Haiti Trip - October 2011

I'm off to Haiti again in just over a week.  There are a number of key parts to this trip:

1. Teaching a group of 40 directors (principals) in a school supervision course.
2. Two half-days of teaching a group of about 300 lead teachers.
3. Supervising the presentations of 4 Master of Education students who are completing their major research project.
4.  Meeting with one of my former M.Ed. students who is the director of a department (there are 10 departments/regions in Haiti) in the Ministry of Education about a teacher-training project we are planning for his region.
5.  Evaluating the pilot project we have been engaged in regarding digital mentoring.

It's going to be an extremely busy time.  I will update the blog as I have Internet access, electricity, and time!

We Day Waterloo

This Friday, I am meeting with the director of programs for Me to We, the organization founded by Craig and Marc Kielburger.  Me to We and Free the Children support opportunities for children around the world to be free of poverty and slavery.  I am hoping to have some of our Laurier teacher candidates attend some of the workshops they will be doing in partnership with our local school boards over the coming months.  Also, on Nov. 16, We Day Waterloo will be held and I've received 10 guest passes for our Laurier students to participate.  Last year, 6000+ local students (including two of my children) were able to attend and hear speakers like Al Gore and Jesse Jackson.  It's a great opportunity for young people to learn more about the world in which we live and to explore opportunities for service and action.


Today, We Day Toronto, with some 18,000 students is taking place!  You can watch the event live (click on the link here): We Day Toronto Live Webcast

Ride for Refuge

For those interested in joining the WLU Glocal team on October 1, here is the link:

http://www.rideforrefuge.org/canada

Here is where you can sign up to join our team:

https://secure.e2rm.com/regV2/regV2.aspx?EventID=66357&LangPref=en-CA

You'll go through a few steps - choose Waterloo as location, sign off on the waiver - then Join a Team (either search for Steve Sider as the captain or for WLU Glocal).

Our first glocal meeting @ WLU

Today, I met with Laurier teacher candidates who are interested in raising awareness and funds to support glocal education.  It was encouraging to have over 20 students there!  They provided some amazing ideas of things we might be able to do this year.  We're going to have our next meeting at the aboriginal resource centre here at Laurier and find out more about how teachers can support First Nations students in our classrooms.  It looks like our first event will be the Ride For Refuge on Laurier's Homecoming weekend.  Stay tuned for more details!

Bread, naan, pita, bannock...

This year I'm creating a variety of glocal lesson plans that teachers can use, either as "one-off" lessons or as part of a curriculum unit connected to the Ontario Ministry of Education.  My first one is on helping students realize that many cultures around the world share bread as a part of the diet.  The lesson plan provides activities looking at different kinds of bread, where ingredients might come from (globally and locally), providing opportunities for students to consider why bread is so important (and what happens when it becomes too expensive or hard to get) and, of course, a chance to sample different kinds of breads! Younger children can learn how to make a Kenyan bread (Mama Panya's Pancakes) while older children could read Deborah Ellis' The Breadwinner (What does the term mean? What gender-related issues are involved with providing "bread" i.e. support to your family).  Email me if you'd like to contribute an idea or lesson or to get copies of the ones I'm working on.  Once I have a variety, I'll publish them here or on my Laurier web-site.

Glocal @ Laurier

Last year, we initiated a number of glocal projects at Laurier.  One of the teacher candidates had worked in Ghana and was interested in supporting an orphanage there.  She, and a number of classmates, encouraged other Laurier students (and students in local schools) to contribute milk bags which were then shredded and woven to be used as sleeping mats in Ghana.  We also had a number of activities for Haiti including a "change for change" fund-raiser where students contributed small amounts of change to support a project involving a young man's efforts to be re-trained after having a leg amputated from the Jan '10 earthquake.

This year, I am hoping to provide more structure to Glocal.  We will have a September launch activity which will have a focus on aboriginal understandings.  There will also be opportunities for teacher candidates to be involved in:
1. Ride for Refuge - bike-a-than to raise funds to support local and global efforts for the displaced and vulnerable Ride for Refuge Waterloo
2. Road to Hope - running event to raise funds to support project in Haiti and in inner-city Hamilton Road to Hope
3. Suitcase for Haiti - I'll take an extra suitcase to Haiti in October, filled with materials for school children there

Digital Mentoring Update

I continue to work on the grant application for the CIDA Partners for Development project in Haiti.  The key aspects of the grant application are:  developing teaching/leadership modules which will be delivered to people's cell-phones, establishing digital hubs where these modules can be developed and delivered, and establishing a model school which can serve as a base for training and resource development.  Two partners in Haiti who are working with me on the project are Baptist Haiti Mission and Project Teach/Konbit Pwof.  The grant due date is October 13, just before I leave for a block of training in Fermathe, Haiti.  If you have suggestions, ideas, or connections that you think would be valuable for me as I develop the proposal, please email me: ssider@wlu.ca