The skills they need...

This video was apparently shown at the last admin council meeting.  It was brought to my attention by my administrator.  The first thing I thought was "this kid is awesome".  Then I thought how valuable it was that he was being coached and taught these skills.  Then I was amazed at his message to teachers - here was a young boy telling us teachers what students need from us.  And this seems to be a current trend - I think we are doing a better job of listening to our young generations.  Ideally, we need to mesh experience with fresh ideas.  I love the fact that this young boy was the keynote speaker.  And then something dawned on me.  Despite all the PD events I have been to, I have not seen our students or other young people a part of it.  I have not yet, at any of our "teacher" conferences, seen a keynote speaker younger than myself.  Something is wrong here.  

Anyway, I showed this video to my Social Studies 30 as means to spark a conversation about current education systems.  To be honest, their response surprised me.  They didn't even seem that interested in the message that was being sent.  They were, however, interested in how that message was being sent.  Comments like "this kid could be the next President" were common.  Bottom line: they were amazed at how well prepared this young boy was to address a large crowd, and how fluently and intellectually he did it.  They were amazed at his public speaking and analytical skills.  They wondered about his education - and said that the skills he was learning would pretty much guarantee that he will be "successful".  The bell rang and my students slowly filtered out of my room - and I wondered if I was helping students develop the skills that would ensure their success later on in life.  If I compared the education I facilitate to the education this young boy receives....well, I think I would feel inferior.  

Lions, Crocodiles...and the WTO?

This video has been circulating for some time now - for those of you who haven't seen it it is a video that captures an extrodinary set of events. I had heard that it was going to be made into a National Geographic documentary and I guess that is true (look here). If you haven't yet seen the video, watch it first before reading on.



Wow! A complex video, and story, in so many ways. Not only are there evil villians (the lions and a crocodile), but also a happy ending (maybe not for the predators but certainly for the water buffalo). And then of course there are the people watching.

Okay, intersting...so what? Well, as teachers, we always look for a learning opportunity. I was excited by this video, it interested me immensly...but now what? How can I use it? Well, it just so happened that in my Social Studies classes we were discussing what I like to call the 'big fish, little fish" topic. I offer a comic strip that shows a big fish about to eat a medium sized fish who is about to eat a little fish. The captions read (from big fish to little fish) "the world is just", "there is some justice in the world", and "there is no justice in the world". Now, for you Social Studies teachers you immediately understand that we will go on to talk about power and justice in the world...for you Math teachers, well...there are 3 fish. I next offer the comic strip that shows a big fish about to eat a little fish; the little fish then whistles and all his little fish friends show up and together - eat the big fish. The comic strip is called "organize" and the lesson is taken from the book Rethinking Globalization (check out their website...it is a great organization).

Given this context you may begin to understand what an opportunity a video like "Battle at Kruger" offers for extended learning. We began to use the Battle at Kruger as an analogy for the world in relation to power struggles and justice. Who might be the big fish and medium fish (e.g. lions and crocodile). Oh, I see, well the lions could be the United States and Canada and the little fish could be India or Pakistan etc... Students then came up with some general analogies that I really liked. The lions and crocodile could be "developed" countries, transnational corporations, or world organizations (such as WTO) and the water buffalo could be "Third World" countries and governments. The people on the safari could be us. You see, the water buffalo finally realize that they are powerful through numbers and fight back. The people on the safari simply sit back and watch - they do nothing to interfere (and some eventually benefit from the video). We had been talking about sweatshops. Students applied this to the video. If Third World governments worked together to demand better conditions etc... the lions and crocodiles would have less power. And what about us, the safarians, what should we do? Anyway, students eventually developed their own in-depth analogies of the situation. Had it not been for this video I would never have thought of using the animal kingdom to connect learning of power and justice with a deeper context. But I guess that is the joy of teaching, finding those things that really connect and solidify student learning on a deeper level.