Overall Reflection

I wanted to say that it was such a pleasure to work for the Balfour program and to work with Amy Aiyegbusi as my partner. We were very collaborative and open to new ideas (from each other and from the kids during the program). The kids were just amazing, bright and well-behaved. I am amazed how creative they were with their t-shirt projects and the pictures. It has been such a wonderful experience both for me and Amy and I believe that those kids will continue their educational journey successfully!

Productive Scholars!!!

 

One thing you don't expect is how passionate the scholars can be once they're very into their individual projects. We have 5 group projects and 2 individual projects. Dan, Rachel, and I really wanted to leave it up to the students as far as what to do. We asked them to tell a story that goes beyond the stereotypes that sometimes follow refugees, particularly those from Syria. These students took it and ran with it!

 

We have 3 physical projects- an essay, skit, and portrait- and 4 digital projects- a spoken word, book, poetry, and a picture essay. Each project is a testament to each student's hard work this past week.  

Reflection 4 Day 4

Wow. What a day. Our students--every single one of them--came up with an introspective way to represent their story of migration on their T-shirt and in relation to the props they used in their picture of themselves in their T-shirts. The energy in the room today was electric--the kids were excited to finally be creating their digital representations of their shirts, one of their Balfour educators from another program came into the classroom for a while so that they could model and explain their shirts to him, and we even had about 10 minutes of time at the beginning and end of class so that they could finish what they have called "their" game of Guess Who--where they draw out a card with 3 facts about someone in the room and try to guess who the person is. They LOVE that game:) This week has been wonderful for both Derya and I, and we hope that at the end of their journey tomorrow they will take away the love and understanding they have shown for each other into all facets of their lives forever. They are great kids and deserve the best always.

Day 3 Balfour Galactic Reflection

Day 3 Balfour Galactic

Today we decided to start with a parking lot where students could ask any questions they'd like if they were still unsure about anything related to or about inequalities on the pink sticky notes. Then I briefly introduced the Tanzania library project with them and told them to ask any additional questions on the orange sticky notes (we will Skype with the Peace Corps member on Thursday and she will answer the questions and more), we ended by starting and continuing to work on our global inequality local maps. Students used various art forms to express these such as magazines, words, symbols and more to show their communities and inequalities present there. We felt like it was a great session and were especially impressed with their questions and ways they expressed their communities. Today, (Thursday) we plan to Skype with former Peace Corp member, Ellen Jorgenson, explore how music art forms are educational with Julie, and continuing to work on their maps. 

Reflection 3: Day 3

Today was another great day. We started out the day letting the students interview us again, and they learned that while both Derya and I have seen negative things in the countries we have traveled, our positive experiences far outweigh any challenges we have encountered. Each time they ask us a question, someone in the class volunteers their own story about movement, whether pertaining to physical or ideological, and we all are getting to know and appreciate our unique and diverse backgrounds. We introduced two visual artists who specialize in migratory photography, showing them collections and explaining how each artists' work overlaps with the other. After that discussion, the students completed their T-shirt designs--all of their creativity is amazing! They have really taken to our group's theme of migration and have represented themselves well through their shirt designs. During the artwork period, we played more world music, and some of the students contributed their own favorites in that category as well. Tomorrow is the digital component of our artwork project, and they are already thinking about how best to represent themselves through photography and how to comprise that into a classroom representation of their work. The only challenge we faced today was the shortened time we had with them, but we all adjusted our schedules for the time we did have and honestly did not think about it too much. We completed our lesson plan for the day, each student completed their shirt, so all in all was another wonderful day with our group of Balfours:)

Day 3 Reflections

I learned early in my teaching career that you have to be seaweed: rooted, but flexible. So when we got our students later than expected, we just rolled with it! We started with some prompts:

• What would happen if we allowed prejudice and stereotypes to govern us?
• What would happen if we actively counteracted our biases and preconceived ideas?

What a great conversation! These kids are at a level where they are self-aware of the prejudices that they have and that they experience, and readily apply those to a context larger than their own experience.

We used this discussion to lead into a video that talks about how we as humans are really connected, and that the differences we feel are fairly insignificant. This is not to say that inequalities aren't there, but that we actually need to talk even MORE about issues of race, culture, gender, class, etc. to combat these toxic narratives. The video shows a Kurdish woman refugee who goes on a DNA Journey and finds her ancestry is quite mixed with groups she feels animosity toward. She also connects with a distant relative, who is also from a very unexpected ancestral group.

Before jumping to work on our final project, we took some time to step into the mindset of a Syrian refugee. We asked the students to write an "I Am" poem from the perspective of this refugee. This helped them really identify with who's stories they were trying to tell, and built on yesterday's 4 Corners activity dealing with how someone identifies versus how the world sees them, and eventually how they would like everyone else to see who they really are.

Reflections Day 1 & 2
Day 1-The students seemed to enjoy the activities we had planned for them. It was like a rollercoaster of events which included a fun get to know you beach ball activity, then unique facilitator introductions using instagram profiles where students formed predictions of us based on our images, then students surprised with their reactions in response to the inequality treat activity, followed by completing a K-W-L on their knowledge of inequality and what they would like to learn. We had an overview of inequality and then the students did a museum walk to observe different students view of various forms of inequality. This was a great foundational day to get the background knowledge noted and see what they wanted to get out of the session.

On day 2 it was great to open up with debriefing the museum walk a little more by having each group look more in-depth at various inequality fact sheets-we had them read each unique fact sheet in their group and highlight the interesting or shocking information, we added new information to the KWL chart, watched a news clip highlighting apartheid and inequality in education within South Africa, then Hogan led an overview of maps and their usage and what we can learn from them. This activity transferred to them creating their own maps of their communities in which they were to start thinking of how to map out their own communities and the inequality within. Julie informed the students that to upload their celfies (selfies) to the Balfour Instagram with their own unique caption to represent themselves.

Day 2 concerns were regarding time, so Julie suggested shortening or cutting activities to have more time to go more in-depth in conversations regarding topics. I mentioned making sure that we keep activities varied (some teacher-led and some student cooperative and led) to keep the energy and engagement up. We solidified our Day 3 plans/agenda and talked about copies/supplies needed.

Overall, the students engaging in critical discussions and opening their minds up to global and local inequalities that they hadn't thought about and their effects.

Group 2 Reflection: Day 2

Reflection Day 2

Today was only the second day each of us in our group has known the others, but we already feel connected to each other. We believe that is due to our desire to share our own stories of migration and identity with all our students and listening to theirs, as well. We began the day by answering questions they had for us about our life stories, and then we moved into a discussion about social movements as an ideology migration. During that portion, we taught them the 6 types of social movements including the target audience and desired outcome of each type. The discussion was interactive, as the students had many great ideas about both recent and past social movements including discussion of the short and long term success of each. We them moved into the artistic portion of the program, which is T-shirt design. Each student is designing a shirt based on either their self-identity or social issue important to them, or a combination of both. Yesterday we posted pictures of varying movements around the room to give them ideas for the shirts and to facilitate discussion, as well. We stressed the success of peaceful activism, successful social change and the importance of leadership and tolerance in all forms of migration. We gave them a small "homework" idea for tomorrow, which was to pick out one world music song for us to play during tomorrow's completion of the T-shirts. We will let you know tomorrow what they come up with:)

Day 2: Learning about Refugees

Discussion Starter

Today we got a little deeper into the discussion about refugees. We began the session with a great conversation starter/ice breaker that Caitlyn developed called "4 Corners". We had four labels set up in the corners of the classroom- Race, Belief System, Social Class/Education, and Gender/Sexuality. During this time, the Balfour scholars were asked a series of questions and then reported to one of the four corners in our classroom that represented the way that that label would affect them. For example, "Which of the four corners are you most proud of or love about yourself the most?" Students reported to corners and partook in some good dialogue about how each of these four corners represented them and affected them in their lives. We then asked how these four corners would represent the Syrian refugees. Students went back to their table groups to continue this discussion.

The Eye-Opener

Next, the scholars were asked to brainstorm who the "average American" would be. In their journals, they drew pictures, made lists, and wrote descriptions of this average America. Then, we watched a video that described the made it evident how diverse our country really is. We found that some students were happily surprised by what they heard. For example, there are 3 million Muslim Americans living in the United States, which is nearly three times the amount of people active in the US military.

Syrian Refugees

To help the scholars see some different examples of how they could do a photograph and/or map project, Dan gave an awesome presentation to show them several resources to help them brainstorm. He showed this resource from 2016:  http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/29/us/indiana-syrian-refugees-lawsuit/ which explains how the federal court is blocked Pence's order to block Syrian refugee settlement in Indiana. He also showed students how to use maps to make a visual representation of where Syrian refugees came from and what journey they took to reach Indiana. Really good discussion came about as student asked about refugees and looked at journeys that were taken to get to the United States and other countries. One of our students shared a personal story about refugees.

Projects

After the scholars were assigned to start their projects today, groups began brainstorming about, planning for, and working on their projects. They all seem to be pretty excited about what they're working on!

Class takeaway

Caitlyn had a great idea about how to give students a "takeaway" on the last day so that they could find ways to contribute and help Syrian refugees.

https://www.rescue.org/article/how-help-refugees-united-states-10-ways-stand-welcome

First Day Thoughts

Not surprisingly, this is an outstanding group of students.  They are already comfortable with each other and enthusiastically dove into the activities.  We started with a think/pair/share about global health then moved to a short research activity about health challenges in Africa.  Problems logging in to the laptops forced students to do their research on their phones but they easily transitioned to using them.  (I think that issue has been resolved) Students then made posters with information about the disease they had been assigned and shared them with the "class".  Addison gave a short presentation about the Gnawa in Morocco.  Finally, students signed up for the art form they will use to express their feelings about Global Health.  My one complaint would be that the science lab in which we are meeting is rather open and impersonal.  I would prefer interacting with students in a more intimate setting.   

Progress from Day #1

Today was the first day that Dan, Rachel, and I had worked with our students in the classroom. We opened with the idea of deconstructing stereotypes and judgments that we place initially on one another. We had the students write down their initial thoughts of who we were and what we do, along with a picture of a girl from Syria. Students eagerly added to the sheets behind us.

 

 

 

I believe that this went very well, because the students were laughing at some of the comments their peers had made and teasing us not to peek. After this, we asked the students to silently introduce themselves to the person across from them. This was done in a charades style of gesturing. Some students tried to write or point when finding the words to say, and others had found unique gestures for number of siblings to what their hobbies are.

 

Our group is very driven and interested. They all engage, whether with the full classroom or in smaller groups. We showed them this video from the Love Has No Labels campaign. We asked them to think about how the video relates to the prior activities. The students were able to make great connections and shared about times judgments had affected them personally or they had judged. These students are open and understand that sharing their stories help others learn.

 

Following, we worked on a matrix of oppression that looked into different judgments that different groups of people face. Students did not have to fill it out, but were encouraged to write down thoughts and feelings in a personal journal. Our original intent was to have the students decide what would be the matrix of a Syrian refugee; however, time was not on our side! We decided to bring this back on Thursday to compare to the Iceberg theory.

Retrieved from: https://3jewelsyoga.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/matrix-of-oppression.jpg

 

 

Afterwards, we began to read a denser article from CNN about Islamophobia. We allowed the students to spread out, go down the hall, and read alone or in pairs so they could digest the article in the best way possible. Rachel shared tips for note-taking and annotating that some students adapted while reading their article.

 

Lastly, we asked the students to think about what they would like to do to tell the story of a Syrian refugee. We wanted to leave it open-ended to students, so they could be free with their projects. We hope to have many creative displays of stories that students can tell a story beyond what stereotypes of a refugee come into play.

 

We have groups that want to work with images. Does anybody have any suggestions about how to use google images or magazines for photo collages? Any other suggestions in general?

Day 1: Global Infusion Group Reflection 1

July 10, 2017
8:50pm

As Derya and I discussed when our students left the room today, we are pleased with their engagement with our topic of migration and movement. Our group seems to get along with each other, not only sharing a laugh with everyone about the activities we did with them, but also very helpful and respectful of each other. We have an interesting day planned for them tomorrow, as we will introduce social movements as a part of migration, and are looking forward to their ideas on the subject. All in all, it was a good day and we can't wait to share with them again tomorrow.
Amy/Derya
Group 2

Group 2 Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan:

Monday - Welcome & Intro to Course Topic (5 min)

Introduction to Facilitators (5 min)

Ice-breaker Activity--Paired House Drawing  (30 min)

Grouping them up to know each other (10 min)

Free Talk, 3 Individual Facts and Questions for Facilitators-On index cards

TED Talk (~ 10 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46wWjKTn4Ac

Discussion + Push/Pull Factors Activity (30 min)

Tuesday- Intro Activity (Interviewing the facilitators) (15 min)

Introducing Social Movements (30 min)

Making t-shirts (45 min)

End of session reminders: Personal Stories (Wednesday) & Personal Props (Thursday), Give website addresses to digital editing sites

http://www.fotor.com/

http://photoretrica.com/

Wednesday - Intro Activity (Interviewing the facilitators) (15 min)

Making t-shirts (45 min)

Sharing Personal Stories (30 min)

Thursday - Card game (5 min)

Introducing the 2 digital artists (30 min)

Omar Victor Diop (Senegal)

https://www.omarviktor.com/project-diaspora

Shadi Ghadirian (Iran)  http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/shadi_ghadirian.htm

Introduction of some digital tools (5 min)

http://photoretrica.com/

http://www.fotor.com/

Presentation Construction  (50 min)

    

Friday- Presentations/Session Close

Reading/articles for class activities and discussions for group 1:

I have found several articles that, to be honest, I have only skimmed. I will be reading them in more depth soon, but for now, here are some links to things that I have found. I am not sure if some lean to liberal in perspective and if I need to look into finding more unbiased pieces.

We will probably need about 3 -4 articles to read about and gain perspective on the topic of Syrian refugees and Islamophobia.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/syrian-refugees/salopek-text

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/world/middleeast/lebanon-syria-refugees-geneva.html

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/syrian-refugees-united-states

http://time.com/4234128/islamophobia-in-america/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/16/how-muslim-women-bear-the-brunt-of-islamophobia/?utm_term=.acf2509da7cb

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/23/us/islamerica-secret-costs-islamophobia/index.html

Global Learning Inequalities Lesson Plan Draft

Global Learning Inequalities Lesson Plan Draft

DRAFT 2 -- Mapping out Global Learning Inequalities

Learning can occur in many non-conventional spaces and modes outside of school. For example, reading, watching videos, listening to music, wandering places are multiple ways to learn. Yet, depending on the region of the world we live in, we do not all have the same easy access to various modes of knowledge.

In this workshop, we will devise strategies to teach ourselves about inequalities and how to raise consciousness about global inequalities. Taking inspiration from initiatives such as Ms. Happy’s library in Tanzania, #HipHopEd, and a selection of political artworks, we will create visual media that will help us map out how learning is accessed and how diverse modes of learning can be better promoted globally.

Stories to Support Against Stereotypes of Syrian Refugees Lesson Ideas

Here are some initial ideas that we have for day-to-day plans thus far. Please, help and comment to give feedback for thoughts on these loose plans!

Should we only focus on stereotypes of Syrian refugees? Should we branch out by adding in activities to inquire about stereotypes and generalizations made about other groups as well? Initially, we did want to talk about several different groups of people.

Ideas for marginalized groups: Mexican, Syrian, Transgender

Artistic examples: Poetry, photography, Portrait and a Poem?

Driving questions: What are some walls between people

Ask Balfour Scholars what project they want to come up with: written children’s books, poems, narratives, etc.

Structure: Each day will start with an ice breaker, will follow up with a video, and then we will laugh into an activity. Then we will allow students time to work on and put together the pieces of their artistic representation. 

What I am looking to add to this would be some kind of reading material or articles that students could read and discuss. I will be on the lookout for articles for these day plans. I left blanks where I need to fill things in. I imagine with reading and discussing, that might take an entire 30 minute block of time each day.

How much time would be appropriate for student to work on their project planning each day? 10 minutes, 20, more? For the activities/videos/ice breakers, have I added too many "reflection" quick writes? Perhaps I could come up with another activity in place of a written "reflection".

Day 1: Monday, July 10

Hook for the unit (15 minutes):

Instructors will begin by standing with their backs to whiteboard. Participants will be asked to write words or phrases to describe these instructors (before making any introductions). The idea here is that we will make ourselves vulnerable to the commentary so that we are able to have the students make observations about people without having to take the risks on themselves or in other social situations. Following this activity, we can introduce ourselves and compare to the statements written on the whiteboard. Then we can allow for students to debrief and talk or possibly write a quick reflection about this activity. This is just meant to gear us up for the week.

Ice Breaker (15 minutes): 

Silent introductions between students- students will be paired off and will be asked to make introductions without using words. Pairs can discuss afterward what information they "learned" about one another in the introductions. Was any of it assumed or based on initial impression or were students able to communicate and take in information without making any generalizations.

Ask participants to share a 2 minute story of a time when they’ve seen or been stereotyped and proven wrong with partner, then come back together and share as a group if there are any interested in sharing out.

Video (10 minutes): 

Love Has No Labels  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnDgZuGIhHs

What does this spark? What was the point of this video? Why was there an X-ray screen? Are there any critiques for this video?

Activity (25 minutes):

Identity Matrix activity- participants identify where they are on the matrix and discuss questions about how that represents/misrepresents them and what they can glean about others in the matrix.

Project Introduction (20 minutes): This might be a day where we introduce the project and ask for participants to brainstorm.

Day 2: Tuesday, July 11

Ice Breaker (15 minutes): 

"Four Corners"-each corner of the room will be set up with a "label" that could belong to a person. Students will discuss how that label has affected them positively or negatively. Students who do not identify with any of the labels will come together in the center and discuss labels they feel have represented them with or without their desire.

Video (10 minutes):  

What is America? Sketch/data activity- ask participants to come up with a representation of who they think makes up America.

We Are America: John Cena https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MdK8hBkR3s

Activity (30 minutes):

JR portraits jr-art.net

Project Time(20 minutes)

Start finding or drawing portraits whose stories we will tell. Begin writing if time allows.

Day 3: Wednesday, July 12

Ice Breaker (20 minutes): 

I Am Poem- Introduce the I Am poem with personal examples. Ask for participants write their own I Am poems. Share out if there is anyone willing to do so.

Videos and Discussion (25 minutes):  

Question: Has there ever been a time when you felt that there would be a person from a specified "group" where you would not get along that individual? Who would you not see eye to eye with? This is all up for personal thinking and answering.

The DNA Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mqWYuKvbXYVisual: 

https://www.momondo.com/letsopenourworld/dna

Activity/Reading (30 minutes):

In search of a reading that would tie in nicely.

Project Time(20 minutes)

Finish finding or created portrait. Work on the writing or the I Am poem or other poetry to go along with the portrait of the person who is going to be represented.

Day 4: Thursday, July 13

Working on an ice breaker, a video or visual, and perhaps a "charge" or inspiration message to wrap things up on this last day. 

Activity/Reading and Discussion (30 minutes):

Look at the Cultural Iceberg and discuss how to be cognizant of that when working on the project. Do any revisions need to be made?  Look up Cultural Iceberg graphic- when I tried to copy this into the blog, it seemed to pose some security/licensing issues.

Maybe there could be time for students to make their own iceberg?

Project Time(20 minutes)

Finish projects.

Group Room Assignments and Schedule

View/Download the Schedule (xlsx)

Feedback Comments Encouraged:)

Everyone--This is what we have so far. Please feel free to comment, even challenge us on how we are going to streamline all of our info into just 4 days of 90 minutes each lol. I would love to hear all your thoughts, both positive and improvement-based. Thanks!

Before the first class, we are posting printed images of global migration and images of social movement signage at the front of the room in a collage grouping. We thought this could not only spark conversation but provide our students with inspiration for their own designs for their migration/movement T-shirts they will be making that week.

As the class begins, we plan to introduce ourselves and our goals for the week as it relates to our topic. We have two videos we are considering for our intro section. One shows the trajectory of migratory patterns for thousands of years, and this is the link:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJdT6QcSbQ0

We then plan to open the discussion in a participatory format based on the following video. We don't think we will show the actual video, as they would have already seen the first one and this one moves a little too slowly, but the ideas are key to the introduction of our topic. We thought it would be more engaging if we did an activity involving the wipe off board/chalkboard, and we could either have volunteers come up to the board to write their own ideas of what either "pushes" or "pulls" people from their original home and to another, or we could teach it by asking the class as a whole and writing it down ourselves as the discussion commences. Here is the "Push/Pull" video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF86TGM3eSE

Then we thought we would move them into a personal ice-breaker, which has two goals--to get them up and moving around after listening to us talk, and to help them get to know one another. Derya came up with an ice breaker of pairing them with a piece of construction paper and one marker, with the point of the activity being both people have to hold the marker together and find a way to draw their "dream house" without being able to verbally communicate with each other. The goal of this activity would be to show them that all people have their own ideas about home and life in general, in life our own personal ideas are impacted by the presence of others, and in the process of learning to work together we gain knowledge of another's perspective, as well. 

To end the first day, one of us is going to tell our "life bios" with regard to our own experiences as migrants. After explaining our story, the class gets a chance to interview us on whatever they would like to know about our life up to this point. We plan on either preparing a short PP of ourselves and/or bringing in a personal item or two that means something to us and our personal identity/home. 

We have more ideas for the remainder of the week, but I thought I could walk you all through them one day at a time, as setting them all out for you on here might be a little too overwhelming for one post. Below is a very rough skeleton schedule so far. 

I think the challenge for us is to streamline everything we want to do because we have the large topic of migration/movement (which I think is important to introduce a few social movements as a form of migration--imagery ties in to that concept and we are having them incorporate imagery in the form of T-shirts) and two art forms. Just to break the days down, here is how I see the schedule so far. These times could be off, so see what you guys think. With this schedule, we are doing an up-and-down type of session, with them starting and ending each day in a a group lesson of some sort, broken up in the middle with a classroom activity where we move around. 

Monday:

First section--30 minutes: Introduce self and concept (Video, Push Pull factors). 

Second section--30 minutes: Ice-Breaker of House drawing

Final section--30 minutes: Personal Bio/Interview 

Tuesday:

First section--15 minutes: Introduce social movement/imagery as form of migration (Video, images on internet)

Second section--45 minutes: T-shirt art and clean up

Final section--30 minutes: Personal Bio/Interview

Wednesday:

First section--15 minutes: ???

Section section--45 minutes: T-shirt art and clean up

Final section--30 minutes: Personal Bio/Interview

Thursday: 

First section:

Second section: Digital Project--Selfies and group pics, then PP creation?

Final section:

Group 4 Title and description

The poetry of Living Healthy in a Globalized World

The focus of this session is to broaden student's understanding of the issues related to global health as well as the diverse ways that different cultures and societies approach healthy living. From Gnawan spiritual healers in Morocco to Yoga practice on the sub-continent, we will explore the myriad paths to being healthy.

Workshop Description

Learning and Inequalities

When we think about learning, we often think about school, but there are other ways we can expand and acquire knowledge outside of school. In our group we will explore issues of learning and inequalities in two ways.

On the first hand, we want to think about learning inequalities. The books we read, the media we explore, the places we go are all different ways to learn. Yet we do not all have the same access to knowledge. For example, in zones of conflict or of extreme poverty, access to knowledge is made more difficult.

On the other hand, there are ways we can teach ourselves about inequalities. For example there are organizations raising consciousness about such inequalities and that try to bridge the gap. Simultaneously, popular artists such as M.I.A, Beyonce or Kendrick Lamar are trying to bring issues of global inequality at the forefront of their art -- what can we learn from that?

Over the course of the week, we will reflect on learning and inequalities by exploring a range of visual arts and media. We will create selfies, maps, short videos, and short texts to investigate where we stand in terms  of learning and inequalities as well as devising our own strategies to become better global learners.

Group 2: Group Title and Course Description

Group Title: 

Glocal-Trotting: Localizing Migration Through T-Shirt Design and Digital Photography

Course Description:


When you think about migration, what concepts occur to you--Displacement? Distance? Discouragement? While migration--the movement of things or people from one place to another--can be challenging at times, this course will offer you new ways to consider this concept. The reasons people migrate are varied, but all have certain particulars in common, such as new experiences in unfamiliar locations, expanded opportunities for personal development and an enhanced view of the world, both global and local.

In this course, you will learn of the history of migration, hear personal stories from each of your instructors and design and digitize your own ideas of migration in the form of T-shirts and digital photos you can take with you when the program ends. By the end of this course, you will also have discussed the history of T-shirts and artwork in modern political movements, practiced your interview skills on your instructors regarding their diverse backgrounds, and had endless fun creating your own works of art. Come Trot with Us!  

Working Title and Course Description

Breaking Down GALACTIC Stereotypes

Stereotypes are toxic, but we all use them! People all around the world feel misrepresented and misunderstood. One group that have been heavily stereotyped are Syrian refugees. Refugees from Syria have been blamed for all kinds of violence and endangering our way of life, and have been exploited as political chess pieces all over the world. The truth is very different, and understanding that truth can help us better understand the world and our place in it.

This week, we’ll be breaking down the stereotypes we experience and the ones we place on others. When we understand people beyond the stereotypes of culture, race, gender, sexuality, religion, and ability, we’re able to become better global citizens.  By the end of the week, we will create a compilation of short stories representing characters we create together that go beyond their stereotypes.

Initial Ideas for Monday Instruction

Group 2

This is somewhat disorganized, but let me know what you think about any of it. These are ideas for Monday's 90 minute instruction. I will do some more tomorrow night and really focus on it this weekend. Txs-Amy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJdT6QcSbQ0

animated map showing how humans migrated from Africa, goes back tens of thousands of years

ominous music but other than that is ok

Reasons for Migration

Push Reasons:

1.     Social—Poor Services, Lack of Education, Poor Medical Care

2.     Economic—Unemployment, Poor Pay, Hazardous Work Conditions

3.     Political—Persecution, War

Pull Reasons:

1.     Social—Plenty of food, Available Services, Lots of Doctors

2.     Economic—Job Opportunities, Better Quality of Life, Good Pay

3.     Political—Democracy, Freedoms

Could be taught by drawing out on board in a creative diagram using a drawing of the world as the center, stick figure person on each side of the world, one figure representing Pull and other representing Push concept.

Introduce topic of migration through definition and opening video of the history of it

Waves of Migration:

Gold Rush-US migrants out west

Jewish Migration to Europe

US Migration from Europe

US Migration from Africa

The Great Migration-African Americans north after Civil War

Refugee Migration-Syrian and others from Middle East

Australian Migration

Viking Migration-from northern Europe southward

South Pacific Migration

Ideas for making this a local issue:

Personal Stories from each of the facilitators

Personal Stories from participants if they feel comfortable

Examination of IU’s student base based on home locations

Examination of Personal Factors stemming from Migration:

1.     Identity—decision to keep home identity, to assimilate, or to blend both into self-identity

2.     2^nd and 3^rd Generation experiences much different than 1^st Generation

3.     Increased openness to other cultures-Diversity and Acceptance

4.     Rounded experiences—new food, traditions, awareness of global-social issues