Looking ahead this year – the International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) will take place on July 12-18, 2010 in Colombia. The theme for the event is: Learning to Read the World from Multiple Perspectives: Peace Education Toward Diversity and Inclusion”. This event is not a conference but a meeting of a “Learning Community” in which the organizers and the participants will work together to nurture a highly interactive, inclusive learning environment. It is an intensive multicultural and cooperative learning experience in which participants learn from and with each other about substantive peace issues and interactive teaching approaches. Program and application information are now available on the IIPE website at:
http://www.i-i-p-e.org/
Author: creadmin
Great Video: Learn & Live: Resolving Conflict at O’Farrell Middle School
I found this video very interesting and most helpful. The philosophy at O’Farrell Middle School aims to enhance student life in not only academics and family life but also to stress the benefits of Student Social Development in order for children to perform well. The school regularly welcomes the participation of staff of community agencies on site to help in this initiative. Specialists and staff meet with students weekly. For example, regular meetings include visits from Counselors to to talk with groups of children about Conflict Resolution techniques and visits from Counselors to discuss gang issues. One interesting facet of conflict and resolution that arose during a student-teacher discussion session in the video was how the issue of the student’s boredom in the class affected the student-teacher relationship. You can view the video as part of our online video collection.
Darkness and Light in November 2009
Posted by Shawn McElroy on behalf of Loreta Navarro Castro, Center for peace education, Miriam College, Quezon City, Philippines
My November 2009 began in an upbeat mood. I attended two successive conferences in South Korea in the early part of the month. The first conference focused on promoting interfaith understanding and the need to establish a Peace Education Center that can serve not only Korea but the Asian region as well. The second conference considered various themes (restorative justice, evaluation, conflict resolution education and peace education) and several members of the GPPAC Peace Education Working Group served as resource persons. (GPPAC stands for Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict). The full week in Korea was a happy time for me because both the conferences and the Peace Education Working Group meeting at the end of that week yielded fruitful results.
My hopeful mood continued when I returned to the Philippines. We conducted a Peace Education Training Workshop for Educators in South East Asia. There were 26 participants from seven countries in the region, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Five ministries of education were represented and this augurs well for the future mainstreaming of peace education in the region. However, as the said participants were arriving in the Philippines, a gruesome crime was being committed in the Maguindanao province in the Southern Philippines. At least 57 civilians were massacred in the morning of November 23, an incident that is now etched in our nation’s memory as the most brutal politically motivated violence committed in the country. The massacre truly shocked and saddened us. (I prepared the draft of a Statement which was adopted as the official Miriam College Statement. Please see it below)
As the end of November approached, one thing became clear. The barbaric violence turned into a wake up call or a moment of awakening for the whole nation. There are now countless voices of protest, asking for an end to political warlordism, private armies, and the proliferation or firearms, as well as for the respect of human rights and the rule of law.
I hope that this dark November day would not be in vain. May it yield the kind of light that we seek, so that such an event will not happen again!
Additional Research on Positive Impacts of SEL For K-8 Students
This research report includes detailed information and results about a large scale study and findings from three scientific reviews involving 324, 303 children on the positive impacts of SEL for K-8 students . The report presents an overview of the 3 reviews that include: a). Interventions for the General Student Body, b). Interventions for Students with Early-Identified Problems, and c). an After-School Review: Programming for Students When the School Day Ends. The report delineates the six major findings of the study and depicts charts, tables and graphs listing the outcomes of the study. You can read about and/or download the pdf document here:
http://snipurl.com/selk_8
New Research Report on Benefits of SEL Programs
Readers may be interested in this brief that shares the latest research on the effects of Social and Emotional Learning SEL program benefits for students. The brief includes strategies for implementing SEL. The report provides information on the positive effects of SEL programming, for example, that SEL reduces problem behaviors associated with learning that may help precipitate low test scores. Also provided in the paper is an explanation about an evidence-based program called S.A.F.E. (Sequenced, Active, Focus, Explicitly). There is a Logic Model within the brief that depicts how evidence-based SEL programs work to produce greater student success in school and life. The brief can be viewed at:
http://snipurl.com/selprogrambenefits
Opportunity to Help Develop New Program Degrees
I read about the great opportunity to assist in the creation of a “How to” manual on key topics in the development or expansion process for degree or certificate programs in Conflict, Peace or Justice Studies. The manual is a work in progress and is currently being shared electronically as a series of pdf downloads in this section of the website:
http://creducation.org/index.php/goto/ccps
The piece is a working document and we are looking for contributions of Chapters for the manual. If you have direct experience in in topics such as: Credit vs. Non-credit courses, Strategies For Faculty Development, Career Options for Students, Developing a Traditional Academic Program- or any one of the topics listed in the article, please see the contributors guide (chapter outlines and descriptions) for additional information on how to contribute a Chapter at:
http://snipurl.com/contributorsguide
Youth & Conflict – A Toolkit For Intervention
This informative manual is a document created to bring value to discussions and decisions about development and conflict. It is part of a series that explores how development assistance can address key risk factors associated with conflict and conflict resolution. The objective of the document is to inform about how to integrate best practices in conflict management and mitigation into more traditional development sectors such as agriculture, economic growth, democracy, education and health. This document is helpful because it depicts monitoring and evaluation tools that have been developed specifically for gauging the effectiveness of programs that incorporate both youth and conflict.
PeaceKidz Manual
I just reviewed the information in the PeaceKidz Project Manual. The Manual is a compiled work of five groups of Conflict Management students at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The manual is meant to help teachers start their own adventure of learning, educating and inspiring the young people in their classrooms to make informed choices about Conflict Resolution in their lives.
When utilizing the manual the “PeaceKidz Gang” encourages teachers to be self-directed in their learning about the program before they use it. It is important for teachers to make their own decisions about goals and effort of how to build the features of the Project into their curriculum to successfully evaluate progress made after using it. The program is also designed to be Constructivist in nature – teachers are encouraged to listen to the kids, build on everyday experiences in the framework of the lessons and be ready to change and learn new things while delivering the lesson plans.
HR 4000 – Conflict Resolution and Mediation Act of 2009
On November 2, 2009, House Democrat Bobby Rush from Illinois introduced a proposed Bill that would support mediation and conflict resolution programs in schools. It has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor. You can view the text of the bill here.
Video about eXe Learning Module Editor
We have been using the free and open source eXe Editor to create our growing collection of CRE Learning Modules. This video from the New Zealand-based EdTalks site provides an administrator’s take on the value of using such a tool in educational settings.
Words Work – Conflict Resolution curriculum for middle-school youth now available
The American Bar Association’s Section on Dispute Resolution teamed up with some experienced conflict resolution educators (Nancy Kaplan from CRU and Kathryn Liss from HIPP) to produce a new conflict resolution skills curriculum. And thanks to funding from the JAMS foundation, the materials are available at no cost. You can preview it online here – Words Work preview.
The Words Work curriculum is geared toward youth in grades six to eight. Through ten 45-minute sessions, educators guide youth through interactive lessons that focus on relationships, problem-solving, communication, and leadership skill-building. The package includes a facilitators manual and a set of supplemental worksheets. Note that, due to the extensive use of colorful graphics, the pdf files are rather large downloads.
Teachers.tv videos reveal the challenges facing NQTs (Newly Qualified Teachers)
Teachers.tv, the U.K-based education support website has a number of videos that follow two brand new teachers as they work their way through their first year of instruction at inner-city schools in London. A good resource for talking with pre-service teachers about issues they may face, and perhaps a motivator to encourage students to take CRETE workshop training seriously as part of their preparation for teaching service.
The first video in the series, entitled Early Days, introduces us to the teachers and their backgrounds, and explores issues like preparing the classroom and dealing with pre-term nerves.
Of particular relevance for CRETE folks is the second video on Managing Behavior that explores some of the real difficulties these two NQTs (Newly Qualified Teachers) are having as they start to work with their classes.
Next in the series is Settling In wherein the new teachers do some assessment regarding how they are doing at the mid-term break. They worry about the stress and it’s impacts.
We stay with the same teachers (Tara and Rosie) for another episode entitled Work/Life Balance where we learn more about the ups and downs of their experience.
Safe Schools Ambassadors Help Keep the Peace on Campus
Edutopia has a nice overview of a program focused on reducing bullying and violence on school campuses. The program, known as Safe School Ambassadors, enlists students, who after training, work more or less anonymously to discourage bad behavior among their peers. You can read more about it here. A video from the Today Show features one Florida school’s implementation of the program.
Share Your CR Day Experiences and Suggestions!
A great way to share your experiences about CR Day this year and make suggestions for CR Day 2010 is to blog! This short (less than 5 minute) video at: http://snipurl.com/creteblogger explains the process of becoming a blogger for the CRETE Project.
By blogging you can share new ideas, valuable information, trade short takes about what works and ultimately enhance the CR Day experience with a Global audience.
While you are blogging, be sure to check out prior posts for up-to-date-information on many interesting topics! Happy Blogging!
Max van der Stoel award 2009 goes to GPPAC organisation!
Dear colleagues,
I’m glad to share with you this delightful event. Our Integration and Development Center for Information and Research (IDC) in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine has been awarded the Max van der Stoel Award for 2009.
In 2001, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands established an award honouring the former OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Mr. Max van der Stoel. The prize is awarded to a person or institution in recognition of extraordinary and outstanding achievements aimed at improving the position of national minorities in the OSCE area. The ceremony will take place on 14th of October 2009 in the Hague.