Readers may be interested to know that the informative current issue of “Better: Evidence-based Education” magazine from Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s Center for Research and Reform in Education carries a theme about Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Looking ahead this year, the magazine focuses on what works in education concerning Implementing an SEL program (nationally and school-wide) and how to imbed solutions for SEL into school cultures. The magazine also provides articles about how societal trends can alter SEL from a broader prospective. You’ll enjoy reading the magazine which also provides a series of short article updates on latest research reports and how to access them. You can view the magazine here: http://snipurl.com/evidencelearning
Author: creadmin
Promoting “Peace One Day” September 21, 2010
I just visited the “Peace One Day” website: http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/education and was impressed with what I found there. The website houses a number of great resources to help teachers and their students celebrate “Peace One Day” on September 21. September 21 is the UN International Day of Peace, a day of global ceasefire and non-violence: Peace Day. If you register on the site, it is possible to receive free resource materials for your school. Their goal is to provide education resources to every school on the earth! The materials are designed to help students gain insight into peace in a multicultural world. The materials use instructional methodologies such as reflective and individual group activities, critical thinking and modern technology to help student gain an awareness of Peace One Day. Nineteen interactive lesson plans can be used to help teachers explore issues like Bullying, Conflict Resolution, Intercultural Cooperation, Art, Music & more. It is recommended that the resources be used in conjunction with Jeremy and Jude Law’s documentary video: “The Day After Peace”. The 32 minute classroom resource video link is available on the website to view online for free. The video can be viewed with subtitles in Arabic, Chinese [Mandarin] French, Russian and Spanish. The materials obtained from the site would also be very helpful for teachers wanting to create projects with their students and/or create themes and projects to prepare for participation for Conflict Resolution Day this October 21st.
Tips for the Start of the School Year from SEL expert Maurice Elias
Social and Emotional Learning advocate Maurice Elias provides a nice 7-point plan for getting off to a good start this school year. You can read them online over at the Edutopia website.
Free 2010-2011 CRE Teacher’s Calendar now available
Good news – the 2nd Edition of the CRE Teacher’s Calendar has now been released. The 2010-2011 calendar, a cooperative project of ACR’s CR Day Committee, ACR’s Education Section and CRETE, provides activities, tips, and links to conflict resolution resources and significant calendar dates throughout the school year. Print versions will be distributed to teachers around the country and ACR will make a limited number of copies available for order via the web (details TBA).
Peace One Day Educational Resources
Peace One Day (POD) is an organization that celebrates an international ceasefire on the International Day of Peace, September 21. They have developed a Global Education Resource Pack that is now available in the six official languages of the United Nations. It’s free, online (and downloadable) and includes Peace One Day short films and interviews and exercise handouts. Thirteen lessons are included in the Global Pack helping young people to explore issues of peace, non-violence, conflict resolution and intercultural cooperation, using Peace Day as a focus. POD Education materials are now reportedly being used by over 6,000 educators in over 140 countries.
Resource packs specialized to match United States and U.K. educational standards are also available, so be sure to pick the collection most relevant to your location. The U.S. and U.K packs have 21 activities included, more than the more generic Global pack that has been translated into more languages.
Click through to out more about the Peace One Day Education Resource Packs.
Check Out this Comic Book – Peace in Our Schools
Students in the Cleveland Municipal School District helped create this special comic book created by youth for youth. Through a grant from the Cleveland Foundation, children in public school classes across Cleveland came together to take a stand against violence in school and in the city. The comic book that resulted is found below. The book is part of a larger series sponsored by the Comic Book Project. You can visit the project website to see books created elsewhere and to learn about how your schools might get involved.
Conflict Resolution Examiner
The Examiner.com web network of syndicated writers now has a Conflict Resolution and Character Education examiner providing stories, role-plays, articles, and lesson plans. Lots of downloadable content of interest to teachers. The author is Debbie Dunn. Dunn is a professional storyteller, published author, a Conflict Resolution Specialist, and a Certified Teacher. She taught 14 1/2 years in elementary and middle school. She tells stories and writes full-time from her home in Mosheim, TN. Find out more here.
United Nations International Year of Youth
The United Nations has declared 12 August 2010 – 11 August 2011 as International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding. This should provide some exciting the opportunities for those working in the area of youth and peacebuilding, and we encourage everyone to get involved.
More information will be posted on the United Nations youth website, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/index.html
Teacher.tv Behaviour Challenge video module
The U.K.-based Teacher.tv site has just released a very engaging learning module called The Behaviour Challenge which places you in the classroom with three students who are presenting problems that may interfere with the learning environment. You choose which student to focus on first, and then what approach to try with them and you see video of their response and some commentary from a coach. It’s a nicely done interactive learning tool. I wonder what others think – Does it incorporate enough Conflict Resolution concepts in the learning?
Interviews from CRETE Partners Meeting
The higher education institutional partners working with the CRETE project met in Austin at St. Edwards University March 4-5, 2010. I interviewed some of the folks in attendance and put together a podcast episode that provides a window into some of the many ways the CRETE program is being implemented. You can listen to the Conflict Learning Audio podcast online here, or subscribe via iTunes.
Peace One Day Multi-Media Curriculum distributed to U.S. schools
Peace One Day, in Association With Scholastic, and Underwritten by Ben & Jerry’s, Offers Free Multi-Media Online Curriculum to U.S. Middle and High Schools to Inspire Students to Be Global Citizens
Educational Program Features 21 Lesson Plans, DVD, and Live Webcast Designed to Motivate Teen Participation in Peace Day on September 21st, 2010, a Day Adopted by All UN Members and Recognized by the US Senate
Filmmaker and founder of the UK-based nonprofit Peace One Day (POD), Jeremy Gilley, today announced the distribution of a free online educational curriculum and film to schools teaching grades 6-12 in 11 US states. The program includes 21 lesson plans helping teachers and students to explore such issues as conflict resolution and nonviolence, using Peace Day, September 21 as a focus. Additionally, all grades 6-12 classrooms are invited to participate in a special LIVE webcast held in New York City on March 19, 2010, at 1 p.m. EDT to inspire students to make a difference in their school, community and in the world. Jude Law, Ambassador of Peace One Day, will be joining Jeremy and special guests live on the day via Skype. The online curriculum is available at www.peaceoneday.org.
In 2001, September 21 was unanimously adopted by UN member states as an annual day of global ceasefire and nonviolence. In September 2009, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution which recognizes September 21 as a global day of peace.
The Peace One Day curriculum fosters discussion and projects among young people about peace and nonviolence in their schools, local communities, and the world at large. The online curriculum is designed to be used in conjunction with Gilley’s award-winning documentary film The Day After Peace, a compelling documentary charting one man’s journey to establish September 21 as Peace Day. Thirty thousand free copies of the film will be delivered to middle schools and high schools this month. Peace One Day’s educational curriculum and DVD are being distributed in association with Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, and underwritten by long-term supporter Ben & Jerry’s.
“For the Sake of Children-Peacebuilding Storytelling Guide”
Interested in promoting the development of Peace Building in your curriculum? This online version of a book of story-based activities is now available in our CRE Resource catalog. The stories help to spark childrens imaginations to write creatively about their own understanding of peace and how they might create their own representation of having an active part in conflict resolution and the peace process. The activities in the book encourage the development, writing and sharing of stories highlighting many peace building elements such as: happy endings, win-win situations, challenges resisting stereotyping, peace within the environment and many more elements. You can view the book in our online resource collection: http://snipurl.com/peacestorytelling
Teachers.tv Anger Management video
Teachers in the U.K. have a rich resource of videos and other support materials provided by teachers.tv which currently celebrating their 5th Anniversary. This video on Anger Management provides a look at the challenges faced by two teaching assistants who work to manage the anger and accompanying misbehavior of some students in their school. (Note: video downloads only work if your are based in the U.K.)
Teaching for Good Behavior – free OpenLearn course materials
Readers may not be aware of the wealth of resources made available by The Open University in the United Kingdom. OpenLearn, built on the open source learning platform known as Moodle, provides lots of course materials at no cost. It is definitely worth a visit. One that might interest CREducation.org folks is a course known as Teaching for Good Behaviour. As the introduction explains,
The quality of our teaching inevitably has an impact on the behaviour of our students. This unit considers some of the factors that can contribute to misbehaviour in the classroom and some of the steps that we can take as teachers to re-engage students with the learning process. This unit considers the format of lessons, how lessons are delivered, how to present lesson content in an interesting and creative way, and the development of “engaging lessons”.
Here’s the outline of topics covered:
Introduction
1. Teaching and behaviour
2. Lesson format
3. Lesson delivery
4. Lesson content
5. Developing ‘engaging’ lessons
References and Acknowledgements
No Name Calling Week 2010
The seventh annual No Name-Calling Week (NNCW) is in full swing! Thousands of educators are leading their students through educational and creative activities aimed at ending name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. If you haven’t already, it’s not too late to conduct NNCW activities in your school. Some simple ways to celebrate are developing an anti-name-calling classroom policy or screening a student-made anti-bullying video. For more tips and ideas, visit the NNCW Resources page.
Another way to participate in NNCW is to engage your students in creating artwork that they can enter into the Creative Expression Contest. This year’s Creative Expression Contest is divided into three categories:
· Primary School (Grades K – 5)
· Middle School (Grades 6 – 8)
· High School (Grades 9 – 12)
The deadline for submissions is Friday, February 26.
Over 5,000 NNCW fans are talking about name-calling and bullying on the NNCW Facebook page. Join the conversation on Facebook and talk with other educators participating in NNCW to share tips and ideas.
Visit http://www.nonamecallingweek.org to register for updates, download free lessons and planning tips, and learn more about this year’s Creative Expression Contest.