[Palestineinschools] notes and next step proposal
Alissa
alissa at resist.ca
Tue Oct 12 13:00:57 PDT 2004
All,
Please find below the notes from the PEP retreat a few weeks back.
Before the notes begin you will see a proposal for how we divide up the immediate next step work. If folks have concerns, corrections or additions to make to this proposal, please voice them by this weekend,so we can have all ducks in a row so we can get to work ASAP!
The proposal outlines what each city will be "point" on, in essence, and also what both cities will work on. We thought that it would benefit us to figure out who would do what so that we wouldn't end up doing the same work twice!
Onward!
Alissa
------------------
Suggested process for next steps
NYC and Philly are simultaneously:
- compiling target outreach list and contacts
- connecting with ally orgs
- collecting resources for on-line library and curriculum
- culling teaching tools already collected
- publicity
NYC takes point on:
- getting the website up and running, putting together website team
- researching for palestine 101 lesson plan and formalizing it
- setting up physical resource library in AADC office
- communicating with rethinking schools to get curriculum publishing
process started
Philly takes point on:
-formatting resource library layout for the website (point person for this
will be part of the website team to communicate)
-researching data and statistics for the map excercise and formalize that
excercise in written form including brainstorming materials and questions
for kids
-compile database for outreach lists from nyc and philly- amy laura and
mariana
- create annotated list of resources we have already
------------------------------
NOTES
PEP Retreat
October 2 and 3
SATURDAY MORNING
De-briefing presentations
Map Exercise and Palestine 101 Exercise:
Palestine 101 Exercise (these notes are both about the exercise and also just general comments):
-Jewish history element-high school only
-Younger kids/short time-leaving it out
-British mandate-telling both they'll have a state
-parallel with pilgrims-good!
-Zionism-looked at other places, Palestine's significance
-pluralism/diversity of Palestinian society before Israel and countering myth of age-old conflict
-focus on present/risk of leaving out history re: outside of classroom
-short stories-Jews and Palestinians-their life experiences-1940s
-2 min-world map-where were Jews living, why did they go to Palestine? Shut out elsewhere-world responsibility in conflict (Jewish classroom)
-what is balance between interactive and presentation
-pilgrims came to be able to set up religious power/restriction-rethinking the narrative
-beginning with Ottoman Empire
-Zionism vs. Jewish struggles for equality where they lived
-land with out people for.
-Arab history, culture-Palestinians, perhaps integrate life and family into short story
- Story: lemon tree, 1948
-Palestinian refugees and their keys
-senesh: went back, resistance, Warsaw ghetto
-story packets-give to kids
-needing more then 1 session
-Map-Palestinians unique identity vs. Arabs in general (Jewish schools)
-highlighting the different forms of resistance
-how to support kids with their new knowledge out in world
-letter to parents and follow-up packets
-concrete letters, pictures, stories-incorporating as much of these ideas into these as possible, less presentation!
-video: child telling story, refugee too
-what is different from what we wrote at first?
-exercise: in a series, look in news for articles about Israelis and Palestinians, take out quotes-who do you think said it?
-workshop: different resistance, connecting to US historical movements
-what kind of work/assessment is school doing?
-website email-students/teachers-questions
-profiles of kids their age, their lives: shministim, pmrc volunteers
-also it is important to talk about what is the same, not just what is different or unique
-US Aid: sustain tax form, older kids
-what does your neighborhood need? Younger kids
-tax-aid/Israeli vs. their income-other people need it more (i.e. Ethiopia)
-what is it being used for in Israel?
-chart-worldwide military spending-Nava
-US weapons industry-who's getting rich
-what does Israeli refusal mean?
-Military recruitment in US schools-talk to anti-recruitment orgs
-not doing what you are told
-Lesson plan: militarization, new profile
-media workshop-perception, what images we see (taking down sadam statue, what was really going on-Susan)
-photos from/of Palestine-what are we not shown?
-self created media
Map Exercise:
-have kids redistributed how they see it to be equitable
-can be done with older people too!
-careful about dynamics that will arise (include debrief/reflection session after/before)
-roles: observers?
-clearly label people, who they are in the exercises
-Should we put the facts on board first-have the class figure out percentages? Or Is it better to do as we go, the surprise is good, and put the facts up as it comes
-add: 1948-refugees and squishing people into occupied territories, percent of Jews in 1948
-Mats-cut in shape of Palestine, Gaza, and West Bank
-roads through West Bank (mats)
-After each thing happens, ask: what are you going to do now? How do you feel? Where are your friends?
-checkpoints? Soldiers? Curfew-everyone in OT sit down, everyone else move as you wish
-ask: Gazan-what would you do to change this? What can you do?
Israeli-Do you want things to change? What are you willing to do to keep it this way?
SATURDAY AFTERNOON BREAKOUT NOTES
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT BREAKOUT
- Started with brief presentations by Nijmie (on alternative curriculum/teaching techniques, with a sample exercise dealing with "Institutions and Power" and Tony (who distributed notes from the New York's groups meeting dealing with curriculum and resource building
- After some discussion, the group reached consensus that the best approach for the rest of the break-out session was to concentrate on putting energy into synthesizing materials and building a resource library that could be used by teachers (to be put up on the PEP website) rather than concentrating on specific PEP curriculum to be used in the classroom (although there was agreement to think about organizing resources in such a way as to be useful for future PEP workshops, classroom exercises, etc)
- A draft of a "Material Vetting Worksheet" to be used to build the resource library was circulated and discussed. The categories that were discussed as part of this worksheet:
1) Name of material
2) Theme
3) Learning objective
4) Grade level/age appropriateness
5) Prior knowledge necessary?
6) For what kind of school/setting?
7) Resources needed:
8) How long does lesson take?
9) Brief synopsis of curricula
10) Comments on material, ideas for supplementation
- There was a discussion of whether a simplified version of this would be appropriate for the website.
- There was a discussion of the possible thematic categories for dividing resources-with the proposal be that they eventually be linked to specific workshops designed to address each category. The winning categories were:
1) Militarism
2) Palestinian history
3) Occupation 101
4) Resistance
5) U.S.-Israel Relationship
(other proposed categories included aid to Israel, general history, the British mandate period, stories from Palestinians, and countering myths)
- Most of the remaining time was dedicated to an actual vetting of sources provided by the Philly and NYC groups, followed by a review by the group as a whole. For example, the two presentations of the morning session were considered according to the framework proposed for vetting resources:
1) Israel/Palestine map exercise (presented during the retreat by Alexis):
* works for Occupation 101, Militarism, and Palestinian History
* venue and length could vary
2) Ora's Presentation (in need of a name):
* works for all five categories
* designed primarily for public school venue
- For the sake of brevity, I will omit the details of each specific resource considered and discussed for the minutes (but will type them up for the purposes of the working group(s) on curriculum and resource library development
"IN THE CLASSROOM" TRAINING
We began with a go-around addressing the question: What are you most afraid of happening in the classroom?
Our fears:
- students not cooperating, i.e. not giving their real names
- losing control of the classroom
- the outside world affecting inside the classroom- students not interested in my lesson because of what's going on in their lives
- not being engaging-rambling on and on
- students not listening
- being asked questions that I can't answer
- trying to impart knowledge but also passion and the students' disinterest making me feel insecure
- getting up there and then the first kid to talk saying something like "you missed a belt loop in your pants"
- my commitment to not taking power leading to loss of focus
- not being able to draw upon my skills and principles in a difficult moment
- violence in the classroom
We then went on to discuss what we want the students to get out of these presentations.
What we want to accomplish in the classroom:
- stimulating and inspiring them to learn more on their own
- getting them to question what they knew before
- adding new words to their vocabularies and new concepts
- encouraging them to think more critically about what they see/hear
- breaking down stereotypes
- facilitating them feeling this issue as connected to their own life experiences
- facilitating a positive, participatory classroom experience
Then there were brief presentations:
Gail- the difference between giving a talk and teaching
Zohar- ideas for working with young kids
Ora- what has worked with these presentations thus far
There was then a role play exercise:
Throughout the training we kept thinking of ways in which our pedagogical approach connected with how to build the curriculum or activities. So we discussed where pedagogy and curriculum intersect.
What do we need to reach our goals?
- compiled basic facts and statistics
- materials and activities that are engaging and participatory
- finding links between our subjects and experiences relevant to the kids (i.e. civil rights movement, military recruitment)
- materials addressing the issues through the eyes and lives of young people
- materials providing answers to difficult questions
- Lots of visuals! (video, photos, drawings, maps)
- hand-outs (age appropriate web resources- perhaps some of the refugee camps' websites)
- eye witness and personal accounts and stories
- problematic news articles for kids to critique
At the end of the afternoon we discussed skills and issues to address in future workshops/trainings:
- specific tips for engaging students
- role playing with a full PEP lesson (don't pretend to be a teacher doing the wrong/right thing for the sake of evaluating it, be yourself and seriously try to do it)
- conflict resolution/de-escalation
- public speaking training
- workshops focused on scripting certain concepts for PEP presentations for different ages
- approaches to frequently asked questions
- how to do good evaluations of presentations and take field notes
What came out of our classroom role-play?
Engaging students and discipline lessons learned: Do's are in blue, don'ts are in black
a.. Don't be wedded to an activity beyond its use
b.. Give disruptive kids a choice of paying attention or changing seats
c.. Don't give commands without explanations
d.. If students aren't participating, share a thought or two to jumpstart discussion
e.. When kids give silly answers, use their shenanigans to engage them. Don't reprimand them - at least they're involved.
f.. Ask for volunteers in class to stimulate interest
g.. Communicate that there are not wrong answers
h.. If a student asks a tangential question, don't let yourself get bogged down trying to answer it. Tell him/her you'll get back to them later.
i.. Don't try to overpower kids
j.. Have fun, positive attitude
k.. When there's minor misbehavior - don't escalate situation by yelling - redirect
l.. Keep your cool
m.. Sometimes it's most effective to ignore distracting behavior- they'll get bored
n.. Don't be condescending or insulting
o.. Name good behavior instead of reprimanding
p.. Give options: "you can either sit together quietly or one of you can move over here"
q.. Address rules to all instead of targeting one did, i.e. "let's all remember to raise our hands
r.. When one student is talking/asking questions a lot, make sure to redirect conversation to the whole class
s.. Say: "I need cooperation so that we can get to the fun part"
t.. Don't give orders State what needs to happen (instead of saying "Be quiet", say "We need the room to be quiet to continue")
u.. Begin with a hook: a photo, story, poem, video clip to start questions and discussion - something controversial or dramatic
v.. Connect it to students' particular and personal experiences (i.e., kids in the South talking about oppression in their history, what is your life like?)
How are report backs different from teaching?
Some of us have done report backs, with and without visuals. In a report back, we are presenting information and some analysis from our own experience. We are assuming a certain familiarity with the material and the assumption is that people have come because they are interested in the topic that has been advertised. In my experience, people expect a kind of lecture with an opportunity to ask questions to clarify or challenge or to ask you to elaborate. We're sharing our experiences in order to get people to understand what the occupation is like on the ground, for Palestinians and for internationals. We tend to include stories that are dramatic illustrations that they might not have seen or read. We're trying to get people to see that we are ordinary folks who went to see for ourselves and this is what happened. We are trying to get people interested and involved in the struggle to end the occupation
The kids we are working with are not necessarily coming to the subject with have an interest in the content of our presentation. We have to engage them according to their age and in the context of their school, their teacher, their community. In a lecture format, it doesn't matter much if people come with very different understandings or interests. You speak to the whole group and the dynamics come out in the questioning. With children, as all of us have taught know, it has to be dynamic throughout, they have to feel involved, to be engaged.
Some students will have an idea of Israel/Palestine because it's discussed at home or because they've studied the issue in school or they've seen or heard something on the news. Others will have no idea at all and everything they hear will be new. Sometimes the teacher will have prepared the students. Other times, we're coming in cold, with little introduction. We'll have to be prepared to use each situation. Of course it's different too from the situation of presenting new material to a class of children you know, that you've been working with for some time.
Then there will be those kids in progressive schools, a model that encourages inquiry. Get ready to be challenged in those situations.
Habits of Mind
. From whose viewpoint are we seeing or reading or hearing? From what angle or perspective?
. How do we know when we know? What's the evidence, and how reliable is it?
. How are things, events, or people connected to each other? What is the cause and what is the effect? How do they fit together?
. What's new and what's old? Have we run across this idea before?
. So what? Why does it matter? What does it all mean?
Point of view
Evidence
Connections
Sequence
So what
SUNDAY
Initial brainstorm on Outreach Strategy
Was done in small groups, here are notes from the reportback:
Person-to-person outreach:
- How focused should we do it? Teachers, activists, etc.
- Palestine solidarity events and activists will be key!
- Progressive teacher networks (how do we access teachers outside of our networks?
- Cold calling to set up meetings and talk about how we might be able to work together/bring our work into their institution: religious institutions, youth centers, schools?
- How to coordinate and follow-up on contacts?
- Friends of PEP list serve or newsletter-to keep people involved and in the project
PR packet
-target: teachers, parents, administrators
-to include: goals, objectives, need mission statement, endorsement by some well know organizations, pictures of classroom scene, teaching tools, sample of exercises, credentials of presenters (teachers, long-time activist, etc.)
-title of packet: Rethinking Israel/Palestine
-What we say about our goals and objectives:
-demystify issue
-breaking down stereotypes, climate of fear, way Arabs are seen at school
- Dealing with student tensions
- Pull for teachers: diversity
-questionnaire for teachers, to give us feedback (need to think carefully if/how we do it)
Website:
-mission statement
-links to related projects
-online application: to get presenters in schools, to get involved
- Side bar:
-who we are
-list of workshops
-list of resources
-get involved
-get us in your school
-field notes/feedback
-donate $
-faq link
-feedback
-e-newsletter
-video clip (streaming news)
-outreach:
-who we want to link to
- Teachers
-Palestine Solidarity activists
-supporting/related orgs
-announce website up and running
**we need website builder-preferably one who would do it for free!**
-translate website into another language? Spanish? Arabic? Hebrew?
NEXT STEPS
I. We identified 4 LONG TERM GOALS and tasks to work towards them (there is cross over)
GOAL 1: Going into schools
Poster/ Flyer
Mission Statement
Logo
Collecting and culling teaching tools
Meeting with allies - Youth education groups
Formatting intact activities
Creating outreach lists
Creating PR Packet
Workshopping Activities
Institutional and teacher outreach
GOAL 2: WEBSITE
Gather Website Design Team
Gather content
- Resource Library
- Application forms
- Request forms
- Donations
- Faqs
- Handouts of educational material
- Fact sheets
GOAL 3: Published Curriculum
Communicate with Rethinking Schools
Self publish materials
Find publisher
GOAL 4: Ongoing Outreach
Create "Friends of PEP" Newsletter
Fundraising
- direct donors
- grant research
II. We identified FIRST PHASE OF GOALS & TASKS with point people and target dates
< ** means there was no identified point person >
Goal : PR packet
Tasks:
- Flyer (October 12) (Nour and Ora)
- Logo (October 12) (Nour and Ora)
- Mission Statement (October 12) (Tony and Jesse)
- ** Sample Activity (October 12)
- ** Content and Production Plan (November 3)
- compile student letters and teacher letters - feedback and recommendations (Ora)
- "Why I (as a teacher) am involved with PEP?" blurbs (ORA)
Goal: Website
Tasks
- Build Website Team (November 3) (Ora, Alexis, Nour)
- ** Resource Library for Website
- Resource Library Components: statistics, video, music, activities, lesson plans, articles, photos, books
- organized by age group
- **INITIAL GOAL: Raw materials rather than intact lesson plans (Dec 15)
- **Compiling (ongoing)
- **Research for intact activities (mid Nov)
- **Cull through what we have (curricula, teaching tools, etc) (Nov 3)
- ** Create annotated list (Oct 12)
Goal: Outreach
Tasks:
- Outreach Materials for PSM Conference (Nour and Ora)
- intro flyer
- sample activity
- ** Outreach list (November 3) (Philly - Mariana, Amy Laura) (need NYC point)
- compile targeted outreach lists (ongoing)
- specific people
- ally orgs
- schools/comm. centers/faith-based orgs
- database (Mariana, Amy Laura)
- prioritize
- Connect with ally organizations (doing similar work) (December 3) (NYC: Tony, Philly: Mitch [help from Nijmie?])
- ask for contact ideas
- teaching tools
- talk about going into schools
- ** Poster
Goal: Formatting Intact Activities (MAP AND PALESTINE 101)
Task: Work Plan and solicit help (Alexis and Ora)
** Map Tasks:
- Data and Statisitcs
- Material Strategy
- Questions for kids
** Pal 101 Tasks:
- Letters from kids
- Short narratives
** Tasks (both):
- Formalize in written form (Dec 3)
- Make available and do trainings (to lead activities)
- Put on Website (Dec 15)
- Put in PR material
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