Let’s hear it for Luke Moore High Environmental Scientists!!

Luke Moore Academy, the premier alternative high school in the District of Columbia (and also where I work)  is joining DCPS in its efforts to go GREEN by starting a recycling program at the school. Students recently gave a presentation at a school wide assembly and community event stating that:

“We have started a recycling program at Luke C. Moore that will minimize the waste generation and will facilitate recycling of materials. This initiative is student-led, and will allow our students to be the leaders of this program. Our desire to become more environmentally friendly and help lead DCPS in the Healthy Schools Act, as well as develop our peers into lifelong recyclers.”

Each classroom has a recycling box (that’s a pic of my box) that the Environmental Team picks up to dump in the container in the parking lot.

Here at Luke C. Moore, we are also concerned about our use of energy, so we  use Compact Florescent Bulbs, or CFL Bulbs, which are significantly more environmentally friendly than regular light bulbs. Our CFL bulbs last TEN times as long as regular bulbs, up to 8000 hours each – compared to 750 hours of those regular bulbs. The team has determined that our school had 350 CFL bulbs that are used on a daily basis. They  then compared those numbers to schools with a similar amount of bulbs, who use regular light bulbs. Our numbers confirm that Luke Moore is saving the District $5,000 a month by using CFL bulbs. On the emissions side, Luke Moore is outputting 4000 pounds less of Carbon Dioxide per year than schools our size.

In the classroom and in the field, the team has done a lot to make sure that our school is helping out our community! Please join us in helping to make DC an environmentally friendly city by, recycling and changing your light bulbs to new CFL Bulbs! And we hope this inspires you to start a program at your school too. Peace

DCPS Goes Green: Peace through Sustainability

District of Columbia Public Schools is participating in the Be Water Wise DC project as part of its initiative to go GREEN.

“Be Water Wise DC was established by the nonprofit National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) and includes lesson plans and activities such as measuring water flow rates and determining total water use in school buildings and grounds. The program is made possible through the support of companies such as lead sponsor HSBC Bank, as well as local agencies and nonprofit organizations committed to protecting the region’s natural resources.

Managing stormwater is a challenge for D.C. and the region. When it rains, water flows across streets, sidewalks and parking lots. Along the way, the rainwater picks up oil, trash and other contaminants, carrying them to streams and rivers including the Anacostia and Potomac and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay.”

Check out this link for a detailed explanation of the project by Kaya Henderson, Chancellor of DC Public Schools: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_vVDhQfajvI

The video gives a very good summary and it’s impressive that they have so many schools participating and that it involves students of different ages.  I really like that students get  very hands-on with this project with the types of activities that they do in their schools and the local communities to help with water conservation in DC, and the concluding activity where they get to present their solutions to DC officials is definitely something students would look forward to.  This projects supports community building as it involves students and officials collaborating to create solutions for a problem that affects the DC area and also is a skill building activity because students are using critical thinking for problem solving, interpersonal skills by working together, and it’s an extension of the classroom space into the community.

For more information about Be Water Wise, please visit the National Environmental Education Foundation.

Yoga for Peace in Afghanistan

Yoga in schools has been one topic covered here on PeaceLearner, but another area where Yoga and meditation are being used as approaches to peace and nonviolence is actually in Afghanistan, through the Amanuddin Foundation. Started by French human rights activist Amandine Roche, Amanuddin facilitates yoga programs for Afghan people. The program there is called Sola Yoga – “a peace initiative based on the ancient/ancestral science of Yoga and meditation,” where “participants will develop the tools they need to control their feelings and temper negative emotions such as frustration, anger, hatred, and revenge.” Sola Yoga focuses on teaching breathing exercises, concentration exercises, and non-violent practices.

Roche told Reuters: “It’s a new solution to an old problem. War starts in the minds of men, so peace starts in the minds of men. You cannot bring peace with the means of war, it’s as simple of [sic] that.” Roche believes that peace cannot be imposed from the outside, but must come from the inside of an individual.

Roche is also focused on bringing yoga to Afghans because she believes it will help them begin rebuilding their society after the devastations of war. While some might call Roche, who was detained by the Taliban in 2001, crazy for working with these gunmen, she says: “My vision is to teach meditation to all the insurgents, to organize vocational training for them to become mediation teachers, so … they can go back to society, they have a job, they can reintegrate, and they will become peaceful” (Reuters). Roche has worked with the Dalai Lama and members of the Gandhi family to learn about non-violence and meditation. She also worked for the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping and helped to organize the first Afghani presidential election.

The Amanuddin Foundation is just getting started and will surely be growing in months to come. The foundation has gotten a lot of press in recent days – to read more, see these articles:

Can yoga and meditation help bring peace to Afghans? – Reuters

Sola Yoga: Can Meditation Bring Peace to Afghanistan – Huffington Post

For This Yogi, Afghan Peace Plan Needs More Downward Dog – Wall Street Journal

Reading about the Amanuddin Foundation can be a meaningful way for learners to realize the power of nonviolence and have an example of just how effective and helpful the practices of Yoga and meditation can be. By seeing how Roche and her colleagues are affecting peace in Afghanistan, we can explore different approaches to peace and possibly adapt them to use in our own contexts. Amanuddin’s work is also a moving example of the nonviolent transformation of conflict – especially Roche’s goals of arming insurgents with vocational skills to help them rebuild their lives in Afghanistan.

MindUP- A Social and Emotional Learning Curriculum

POSTED ON BEHALF OF MAGGIE MEENEHAN

In these days of celebrity excesses and their often and very public demonstrations of questionable/objectionable behaviors;  it is refreshing to see that one celebrity is throwing her weight towards children’s success in school.

Goldie Hawn has started a foundation that focuses on the social and emotional learning of children.  She wanted to “bring children back to a sense of well-being”, and was distraught over the high dropout rates, violence in schools, the culture of bullying and was looking for a way to improve kid’s focus, energy and to help teachers to build classroom community.   Her program called MindUP has conducted research into “mindfulness” in the classroom, provides mentors for participating schools and has developed a book and curriculum to give teachers the tools to use in their classrooms.  These lessons fit into any schedule and require minimal prep time; they are geared towards grades 3 through 5.

I was most struck by the children and their reactions to MindUP.  As you can see in the video, the students really felt the benefits of mindfulness.  It helped them to calm down, to focus and to evaluate situations more clearly. They even taught the practices to their siblings and parents. Now that is true learning!

In learning “mindfulness” the children were learning about HOW they think.  They took “brain breaks” to breath and to relax, to quiet down their emotions and focus (3 or 4 times a day for two to five minutes).   In quieting down, the prefrontal cortex lights up and this is where executive functioning (creating, innovating, retaining information, and making connections) takes place.   Truly, this type of focusing is important for learning.

MindUP is currently being used in schools in the US, in Canada, Britain and Venezuela.  The research has shown so far that bullying and aggression has gone down on the playgrounds of participating schools.

There are four tenets of the MindUP program.  The first is “Let’s Get Focused” which helps the children learn about brain functionality.  The second is “Pay Attention to Our Senses” which prepares and teaches the students about mindful listening and exploring the senses.  The third is “It’s All About Attitude” helping the students choose optimism and lastly the fourth is “Taking Action Mindfully” which includes lessons on acting with gratitude.  (Recently, there have been several articles in the Washington Post on Happiness or the Pursuit of Happiness, which strongly link happiness with gratefulness).  This all sounds a bit preachy but I found it to be quite down to earth and doable.  The lessons can easily segue into language arts, science, social studies and math curriculums.

My favorite example was of a teacher who placed a huge water bottle full of water in front of her students and had them practice their “mindfulness” while she added drops of food coloring to the water.  She gradually worked this lesson into a lesson of the color chart and what happens to and how colors mix.  She let the children explain how watching the color disperses made them feel, or what it looked like to them.  It gave the students wonderful images to call upon during their daily mindfulness sessions.

The MindUP program addresses at least two pillars of peace.  Certainly, this methodology is develops Community Building by directing attention to the classroom as a place of safety and support and by going beyond the classroom to teach children concrete means of dealing with emotions and feelings.  Also, this program acts to Nurture our Emotional Intelligences by recognizing that everyone needs to take breaks during the day, to breath, to reflect, and to listen to his or her hearts.

Note:  The book MindUP Curriculum is for sale for $18.74 through Scholastic Books.  The website www.thehawnfoundation.org/mindup  outlines the process for becoming a MindUP school.

World Wise Schools

POSTED ON BEHALF OF MAGGIE MEENEHAN

World Wise Schools is an amazing collection of resources conceived and supported by the Peace Corps to help teachers provide real world cross-cultural understanding and learning through a global education format.  This site integrates global understanding and cultural awareness in core content area’s including: art/music, foreign language, health, language arts, science, social studies, environmental education, geography and even TESOL, for grades K-12.  The Lessons Plans are varied, hands-on, student centered and thought provoking.  A few of the sample topics of the lessons are:  traditional greetings, narrative cartoons, making books on comparing water access, Kenyan sign language, conducting interviews, global food security, educating girls, and What is Wealth?   All of the lessons deal with cross- cultural issues and bridging the communication gap between peoples of the world.  Videos slide shows, stories, folk tales enhance the lessons, and classroom speakers can even be contacted to visit your classroom for free!

World Wise Schools began in 1989, under then Peace Corp Director Paul D.  Coverdell.   In addition to the many, many lesson plans available there are several other programs that would attract the interest of teachers.  One is the Correspondence Match Program, in which a teacher signs up to have a direct relationship with a Peace Corp volunteer in the field, where they commit to exchange e-mails, letters, video’s, and photographs with each other for two years.  Students become part of this exciting exchange of cross-cultural understanding.   The relationship can develop naturally – no timetables or defined expectations, just communication.

There are also ideas for Service Learning Projects, Language Lessons, Podcasts and E-books and an E-Newsletter.    It is truly a wonderful resource for global understanding; students can easily make connections through meaningful contact with Peace Corp Volunteers and with the people and region selected.  Regions include: Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia and the Pacific Islands, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Clearly, this web site addresses the twin Goals of Community Building and Skill Building in Peace Education.   As we build community throughout this world, we become more aware of the needs, wants and desires of others, AND more aware of how our needs, wants and desires are connected to theirs.  We are brothers and sisters on this wildly, spinning, water planet.  We need each other, we must help each other, and we must learn to live with each other in peace.  This web site gives us the tools to increase our communication skills with others across the globe, building real skills towards peace.

Go to: peacecorps.gov/wws/about

Voices [Education Project]

POSTED ON BEHALF OF EDEN MESGHENNA

The mission of Voices is to share unbiased accounts of war by those who have experienced war first hand in order to “heal the wounds and lay the ground work for peaceful world”.

In addition to the stories told by soldiers and civilians, the site provided a wealth of resources for educators such as books, curricula, education packets, and instructional activities that assist with the critical exploration and dialogue of peace education. In addition to the personal narratives, the visual media that is made available through this site provides for a rich background for facilitators.

Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices, a component of the project, allow students who have recently immigrated from countries that are experiencing the hardships of war, to share their experiences using poetry. These stories are heartbreaking but powerful in that they produce a direct connection to young students that have never experienced the reality of war. To listen and share Youth Voices go to: http://www.jackstraw.org/programs/ed/youth/foster.shtml

For information go explore at:

http://www.voiceseducation.org

Dance4Peace

POSTED ON BEHALF OF EDEN MESGHENNA

All teachers can appreciate that learning takes place through multiple intelligence and movement is fundamental source of expression for, most if not all, young students. Unfortunately, most curriculums do not incorporate physical motion as a means to the learning process. So when I came upon this site, I was excited to witness the interconnected themes of community building, cultural exploration, and self-discipline through focused energetic movement.

From the Dance4Peace website:

“Dance 4 Peace is a conflict resolution, civic education program that promotes empathy, understanding, mediation skills, anger management, emotional and civic engagement through dance in youth around the world. Through exercises and activities utilizing our bodies, music, emotions, experiences, and thoughts, we build emotional and social competencies for peace. “

Dance 4 Peace facilitators create curriculums that are specific to the grade and community by utilizing four key principles of social, emotional and civic competences in youth.

Dance 4 Emotional awareness

Dance 4 Active communication and dialogue

Dance 4 Diversity, cooperation and empathy

Dance 4 Anger management and mediation

“Dance 4 Peace began as Danza para la Convivencia en Bogotá, Colombia as part of Sara Potler’s Fulbright Scholarship project in 2007. In conjunction with Aulas en Paz (Peaceable Classrooms), a multi-component pedagogical project designed to promote social and civic competencies and conflict resolution among primary-school students, Dance 4 Peace was designed, implemented, and evaluated in public schools in the outskirts of Bogotá.”

Here is a sample of a project in Columbia:

“Today, the program is being implemented in Washington, D.C.; New York City; Baltimore; Colombia; the Philippines; and Nepal. We work through grassroots, local community and international-scale academic, public, and private partnerships to bring Dance 4 Peace programming to varying cultural contexts.”

Check out there work at Malcolm X public school in Washington DC:

For more info go to www.dance4peace.org

Teaching for Change: Tellin Stories

POSTED ON BEHALF OF EDEN MESGHENNA

Teaching for Change is a non-profit organization that supplies parents, teachers, and students with tools and resources that mobilize school reform by building literacy skills. Located in the Washington DC area Teaching for Change works with local schools by offering professional development, parent support connections and publication recourses for all ages that focus on building critical thought and reflection of the world inside and outside of the classroom.

Check them out at: www.teachingforchange.org

Tellin Stories is a project that aims at building parent involvement in the schools. The focus of the project is to create opportunities for parents to connect with schools by encouraging parents to come into the classroom and share their stories.  Allowing parents to share their experiences within the classroom begins a process that bridges a cultural and socioeconomic gap between schools and community. In the Telling Stories project parents have opportunities to read to students or tell personal stories about who they are in the classroom. Parents then join together with other parents to build a story quilt that binds pieces of who they are together.

I found the idea of story telling to be a very natural way of beginning the process of strengthening parent involvement in the school and was encouraged by the high level of response parents from different cultural backgrounds had towards investing in there new community.  Included is a link to a short video on the Tellin Stories project:

IndyKids

POSTED ON BEHALF OF MONICA SHAH

IndyKids is a progressive kid’s newspaper produced by volunteers including parents, students, teachers, journalists and community activists. Formed in 2005, IndyKids’ creators believe that everything is political and that no media source comes without bias; thus, they openly label their newspaper as progressive. IndyKids aims to present an alternative perspective that is typically not found in mainstream media or other kids’ news journals such as Time for Kids or Junior Scholastic because they are backed by corporate sponsors. IndyKids provides space for issues of marginalized people including kids, people of color, poor people, and immigrants whose voices may not generally be heard in conventional news and school textbooks. The organization does not believe in “talking down” to kids or restricting certain issues from being presented. Therefore, their stories range anywhere from youth activism, labor and immigrant rights and global warming, to war, the financial crisis and same-sex marriage. Aside from news, the paper also includes entertainment, recipes and puzzles.

In addition to learning about the issues themselves, IndyKids can be used in classrooms to teach media literacy. Teachers can give students articles on similar topics from various sources and ask them to compare the views of the publications. By doing this, students can pick out biases, form their own opinions based on facts or perspectives given, and most importantly, learn and practice being critical interpreters of information, instead of being passive recipients. This is a good exercise for teachers who may receive criticism for presenting progressive viewpoints, or generally for any teacher who aims to be objective and wants their students to be critical thinkers.

While the website states that the newspaper is aimed to engage kids in grades 4 to 7, I believe that the newspaper could be used from grades 3 to 8, and may be integrated best in an English/Language Arts or Social Studies class setting. What is also unique about this paper is that kids are encouraged to submit their own articles. Teachers or parents who use this newspaper in their classroom or home can make researching and submitting articles as part of a class project. On the IndyKids’ website, there are helpful resources and guides for teachers. For example, check out the November/December 2011 Issue and Teacher’s Guide – Issue 32.

IndyKids not only helps students to simply learn about current national and international events, but it can help students develop empathy, curiosity and passion, and may lead them to becoming selfless and conscientious. Another way teachers can promote peace and social justice in their classroom, school, and community, and further develop students’ research, writing, and analytical skills, is to assign students to produce their own community-based version of IndyKids focusing on local issues. After writing the articles and publishing a class newspaper, students can take an additional step and create an action plan to bring attention to a particular local issue and/or to fight a local injustice.

IndyKids supports the community building and skill building pillars of peace education. With the newspaper, students will learn about various issues, cultures and perspectives, and are encouraged to embrace the differences and similarities they may have with the people they read about. By allowing kids to write and submit their own articles, they are able to take ownership of their learning experience and see their work being acknowledged and read by a wider audience. With regard to skill building, students are empowered to actively participate in the larger peace and social justice movement locally and globally. Through reflection based activities, students’ interpersonal and intrapersonal skills will be strengthened. Furthermore, students’ analytical skills will be enhanced through media literacy lessons. Students will also learn organizing skills as they take action and show solidarity with a particular campaign, movement or group of people.

Nonviolent Campaigns: Who, What, Where, When, How and Why

POSTED ON BEHALF OF MONICA SHAH

So you’ve heard a lot about the powers and successes of nonviolent action but are ready to move beyond teaching about Gandhi and Dr. King. Thanks to a project lead by George Lakey at Swarthmore College, there is now a Global Nonviolent Action Database that provides free access to the hundreds of cases of nonviolent campaigns around the world! The intention of this database is, “to assist researchers and activists to better understand the special features of nonviolent struggle that make it different from both violent and institutional politics.”

Lakey, the Director of Training for Change and 2010 Peace Educator of the Year, explains that “nonviolent action” is also commonly known as:

  • People Power
  • Civil Resistance
  • Satyagraha
  • Nonviolent Resistance
  • Direct Action
  • Pacifica Militancia
  • Positive Action

The database includes cases that are identified as “campaigns”, not “movements” because they consider movements to typically consist of a number of campaigns aimed at achieving large goals. Also, the campaigns researched are ones that have reached their point of completion. Each “case” is presented as a database file and narrative that describes the issues behind the campaign.

The database can be searched by country, issue, or method used. The campaigns are grouped by the following categories: democracy, economic justice, environment, human rights (religious and women’s rights), national/ethnic identity (and anti-colonial struggles), and peace. You can learn about nonviolent action that took place everywhere from Afghanistan to Norway to Zimbabwe. You can even find campaigns that occurred as early as Before A.D. in Italy to present-day in Egypt. If you are interested in learning about the larger movements, you can search under “Waves of Campaigns” to find information about:

  • African Democracy Campaigns
  • Arab Awakening
  • Asian Democracy Campaigns
  • Colour Revolutions
  • Soviet Bloc Independence Campaigns
  • U.S. Civil Rights Movement

Here is an example:  “Egyptians campaign to oust President Mubarak, 2011”

On this page you will find the time period, the description of the location, the goals, methods and classification of the case. You can also find information about the campaign’s influences, leaders, partners, allies and opponents, order of social groups and the success outcome. Lastly, everyone also has access to the sources used to compile the information to learn even more about the study!

This resource supports three Pillars of Peace Education: 1) Exploring Approaches to Peace; 2) Reframing History; and 3) Transforming Conflict Nonviolently. Students can learn how people around the world aim to achieve peace. Furthermore, they can look at history through the lens of nonviolent actions – narratives that are often left out in schools’ historical texts. Lastly, the database acknowledges that conflicts do exist, and it provides examples of a variety of methods that people use to approach conflict alternatively—nonviolently.

With regard to the uses of the database, the team included this wonderful message: “Strategists, activist organizers, scholars, and teachers will find many uses for the database, as well as citizens wanting to expand their horizons. Even before release to the public, for example, a teacher who knew the database team was using our cases to assist middle school pupils to develop plays. Any school that teaches about the environment, civil rights, or other issues may find the curriculum enlivened by sending students to the database. History students might enjoy doing the detective work of finding the hidden stories in their local area that could be developed into cases. The database also offers an invitation to geographical learning.”

I would recommend this database to be used by students starting in middle school. Though I believe that educators can incorporate this across the curriculum, it may be most welcome in a Social Studies department. The information provided can truly open students’ eyes and deepen their understanding of nonviolence, people power, and the struggle for justice, peace, democracy or human rights around the world. It may also help students to better grasp the tactics and motivations of the ongoing “Occupy” movements across the nation. The database can be utilized in formal or community education settings. It can also be beneficial for organizers of future movements to scan through this database to examine the advantages or limitations of strategies of previous campaigns.