8 Millennium Development Goals - Leader
THE IDEA -
The 8 MDGs were created in 2000 by 191 United Nations state members, with the intent that they could be completed by 2015 (3 years from now).
Our school, St. Francis College with the great motivation of the head of CAS, decided to make the entire school engage with this ideas. By making the students go through these idea and eventually create projects which help lead towards the solution of theses goals in our comunity.
As an IB student I offered to be a leader of an MYP tutorial group in working with them and organize the lessons, that will engage the students with the project, throughout debates and same reflections.
THE PROJECT -
What - Together with a partner I am going to run lessons that will lead and help the students from year 9 Omega organize their final project, regarding the objectives 8 (Global partnership for development) and 6 (Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases) .
Who - My partner is from y12, Taro. All the students from Ms. Davies tutorial, and Mr. Barboza will also be included.
When - These meetings will happen once a month, during the tutorial period 9 (Thursday).
Where - As i will be working with Ms. Davies tutorial the meeting will happen in Lab1.
How - By investigations and discussions the students will understand the importance of achieving these goals and consequently complete successfuly the project.
The 8 MDGs were created in 2000 by 191 United Nations state members, with the intent that they could be completed by 2015 (3 years from now).
Our school, St. Francis College with the great motivation of the head of CAS, decided to make the entire school engage with this ideas. By making the students go through these idea and eventually create projects which help lead towards the solution of theses goals in our comunity.
As an IB student I offered to be a leader of an MYP tutorial group in working with them and organize the lessons, that will engage the students with the project, throughout debates and same reflections.
THE PROJECT -
What - Together with a partner I am going to run lessons that will lead and help the students from year 9 Omega organize their final project, regarding the objectives 8 (Global partnership for development) and 6 (Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases) .
Who - My partner is from y12, Taro. All the students from Ms. Davies tutorial, and Mr. Barboza will also be included.
When - These meetings will happen once a month, during the tutorial period 9 (Thursday).
Where - As i will be working with Ms. Davies tutorial the meeting will happen in Lab1.
How - By investigations and discussions the students will understand the importance of achieving these goals and consequently complete successfuly the project.
DAY 1 - 20.09.12
During this project the class I am supposed to work with is Year 9 Omega, although during this particular Thursday they were on a school trip. This meant that I went and joined the tutorial of Mr. Bidaury, Year 10 Sigma, with the leaders Silvia Travesso and Nicholas Carter.
We began the presentation a little bit different than the script indicated, which lead to a different path. We began showing the official video of the Millennium Development Goals, instead of talking about the problems of humanity in general. After that we talked about the importance and relevance of the goals.
Showing the video to start with was a huge mistake because we cut the initial conversation where we could hear what they understood as worldwide problems.
I have to confess, probably because of our poor start, the conversation was a bit frustrating. Probably because I pictured a discussion a lot more dynamic where everyone was contributing and it flowed well. Although it did not happen that way, there were two or three students who were talking to us, while the rest were just staring. I tried to include them and ask direct questions that had answers longer than yes, or no, but the discussion would not flow.
Soon we were running out of ideas to pull out discussions and Silvia took over making it follow the script properly. Otherwise our time would be over and by the end of the class the reflection would not be completed.
They had to do a drawing, a different logo to represent their own, they seemed to have a little more difficulty to get it complete and think about something different, than I imagined. Maybe when I am working with my official class I should try and stimulate different symbols for those topics, and maybe even explain the principles of logos (for example: they should be simple, should be able to be in printed, etc.).
I was surprised when they accepted to complete the reflection quickly and with effort, it was the end of the day and they did not hesitate to start writing fast. I hope that even with the, not very rich discussion we had, they were able to get a lot out of it.
THINGS I LEARNT –
1. Follow the script and make sure that the class builds up together a discussion.
2. Make sure to have patience and accept their thinking pace, step by step without rushing through.
3. Do not have strong expectations, either for good or bad, you never know how people may actually react to any situation which is presented in front of them.
We began the presentation a little bit different than the script indicated, which lead to a different path. We began showing the official video of the Millennium Development Goals, instead of talking about the problems of humanity in general. After that we talked about the importance and relevance of the goals.
Showing the video to start with was a huge mistake because we cut the initial conversation where we could hear what they understood as worldwide problems.
I have to confess, probably because of our poor start, the conversation was a bit frustrating. Probably because I pictured a discussion a lot more dynamic where everyone was contributing and it flowed well. Although it did not happen that way, there were two or three students who were talking to us, while the rest were just staring. I tried to include them and ask direct questions that had answers longer than yes, or no, but the discussion would not flow.
Soon we were running out of ideas to pull out discussions and Silvia took over making it follow the script properly. Otherwise our time would be over and by the end of the class the reflection would not be completed.
They had to do a drawing, a different logo to represent their own, they seemed to have a little more difficulty to get it complete and think about something different, than I imagined. Maybe when I am working with my official class I should try and stimulate different symbols for those topics, and maybe even explain the principles of logos (for example: they should be simple, should be able to be in printed, etc.).
I was surprised when they accepted to complete the reflection quickly and with effort, it was the end of the day and they did not hesitate to start writing fast. I hope that even with the, not very rich discussion we had, they were able to get a lot out of it.
THINGS I LEARNT –
1. Follow the script and make sure that the class builds up together a discussion.
2. Make sure to have patience and accept their thinking pace, step by step without rushing through.
3. Do not have strong expectations, either for good or bad, you never know how people may actually react to any situation which is presented in front of them.
DAY 2 - Year 9 Omega
This day I was able to work with the class I will be leading until the end of this project, Ms. Davis tutorial. Fortunately I had a training session with my when helping out Silvia and Nicholas with their first presentation, meaning that I was able to take that experience and deleting what did not work and using what I thought was effective.
My official partner for this project is Tomoki (Year 12), I was warned by some peers not to expect much preparation or work done beforehand by him. Taking that into consideration I took the liberty of writing a list of the lesson and how we should run it.
In it i included:
1. Presenting ourselves
2. Give a background on the Millennuim Goals (As questions of what they already know)
3. What type of issues the world has presently?
4. Initiate some questions to trigger a debate
5. Give them a full explanation of the goals individuals
6. Specify that Year 9 will be working with goals 6 and 8
7. Discuss importance of solving these goals.
8. How can they make a difference as a class/ improve that goal within our school community.
9. Divide into groups, draw a different symbol.
10. Reflection of the entire class.
11. Make sure that they have a folder/notebook for next lesson.
I was able to go through this list with Tomoki briefly, he told me to get on started and he would support me as the lesson went on.
We began as the list suggested but I figured that during the presentation it would be smarter to change the order and ask what they thought were worldwide issues rather than talk about the millennium goals, as they might have ended up simply repeating it, just like the year 10's did.
* I had a hard time working with Tomoki he really does not talk as much so i had to drive most of the conversation, I was comfortable with it since I knew the group extremely well and respected me during the beginning. This close relation I had with the vast majority came out to become a problem, as the intimacy does affect the professional distance needed to run that lesson successfully.
During the presentation the class had difficulty in picturing/suggesting a project in order to improve a community, especially with goal number 8 (Global partnership for development). I had a feeling that i was not being clear enough about the question, although I was attempting to make them think of something without giving an example and interfering in their creativity. Just like teachers try to do everyday with confused students.
I had an issue during the presentation with my younger brother, during the last part the reflection, he would not make an effort like the rest of his peers, so i was a little harder on him and he got angry at me. We almost argued but I kept under control and remained calm.
It was hard to keep the entire group participating, we had to pick on some students to share their ideas and try to come up with new ones.
The assignment of drawing another symbol, was made into a small challenge a competition where the winner would be chosen by the tutor of the class Ms. Davies and the group would get a prize in the next lesson. I figured that making it a challenge would make the assignment more interesting for the pupils.
I think they did enjoy the presentation, they did make good progress and I was glad I was put together with that group, they really tried to bring up some interesting ideas, could be turned into projects.
THINGS I LEARNED:
1 - When suited change the original plan, if the decision can be backed up by experience.
2 - Too much intimacy may ruin professionalism.
3 - If the answer is not what was expected, change the question (do not expect a different result from the same method)
My official partner for this project is Tomoki (Year 12), I was warned by some peers not to expect much preparation or work done beforehand by him. Taking that into consideration I took the liberty of writing a list of the lesson and how we should run it.
In it i included:
1. Presenting ourselves
2. Give a background on the Millennuim Goals (As questions of what they already know)
3. What type of issues the world has presently?
4. Initiate some questions to trigger a debate
5. Give them a full explanation of the goals individuals
6. Specify that Year 9 will be working with goals 6 and 8
7. Discuss importance of solving these goals.
8. How can they make a difference as a class/ improve that goal within our school community.
9. Divide into groups, draw a different symbol.
10. Reflection of the entire class.
11. Make sure that they have a folder/notebook for next lesson.
I was able to go through this list with Tomoki briefly, he told me to get on started and he would support me as the lesson went on.
We began as the list suggested but I figured that during the presentation it would be smarter to change the order and ask what they thought were worldwide issues rather than talk about the millennium goals, as they might have ended up simply repeating it, just like the year 10's did.
* I had a hard time working with Tomoki he really does not talk as much so i had to drive most of the conversation, I was comfortable with it since I knew the group extremely well and respected me during the beginning. This close relation I had with the vast majority came out to become a problem, as the intimacy does affect the professional distance needed to run that lesson successfully.
During the presentation the class had difficulty in picturing/suggesting a project in order to improve a community, especially with goal number 8 (Global partnership for development). I had a feeling that i was not being clear enough about the question, although I was attempting to make them think of something without giving an example and interfering in their creativity. Just like teachers try to do everyday with confused students.
I had an issue during the presentation with my younger brother, during the last part the reflection, he would not make an effort like the rest of his peers, so i was a little harder on him and he got angry at me. We almost argued but I kept under control and remained calm.
It was hard to keep the entire group participating, we had to pick on some students to share their ideas and try to come up with new ones.
The assignment of drawing another symbol, was made into a small challenge a competition where the winner would be chosen by the tutor of the class Ms. Davies and the group would get a prize in the next lesson. I figured that making it a challenge would make the assignment more interesting for the pupils.
I think they did enjoy the presentation, they did make good progress and I was glad I was put together with that group, they really tried to bring up some interesting ideas, could be turned into projects.
THINGS I LEARNED:
1 - When suited change the original plan, if the decision can be backed up by experience.
2 - Too much intimacy may ruin professionalism.
3 - If the answer is not what was expected, change the question (do not expect a different result from the same method)