going to Mrs. Bailey's class on Thursday instead of Friday because of Good Friday---if anyone wants to join us!