Thursday, November 20, 2008
List Serve
After the Sand and Sorrow showing, which went quite well I'd say, two people wanted to be added to the list serve. I don't know how to do this so I am going to put there emails here and maybe someone can add them.
azingg@wesleyan.edu
tsawabe@wesleyan.edu
Thanks
Jeff
P.S. Thanks everyone baked for tonight people loved everything!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Mr. Marszalek's Class 11/12 - International Response to the Crisis
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Lesson 5: Refugees and IDPs
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Lesson on Rape in Mr. Marszalek's Class 11-5-08
Thursday, October 23, 2008
I Love Teaching!!! Lesson 3: The History of Sudan and the Gencoide
Friday, October 17, 2008
Marzalek's Class Again!!!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Banaa in the News!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Mr. Marszalek's Class Monday 4/7/08
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Mrs. Bailey's Class (Friday, 4/4/08)
The "What is Genocide?" group is presenting first on Friday (4/11/08). They have a slideshow with images from past genocides, a hand out, a poster with more photos, and they plan on showing a short movie clip from Hotel Rwanda. Their presentation will also include an genocide web and one student will present the definition of genocide.
Half of the "History and Current Situation" group will present on this Friday also. This will include a poster and map activity showing the students where Sudan and Darfur are. Through a powerpoint, some students will also present on the history of the conflict. They also have a poster with a timeline of important events. The following Friday the rest of the group will present--this will include current events and more photos, both through a powerpoint.
On Friday, 4/11/08, the "What Can You Do?" group will pass out a survey that they want to the middle school and 9th graders to complete and bring back the following Friday (4/19/08). On this Friday, this group will make their presentation.
We are going into class on Wednesday to finalize all details of the presentations.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Mr. Marszalek's Class: Week 1 & 2
Day 1: Introduction to Darfur, film Voices from Darfur
Day 2: What is genocide?
Day 3: History of Darfur and Sudan
Day 4: Women and girls- rape as a tool of war
Day 5: Refugees and IDPs
Day 6: U.S., U.N., and international response
Day 7: What you can do
Cait, Aurora, Audrey, and I taught on days 1 and 2. This Thursday (day 2) we handed out a one page information sheet explaining the history of the term genocide and the UNCG. We asked students to circle and underline any key phrases or words that stood out to them. We then led a class discussion. We also brought a world map to class and had students indicate on the map where past genocides have occurred. We told the students to limit the genocides to genocides that have occurred after the UNCG. The students were shocked by the number of genocides that occurred in the second half the 20th century.
Yesterday, Cait, Sondi, Maher, and I discussed the history of Darfur and Sudan with the class (day 3). First, we gave the students a short quiz on Darfur and Sudan. We then divided up into three groups and had the students exchange quizzes. We went over the answers to the quiz. The students then discussed the History of Darfur and Sudan Worksheet.
Monday we will be focusing on rape and women's rights.
Here are some video clips from the last two weeks:
Video-Students were asked to tell either a family member or friend about the genocide in DarfurFriday, March 28, 2008
Week 6: Mrs. Bailey's Class
Here is a brief description of the presentations:
What is genocide?
- Genocide web
- Definition of genocide
- Slide show
- Hotel Rwanda clip
History of Darfur/Current Situation/International Response
- Power point presentation
- Timeline
- Poster board: maps
What you can do?
- Survey (to be distributed by middle school students, collected on the second day of presentations, analyzed by Mrs. Bailey's class, and then sent to local newspapers/TV stations)
- Poster listing 6 things a middle school student can to help end the genocide
- Pamphlet with basic facts about Darfur, relevant resources, and ways to take action
- Middletown Press op-ed letter template
Next week the other two groups will present. The rest of the class is supposed to offer advice and ask questions while observing the presentations. We are now communicating over email with our students, so we can offer them feedback during the week and answer any questions.
The Darfur refugee from Voices from Darfur is going to speaking at Middletown High School on May 7th!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Mrs. Bailey's Class: Week 5
The group work went very well. The students began to take the class more seriously once they realized these presentations were actually going to happen. They spoke about the challenges each presentation would face trying to capture the attention of the middle school students. After each member of the four groups was assigned a specific task to have completed by next week, we reassembled as a class. We asked the students to raise their hand and offer Darfur-related facts that they believed the middle school students should be aware of. This next Friday we will continue to work on the presentations, review the props/visuals that the students created, and have at least two of the groups stand up in front of the class and present the information they have collected.
Lastly, two students from the "What you can do" group designed a Darfur survey, which they already began to distribute. They are going to continue to distribute the survey and analyze the data. Once the students are finished analyzing the data, Rebecca offered to do a basic statistical analysis of it as well!
This week we have our first class with Mr. Marszalek's students!!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Week 4 Video Clips
"What Do You Think About Boycotting the Olympics?"
How To Take Action
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Mrs. Bailey's Class: Week 4
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!
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Platt High School interview
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Mrs. Bailey's Class: Week 3
We then divided the class into four groups and reviewed a worksheet we had them fill out the week before. The worksheet contained basic factual questions about the genocide. This activity was followed by a discussion about the UNCG definition of genocide. The students were asked to use examples from last week's film Voices from Darfur to support their arguments that genocide was and is occurring in Sudan. With fifteen minutes left in class, we switched topics and began to discuss their presentations. Each group was assigned a different topic with specific focus questions. The topics are: the history of the genocide in Darfur, the concept of genocide, the current situation on the ground in Darfur and the international response, and the role of students in the movement to end the genocide. Each group's homework assignment was to answer their group's focus questions.
This class did not go as well as we hoped; however, it was a good learning experience. We could tell that some of the kids in each group were not engaged and we might have introduced the concept of the presentations too soon. We found some great curriculum guides online and plan to consult them heavily this week (especially since we are on spring break and have some more time on our hands).
After Mrs. Bailey's class, Cait and I returned to MHS and gave a short ten minute presentation to Mr. Marszalek's Contemporary Issues class. We introduced our project and asked the students if they had ever heard of Darfur before. One girl said she knew their were a lot of refugees in Darfur because she watched a special on MTV. We will start visiting this class in roughly two and half weeks. Gitsy and I will be meeting with Mr. Marszalek this upcoming week and we will provide him with a hard copy of our curriculum guide.
One last exciting piece of news: we were able to organize a Voices from Darfur assembly at MHS. A darfur refugee is going to come speak about the current situation in Darfur and his experience living in Darfur. Eleven MHS social studies classes have been invited!!
Until next week...
TAG Hearing February 29
Brief video clip from last week's class
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Teach Against Genocide Bill
High School Update
We were all tentative to argue our opinions but Mrs. Bailey was not. She raised her hand to disagree with both of the boys. We suggested that we watch the film first and then continue to discuss the issue afterward.
We showed the film “Voices on Darfur,” a powerful fourteen minute long film with first-hand accounts by victims of the atrocities that they survived. It was great to watch the student’s faces as they watched the film—they were filled with emotions of sadness, surprise and anger. For many, this was the first time that they had seen visuals of what is occurring in Darfur.
We began discussing the film and fielding questions as one large group. With only ten minutes left in class, we broke into four different groups to further discuss the film. This proved to be really beneficial. Many of the more quiet students in class spoke up in the small groups and asked many questions. The two students that had argued in agreement with China changed their standpoint on the issue. One student commented that he “just [thought] that it was so dumb” that China continued to buy oil from Sudan if they knew what was going on.
We discussed what particular images and scenes stood out to them in the film and why. The film also placed on emphasis on activism and we discussed what they thought that they could do to help end the conflict and the violence. One group focused a lot on the map of the handout that we had given them, asking many questions about the surrounding countries’ involvement and questioning why these countries were not doing more to end the violence. The definition of genocide was not discussed at length.
We gave them a homework assignment of talking to at least one person about the situation in Darfur—asking them if they knew about it, discussing what they knew etc—and to be prepared to report back to us next class.