Landmines
Pre-questions:
- What lasting effects of war do you know about?
- What images come to mind with the word landmine?
- Do you know who makes them?
- How are people affected?
After first segment on Cluster bombs or bombies:
Questions:
- What´s the effect of handling a cluster bomb? They´re designed to kill.
- Land mines? They can kill or maim.
Activity: Finding the mines
Pass around the photos* of landmines hidden in undergrowth. Five groups try to find them. Then pass out the blown up photos so they can see them.
*Finding Landmines Photos:
To downlond the photo, mouse left-click on each picture below, you can see a new window pop up with larger photo.
Mouse right-click on the picture in the new window and click/select "save image as", and save the photo at your disc or desktop.
To print the photo, mouse right-click at the file you save and select "print".
Questions:
- Why would veterans want to help?
- How are people affected?
- How many (what percentage) of the people die?
Simulation in their seats.
Divide the class in half.
When we say: 1, 2, 3, BOOM!! One half dies. The other half, each person decides what limb is lost and holds that limb or eye.
1, 2, 3, BOOM!!
What would happen to you? What could you hope for with a lost leg?
Answers have been:
"Crutches". Reply: if you were lucky.
"Wheelchair" Reply: if you were luckier.
"Prosthesis or artificial leg" Reply: if you were luckiest.
Pass around photo boards** during the following discussion.
**Photo Boards:
To downlond the photo, mouse left-click on each picture below, you can see a new window pop up with larger photo.
Mouse right-click on the picture in the new window and click/select "save image as", and save the photo at your disc or desktop.
To print the photo, mouse right-click at the file you save and select "print".
Discussion:
Know anyone who´s a landmine survivor?
American soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq have been injured by landmines.
How would you feel losing a limb?
What cultural biases would make it hard for survivors?
Go back to pre questions:
- What images do you have now?
- Who makes them? About 100 companies in at least 55 nations. USA, China, Russia, Egypt, Pakistan, and India are the leading producers.
- Where are landmines found? 80 to 100 million are deployed in the ground in more than sixty countries. The US State Department thinks there are between 4-6 million landmines in Cambodia. 110 million more are stockpiled and ready to use & 10-20 million of the 360 different kinds are produced every year.
- How much do they cost? $3- $30 and it costs $300-$1000 to remove one.
At the rehab centers surrviors are trained to make prostheses, wheel chairs or walkers. Others can get training to raise silk worms, spin thread, weave silk cloth, or sew clothing and other items out the cloth. Children go back to their communities where some ramps have been built to accommodate their wheel chairs. ( Walnut Creek Intermediate School kids raised $9,000
from their Annual Geography Quiz for ramps)
How tennis shoes are used?
Soles are put on soles of of prostheses so they can last longer or tied onto the artificial foot. Adults need new prostheses every five years or less. Children out grow them so must get new ones much more often. People wearing braces need sturdy shoes
Castro Middle School in San Jose, CA and Cabrillo Middle School in Santa Clara, CA collected more than 6 large suitcases of tennis shoes for our developing world(odw) Reality Tour participants to take to the VVAF rehab center in Cambodia.
These people have a life!
Brainstorm: how can we help? You might want to brainstorm, "should we help?" first. (These are some of the ideas that have come up)
- Collecting tennis shoes. Wash them in washing machine first, dry them in sun if possible and tie them together in case two are needed for one person, or to keep sizes ogether.
- Money for materials to make prostheses or wheelchairs.
- Uninflated basket balls.
- Children's books.
- Petitions to elected officials and/or to the editor urging an end to landmine manufacture and use and money put to demining.
Lots of information in Facts Have Faces Landmines: Fallout of War. Available from Church World Service 1-410-727-6106 or fax
1-410-727-6108.
US Campaign to Ban Landmines, Scott Stedjan, Coordinator Friends Committee on National Legislation.
245 Second Street, NE
Washington DC 20002-5795
This campaign has been coordinated by several organizations in rotation, including VVAF (www.vvaf.org), Church World Service, www.ncccusa.org. Call 1-800- 297-1516 ext. 338 for a free VHS 9 minute video and most recently, Physicians for Human Rights.
True Stories from VVAF(Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation)
Before Huan was born, a soldier buried a landmine near her home. When she was twelve years old, all the soldiers had gone. She was playing as twelve year olds play.
The landmine exploded, blowing off her left leg. What could be more evil than the mutilation of a child?
Tum Roen was born to a poor peasant family in a remote province of Cambodia. She helped her family make ends meet by working in the rice fields-- until the day she stepped on a landmine. Suddenly, Tum became a burden to her family, an outcast with no future. At the VVAF clinic she was fitted with an artificial leg. If we hadn´t
helped her, her future would have remained bleak. A woman with little chance of marriage, whose family regarded her a a carrier of bad luck. So Tum Roen remained in Preah Vihear where the clinic was, working on our silk weaving cooperative, which trains and employs landmine survivors to produce traditional silk scarves for export. Tum Roen is proudly independent and self sufficient.
Ten year old Fahad used to sell vegetables from a pushcart in the streets of Kabul. In war torn Afghanistan he needed to help his family survive. Then a landmine blew off his right leg. Now Fahad can´t sell vegetable to help his family, can´t play games with his friends and can´t go to school because it´s too far to walk.
Khang was born in Vietnam with horribly twisted legs, a deformity due to Agent Orange genetic damage to one or both of his parents. For the first sixteen years of his life he was carried wherever he had to go by his father or brotherto school, to the temple, to the river. He had become a brilliant woodcarver and craftsman, but without the ability ot walk, his future was bleak. Khang´s family could never have brought him the 60 difficult miles to Hanoi. But when our mobile outreach van located him, a whole new life became possible for him. We located a donor to pay for the surgery without which Khang could never walk, and we provided him with orthodics to complete his treatment.
Back to top
Bullying and Anti-Bullying in Personal Life & History
Have you been bullied?
Have you bullied?
Interactive:
Put post-it up of how you were bullied ( yellow) outside the circle & how someone helped you (pink) inside the circle, pink post-its of how you helped someone who was bullied inside the circle. How does it feel? What kind of bullying? See: Serious Talks with Bully and Parents Need to be Involved, Language of Peer Aggression.
"STOP!" USUALLY STOPS WITHIN 10 SECONDS.
Shielding Activity:
Shielding allows you to receive criticism comfortably without becoming anxious or defensive, while giving no reward to using manipulative criticism. In other words, you are putting up a SHIELD.
MATERIALS NEEDED FOR SHIELDING:
1. An evil bag (filled with strips of paper with predetermined written insults)
Possible insults:
- That dress makes you look fat
- You are such a dork
- What did you do to your hair? It looks awful.
- You are such a bad (name a sport) player.
- Everyone knows that- what´s wrong with you?
- Four eyes
- Can´t you forget to comb your hair today?
- Those are the ugliest clothes I have ever seen
- Why are you always late- can´t you tell time?
- Can´t you remember anything?
2. Facilitator should have a compilation of "shielding responses" but first see what class can come up with. Your list can include statements such as:
- I´m comfortable with that
- Do you really think so
- Thank you for sharing (humor)
- Could be
- You might think that
- That´s ok
- That´s true (you´re right)
- Maybe so
- Probably so
- That´s a possibility
- That´s your opinion
- You might be right
- Shrug shoulders and walk away
- Change the subject
SET UP TO DO ACTIVITY.
Discuss how some of us have problems due to insults or putdowns. Ask how many kids have been insulted or putdown or insulted others. Discuss how this sometimes makes us feel out of circle. Explain how you will show them a way to deal with "not agreeing or disagreeing" with a putdown or insult. More importantly, you will show them how to prevent.
Green Circle, Program of NCCJ
777 N. 1st ST #220
San Jose, CA 95112
BULLYING IS SOMETIMES HARD TO SEE. The bully may have arm around the
shoulder of the one being bullied, may have hangers on who want to be popular with bully.
Kid in the middle can be empowered to say stop! or to take the bullied one away, or a group can surround the bully and say stop.
Discuss: How does it feel?
Videos by Todos
email: todos@igc.apc.org
New Bridges 16 minutes
Young Men´s Work, Building Skills to Stop Violence 27 minutes
Use overhead
Brainstorm Looking at history through bullying from present to past.
Go back through the brainstorm to talk about those who stood up and made a difference.
Today´s bullying policies?
What can students do today?
Letters to elected officials and editors, get petitions and circulate, etc.:
- Stop landmines
- End Nuclear Tests (The Hundredth Monkey)
- Reparations for Interned Japanese, Italian and German Latin Americans, and Italian and German Americans.
- People help people ( Teachable Moments)
- To help kids recognize little things
- Make a difference
Examples of people who took a stand:
- Conscientious Objectors to War
- Katherine Gun, former British Intelligence
- How a Neighborhood Stopped the Army
Magazine Resources:
- Skipping Stones
- Yes! Magazine
- Fellowship
Summary of Research on Relational Aggression: (source: www.opheliaproject.org)
- Girls are as aggressive as boys- they just express it differently: through relationships.
- Relational aggression is as harmful as physical aggression.
- Relational aggression may be related to depression, loneliness, peer rejection, anxiety, substance uses, lack of school connectedness, and maladaptive eating behaviors.
- Girls are most likely to use RA "within" their friendship groups, turning the entire group against one individual.
- RA can be noted in girls in preschool, appears to peak in middle school years, and can be seen in all ages of women.
- The "KIM" kid in the middle- intervenes in aggression situations about 15% of the time, yet does have a high success rate of making a positive change.
- Some children use high levels of relational aggression: these children are likely to show serious adjustment problems and worsening problems over time.
- Kids in the middle and victims experience negative effects and may show lasting effects.
Download files for lesson:
Back to top
Lesson on Islam
Video: Muslim Teens Talk (produced by the Independent
Production Fund 800-727-2470 www.theislamproject.org $19)
Reactions to video
Post Readings*** around the room. Ask students to stand by the one that they agree with most. Each grouping of students should explain why they agree. Then move to one they disagree with & repeat process.
***Readings: Click on the lists to see larger font (able to print at letter size paper)
- In the marketplace, there is no greater profit than to bargain for fairness.
- It is a rich man who is large with family and has no shoes.
- It is wrong to compel another to your religious beliefs.
- Fighting can only be justified if it is in self defense of lives, property or freedom.
- Waging was for the purpose of extermination or territorial conquest is wrong.
- A man is poor who has no friends.
- A just world is one in which all share equally.
- Alms giving ( giving to the poor) is the duty of all.
- Women should be free to own property and enter contracts.
Ask where the readings come from. (The Koran)
Can they draw any conclusions or generalities from this lesson/experience?
They can either write individually, discuss as a group, or small group discussions can produce a group conclusion.
Back to top
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation is pleased to present a series of
free online lessons, resources from the CRF catalog, and Internet
links to help educators design their own Constitution Day program.
Click here:
http://www.crf-usa.org/constitution_day/constitution_day_home.htm
The Little Red Hen
Stories about working together from Nicaragua and Mozambique:
The Little Red Hen (download PDF file, Nicaraguan “Little Red Hen”, Mozambican “Peasant Rabbit”, and “The Tortoise and the Elephant”, and accompanying lessons) is a lesson for all Elementary school ages, includes The Little Red Hen in English and Nicaraguan versions, four days lesson plans, work sheets, tales from Mozambique, map, pattern for hand puppet, nutrition and more.
- For all grades: Use the story to discuss the ending & how history could have
had different outcomes. Choose an historical time & discuss who was
involved with the outcome. Who might have acted in what different ways so
the outcome would have been different & to whose benefit?
Then choose some current situation & talk about the players and which
outcomes they might want & what they would need to have happen.
- For all grades: How would you like today to end? Next week? Next
semester? What do you have to do to make that happen? Who would need to help? You can make history.
The Peasant Rabbit (A Mozambican Tale), another story of the joys of cooperation. Click here for story.
Pre-Post Activity for Farming for the Future/Starvation or Survival
You are pairs of advisors for an International Development Aid Agency. The Board needs your top two recommendations for projects to fund this coming year. Allow four minutes. Record on transparency, newsprint to bring out after the simulation so pairs can change their choices if desired.
No wrong or right answers. Run down the list asking who would benefit from this kind of aid. It becomes apparent, for example, that subsistence farmers wouldn’t benefit from additional help to farmers whose land is already irrigated.
MAKE A TRANSPARENCY OR COPIES FOR EACH PAIR OF ADVISORS
PROJECT PROPOSALS FOR INTERNATIONAL FUNDING
- Shipment of fertilizer for use by farmers who already have irrigation.
- Development of a high school course in agricultural methods in tropical climates.
- Transfer of 100 students to agricultural schools in the U.S. and Europe.
- Loan to be used to buy food products available on the world market.
- Purchase of tractors to be used to increase food production in five countries.
- Training researchers to conduct research on ways to increase cereal crops: rice, wheat, corn and millet.
- Money to build a part of a new regional agricultural college.
- A program to double the well water in irrigated sections.
- Seeds to be distributed to rural farmers throughout the region.
- Develop a factory to turn sisal into rope products.
Navajo Story Cord and People make a Difference
Using the story cord: the tassles and beaded parts act as prompts for the story teller.
- Give each student a macrome cord and three 3x5 cards each with a hole punched in the corner.
- Ask students to write the three most important moments in their lives, one on each card.
- Give them six more such cards, three of one color and three of another to take home to ask someone in their parents generation and someone in their grandparents generation to write the three most important times in that students life.
- Let the student tie all the cards onto the cord and practice telling his/her story using the cards with the different colors as prompts.
This is not only a practice for oral presentation but gives a real sense of history as in the eye of the beholder. It also gives family at home a reason for believing that school values them.
This technique can be used for any story/biography/history lesson.
Give each person a biography of someone known to have made a difference or have them search the web with a suggested list of historical figures the class has brainstormed.
http://womenshistory.about.com/sitesearch.htm, http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/parks01.html or http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html are three good sites.
In pairs or groups of three let each person summarize his/her bio and then help each other verbalize how these people would act today in terms of the immigration
issue. Any other issue could be used.
Situation: Immigration officials come to your school to round up parents of the children they are bringing or fetching.
- Define the dilemma
- What position would the person take and why?
- What action would he/she take?
- What position would you take and what action would you take and why?
Biographies
Martin Luther King Jr.
Mahatma Gandhi
César Chávez
Sojourner Truth
Rosa Parks
Back to top
Future Stewards for the National Parks: Clean Air and Climate Change Activity Booklet
This booklet, for children in the 4th through 8th grade levels, helps teach children about air quality, park education in relation to climate change, and good environmental values. National Park Journal, for children in kindergarten through sixth grade, is a creative tool to teach children about the national parks, conservation practices, and safety tips when visiting the parks.
Download the booklets
Back to top
10 terms not to use with Muslims
There´s a big difference between what we say and what they hear.
By Chris Seiple
From the March 28, 2009 edition
Download the pdf file
Back to top
| Home
| Site Map
|
