The word “Endere” means flute. Ndere Troupe, therefore, means Flute Troupe. The flute was chosen as a symbol of beauty and unity. All peoples of the world have a flute in their cultures; it is a most versatile instrument that can express all our moods love, sorrow, happiness, anger and hope.
But the Ndere Troupe itself is not only a dance and performance group, the goals are as well in social education. The Troupe Members are mainly young people who are artistically talented but socially disadvantaged, so the Troupe provides them an opportunity to break the vicious cycle of poverty and realize their full potential, personal goals and ambitions.
Mr. Rwangyezi Stephen who founded the Troupe in 1984 is convinced that art is one of the most powerful ways of transforming Ugandans to be proud of themselves.
Chinese New year ideas, crafts, and activities. If you like topical activities, this is one for you. It includes Chinese New Year Animal Masks, Paint a Dragon, and Comprehensive activities. Bring awareness to different cultures and calendars.
This resource is getting great reviews and is one you may want to look at if you're an elementary teacher.
"designed primarily for older children with moderate learning difficulties. It could be adapted for younger children. Children can talk about some sections as well as draw their answers."
Lots of resources and ideas for Martiin Luther King's birthday right around the corner. Lots of free things to download and use as you plan the lessons around this great man.
Tom Bennett's guide for using body language in the classroom. This is a short guide that could be used to review these concepts with teachers. It isn't whether you learned this in school it is whether you apply it in your classroom today. Sometimes we all need reminders, especially when we realize that our students are getting a bit out of hand. Usually, we've forgotten what works.
Having problems with behavior in your classroom? Here are some great resources that you could use in your classroom or school? Attendance and Classroom management are some good ones to look at this time of year. Just remember that whatever you select that you should never underestimate the power of a raised eyebrow or proximity (getting closer to someone who has behavior issues.)
The NEA has free lesson plans for you to use. They have themed plans organized by month. I would look here for seasonal ideas no matter your type of school.
"Overview | What is bioluminescence, and what function does it play in living organisms? How have researchers harnessed bioluminescence in studies of toxicity and pollution? In this lesson, students explore deep-sea bioluminescence, learn how scientists use this property to identify contaminants in water and participate in a forum on water pollution."
This preschool teacher doesn't use the typical lesson plan book. I love the transparency. "Here is my system: Since I am a big fan of the Reggio Emilia Project Approach, I do not sit down before the week begins and plan what we’ll do for each day. I plan for the current day, and am willing to make changes if something wonderful has come up. (For example, we might be learning how to make paper but a child brings in an amazing collection of shells. If the children want to learn about shells that day, I am ready to switch gears. The paper can wait.) This system allows me to switch gears and not have to re-write anything.".
Paula has collected resources for helping students with irregular English verbs. I'm struggling with helping my fourth grader learn them and have a whole week to get ready for the test and will be using these sites, review games, and activities! Thank you Paula!
The US Federal Government has a website that catalogs all the educational material from the US Federal Government. These free resources are in every subject and grade level. Share with curriculum directors, especially fornthosenofnyou creating your own textbooks.
So you need a writing prompt or ideas to get students excited about writing. Here is an idea that used Mario and Sonic to encourage writing.
This describes how a games based approach can be used for collaboratively building descriptions of characters and or settings. It can be used as the initial stimulus for imaginative writing by providing "concrete" experiences for learners.
Lesson plans about the vietnam war. This is a UK document and may give you different perspectives in your studies. Worksheets, powerpoints, and documents to use with this 3 lesson. It includes a lesson on military tactics.
Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and Mexican pledge of allegiance as part of a Spanish class assignment, but the school district maintains there was nothing wrong with the lesson.
It happened last month in an intermediate Spanish class at Achieve Early College High School in McAllen, Texas — a city located about 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
(Related: Listen to Glenn Beck interview the father of the girl who refused to recite the pledge)
Wearing red, white and green, students had to memorize the Mexican anthem and pledge and stand up and recite them in individually in front of the class.
That didn’t go over well with sophomore Brenda Brinsdon. The 15-year-old sat down and refused to participate. She also caught it all on video.
“I just thought it was out of hand, I didn’t think it was right,” she told The Blaze. “Reciting pledges to Mexico and being loyal to it has nothing to do with learning Spanish.”
She said she was particularly offended because the presentations in teacher Reyna Santos’s class took place during “Freedom Week,” the week after the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and on U.S. Constitution Day — the same day as Mexico’s Independence Day.
“Why are we doing their independence when it‘s Freedom Week and it’s also Constitution Day?” Brinsdon said.
Brinsdon said she complained to the school principal, Yvette Cavazo, who told her it was part of the curriculum and that she should participate. Her father, William, also got involved, calling the school district superintendent to complain.
When Brenda made clear she would not stand up and recite the pledge, she was given an alternative assignment: an essay on the history of the Mexican revolution.
Meanwhile, other students continued with their presentations, which took place over the course of several days.
When Brinsdon talked to Santos — a first-year teacher at Achieve — about her new assignment, the teacher told her she grew up in Mexico.
“She told me that she loved Mexico,” Brinsdon said.
School district spokesman Mark May defended the presentations, saying it’s a state requirement for upper-level language classes to teach about foreign culture.
According to the state’s Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, students are expected to gain “knowledge and understanding” of other cultures and use the language to demonstrate understanding of different practices and perspectives. There are no specific requirements about learning to recite pledges or anthems.
May said it’s up to the teacher how to interpret and teach the standards.
“It wasn’t required to pledge loyalty and renounce the U.S., they were simply spreading the culture of another country,” May told The Blaze. “In my mind it’s no different from memorizing a poem or memorizing a passage from Shakespeare.”
William Brinsdon took issue with that notion, saying if that’s the case it cheapens the pledge.
“You‘re taking their allegiance and their oath from Mexico and cheapening it just as a grade or words don’t mean anything,” he said.
May reiterated that the lesson was all done within the context of meeting the state requirements, and that the school did its duty providing Brenda with an alternative assignment when she objected.
“The students came away with a better understanding of the culture, heritage and customs of a neighboring country where Spanish is the primary language,” he said.
May added that the lesson was “well received” by other students and parents.
“There’s always going to be people that always feel a little bit differently,” May said.
William Brinsdon is still having a hard time fathoming the idea of reciting foreign pledges and anthems in a U.S. public school in the first place.
“Our kids don’t even know the [American] national anthem and here we are…teaching them to memorize and perform the national anthem for Mexico,” he said. “I just think it’s so backwards.”
The Blaze’s Jonathon M. Seidl contributed to this report.
Algerian born Rachid Koraïchi has won the £25,000 Jameel Prize [international art prize awarded to a contemporary artist or designer inspired by traditions of Islamic craft and design] for a selection of embroidered cloth banners from a series entitled Les Maitres invisibles (The Invisible Masters), 2008. Martin Roth, Director of the V&A, Hasan Jameel and Ed Vaizey MP, presented Rachid Koraïchi with the prize at a ceremony at the V&A on Monday 12 September. The Judges felt that Rachid’s work matches the aims of the Jameel Prize through its qualities of design and reliance on traditional craft. They particularly admired how he has made his great spiritual and intellectual lineage accessible to all through the graphic language he has created out of his artistic heritage. Koraichi uses Arabiccalligraphy, and symbols and ciphers from a range of other languages and cultures to explore the lives and legacies of the 14 great mystics of Islam...
This is a reprint from last year, but I want to make sure everyone reads it again, especially conservative teachers in the classroom... I'm going to post it today, so that you teachers can read it over and run it on Friday (9/09) or Monday (9/12)...
One of my readers emailed me to ask me what I do as a teacher on 9/11 or Patriot Day, and I responded to him, but I should have let you all know what I do on 9/11. I know that there are some teachers who read my blog, and might be interested in my lesson for that day. Here is what I do as a teacher, every year on September 11.
First, as a teacher you will need to lay out why it is important for students to remember what happened in 9/11/01. It is a teachable moment, so does have educational value, especially for social studies classes. Our nation changed on that day- there is a pre-9/11 mentality and a post-9/11 mentality, and post-9/11 our nation is proactive about our security by passing legislation, engaging in wars, and having more aggressive interrogation techniques. Our nation changed that day because we lost so many people- people who might have cured cancer or invented the flying car- and because the terrorists hit us so hard in our homeland it destroyed our innocence and naive beliefs that they couldn't do that to us.
Next, review what happened for those students who are not fully aware of all the details. Make sure that your review is short - who did it, what they did, the number of deaths, the impact of those deaths, the impact on the US, and the lasting impact on the US. Also address at this time the heroes of 9/11- the leadership of Mayor Giuliani, the firemen and police, and the average people who were also heroes. Only spend a couple minutes on this.
Also at this time, address conspiracy theories and 'truthers,' and dispel those myths in no uncertain terms. Don't go into the myths with any detail and do not leave any doubt in students minds that these conspiracy myths and 'truthers' are wrong- they dishonor the deaths of those who died, they dishonor those who worked hard to stop something like this for happening again, and they dishonor you by insulting your intelligence. Students need to in the future confront 'truthers' the same way that they would confront a Holocaust denier. This introduction portion should take no more than 5 minutes.
9/11 is not part of history- it is a part of these students' present. It affects their lives, their world, and their government. These students are becoming adults and joining the world as educated people, and in order to join it fully, they need to experience what 9/11 was in order to fully understand it. It is important for students, especially those who were too young to remember, to feel that day. They need to feel what our nation felt on that day- they need to face the emotions and see the sights that we all saw, so that they can fully be a part of this world we live in today. This event has to be personal to them, an emotion that they feel, just like we all did. It can't just be worksheets and videos'- the teacher needs to have them discuss their feelings before and after the event.
For the next 5-10 minutes, discuss with students what they remember from that day and get them thinking about where they were, what they were doing, and how it impacted them. Try to encourage them to remember not just the events of the day but the emotions and feelings that they felt. For older students, they might still remember a bit of this, but the younger students might only remember vague impressions. That's okay- after today's lesson, they will remember it better. All you are doing here is simply activating the students, making them more receptive to the emotions that they will be feeling shortly.
Before showing the video, make sure that you ask students if they had any family members who worked in New York City during these events or lost anyone on 9/11. These students can leave if they become too emotional or if they feel they can't handle the lesson. Tell all the students that it okay to be moved by this video, and that if they feel moved to tears, they can step out of the room. All they have to do is say they have to use the restroom or something- if they really have to use the restroom, they can say that too- and the class won't know if they are leaving because they have to use the restroom or because they have to cry. Students need to feel safe and that it is okay to express emotions- many people openly weeped on 9/11 and there is nothing at all wrong with that.
Next, show the video. The video that I show is In Memoriam - New York City, 9/11/01 (2002). I choose this video because it does not have political commentary, it does not sugarcoat the events, it does not try to soften the events, and it is not edited for language or violence. It is the best video I found that simply shows the attacks on New York City, over and over again, from different angles, with pictures and video both mixed in. There are several interviews that are heart-breaking, but not too many of these to overwhelm the pictures from the attacks themselves. This video is disturbing- as was 9/11 itself. The video is bursting with tenacious and inspiring humanity- as was 9/11 itself. And the video provides an appropriate balance too, as it is narrated by the wisdom of New York City's then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani. This video in particular makes it virtually impossible to forget the 3,047 lives lost to terrorist brutality. This is not a journalistic endeavor, but a potent visual reminder that 9/11 was a day of unity, transcending the horrors witnessed here.
For a 60 minute class, only show about 30 minutes, or up to the part where they begin to look for survivors, and then down the volume and tell the students that they only found 11 people in rubble. For a 90 minute class, show the whole video, and afterwards just let the room remain silent for a minute or two before you begin the next portion of this lesson.
For the last part of this 9/11 lesson, you as a teacher will need to spend about 10 minutes asking students how they feel. First ask them if this was how they remembered it- if their memories or what they have seen since matches with the feelings that they have right now. Most students will be shocked and stunned by what they just saw- you will need to gently ask students or call on a couple that look like they are not too shaken and can get out an answer.
Then ask the students to try to describe some of the feelings that they have now. Explore these feelings and ask students to try to verbalize what they are feeling. Do they feel shock? Are they sad? A lot of students may feel angry, or be scared, or full of pride about the heroes, or determined, or confused, or feel like they want to help, like they want to lash out, like they want to do something to stop it from happening again. All of these feelings are okay- validate these students and let them know that it okay to feel these ways, since this was how we felt as a nation.
After each feeling is talked about and explored, follow up with the students and ask them what possible policy responses there might be to those emotions- ask them how they can translate their feelings into action and rise above the situation without losing sight of it. This part of the lesson is a great time to teach- spend a minute after each feeling talking about how America felt that same way and what we as a nation did and are doing about that emotion. This will help the students to understand why our nation responded the way we did to this event.
America was angry and wanted to punish those who attacked our nation- and not only those people directly involved, but those people who cheered when we were hurt so bad, those nations who supported terrorism or encouraged it, those peoples who helped those who attacked us. That's why we started the War on Terror, that is why we are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and after seeing the video, students will understand better these things. America was scared, and is still scared, and that is why the Patriot Act was passed and security procedures were stepped up, and we should still be scared as a nation and vigilant about our security. America felt like it wanted to do something, anything to help, and that is why this day to many becomes a day of service, and students can help out even today by giving blood or donating items to our troops. America felt like it had to do something to prevent this from happening again, and part of that is the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and if students want to help this effort, they can join the military or the CIA or the FBI. America was confused, and that is why we are making more of an effort to understand what may have motivated these people to do this to us, and students need to learn about other cultures and try to understand them better. America was sad, and are still sad today, and students can attend local vigils and remembrances around the area and express their sadness.
Validate the students emotions and then connect them to what we did as a nation and what the students can do now. When students are out of emotions and you have made all your teaching points, walk away from the students and just let them talk among themselves for the last couple minutes of class. Students will recover from their shock and gather themselves again before going back out into the world. Many will remember this lesson for a long time to come.
This is the lesson plan that I have for 9/11. Feel free to use it in your classrooms.
Over the course of nearly 20 centuries, millions of East Africans crossed the Indian Ocean and its several seas and adjoining bodies of water in their journey to distant lands, from Arabia and Iraq to India and Sri Lanka. Called Kaffir, Siddi, Habshi, or Zanji, these men, women and children from Sudan in the north to Mozambique in the south Africanized the Indian Ocean world and helped shape the societies they entered and made their own. Free or enslaved, soldiers, servants, sailors, merchants, mystics, musicians, commanders, nurses, or founders of dynasties, they contributed their cultures, talents, skills and labor to their new world, as millions of their descendants continue to do. Yet, their heroic odyssey remains little known. The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World traces a truly unique and fascinating story of struggles and achievements across a variety of societies, cultures, religions, languages and times.
Malian musician Toumani Diabate's family history includes 71 generations of kora players preceding him. His father, Sidiki Diabate, recorded the first kora album in the 1970s, which became a platform for Toumani's growing success at a young age. His own recording career began in England in the 1980s with his solo album Kaira. In addition to performing traditional Malianmusic, he collaborates across cultures to introduce a wide range of global blends, including flamenco, American jazz, blues and classical instrumentation...[continue reading]
This is my second post on Codevilla, and I am going to have to make it a point to read more of what he writes because it is becoming clear that The Mackinac Center recently said, Angelo M. Codevilla might be our era's Thomas Paine. Like Paine, Codevilla's works make a lot of things that people intuitively know and feel now clear and boldly stated in plain English. His articles are body-blows to the lies of the world- they give voice and focus to the reality of the situation. He names the unnamed.
His earlier article was about America's Ruling Class, a powerful theme that went a long way towards explaining what is happening in our nation. My post on it was Recommended Read: Codevilla's 'America's Ruling Class', and in it I could do no more than point readers toward his brilliant essay America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution that was recently in the American Spectator. If you haven't read it yet, please do so at some point.
Today, via Belmont Club, I came across another of Codevilla's essay's, and it also blew my socks off. Angelo de Codevilla recently reviewed the six accounts of Barack Obama’s life for the Claremont Review of Books, and he ends up with the conclusion that Obama was always something other than what he portrayed himself to be. What that is, in Codevilla’s summary, is this:
In sum, Barack Obama grew intertwined with the narrow, self-referential left side of the American Left. They helped one another believe they had come up the hard way, as underprivileged but brilliant, square-jawed tribunes of the common man. Their common problem, however, is that their agendas are antagonistic to people unlike themselves, and that they cannot keep from showing their contempt for the common folk in whose name they would ride to power.
Since the days of Karl Marx’s First International a century and a half ago, this very human opposition between socialist theory (egalitarianism) and socialist reality (oligarchic oppression) has bedeviled the Left. Marx laid the problem bare in his “Critique of the Gotha Program” (1875). Lenin dealt with it honestly and brutally in What Is to Be Done? (1902)—the foundational document of Communism. By acknowledging that the Communist Party is not the common people’s representative, but rather its “vanguard,” Leninists were comfortable with a party responsible only to itself and to history, a party that openly demanded deference from the humans whose habits it forcibly reshaped. Communism’s undeniable horrors forced the New Left to disassociate itself from What Is to Be Done? and once again to pretend that its socialism was neither oligarchic nor coercive, that somehow it was on the side of ordinary folks. This is a much tougher sell in the 21st century than it was in the 19th. Contemporary socialists try to explain away the common man’s suspicion of them as harbingers of oligarchy, corruption, and coercion by resorting to jargon (e.g., “false consciousness” and “socio-economic anxiety”). But that is ever less convincing. This is why the movement argues so strenuously with itself about whether and how much it should dissimulate its agenda.
Which is one reason why it plays the “race card” and seizes on recruits like Barack Obama: because many black Americans’ ancestors were slaves, must not any black American be, ipso facto, unquestionably, a member and true representative of the downtrodden? And if a skeptic should argue that this or that black man is really a representative of old, white, nasty socialism, of the Corporate State, of upscale parasites who prey on working people, it is easy enough to re-focus the argument on the skeptic’s “racism.” If blacks inclined to play this role did not exist, the Socialist movement would have every incentive to invent them. And in a sense it tries to invent them, through the “black studies” programs that now divert so many young Americans from useful lives into partisan service.
Obama is as close as one could imagine to a made-to-order front man for contemporary, upscale, shy-about-itself, nouveau socialism. From his earliest age, he shaped his dreams about himself to act out a character wholly fictitious, namely a black American from a humble background who rose up out of brilliance and merit, and who yearns to draw all of America’s low-born (plus the rest of mankind) up through the same paths. But he is none of that. Equally imaginary is his vaunted understanding of and sympathy for foreign cultures. A typical multiculturalist, Obama speaks no language other than a peculiar version of English. His native language, loves, and hates are common to some of the most leftist elements of the current American ruling class.
That class knows about America only that it must be changed, and looks at the vast majority of Americans the way carpenters look at warped pieces of lumber. Barack Obama is neither more nor less than its product and agent.
There is an important deadline this Sunday for a prestigious award that you didn't get Friday morning when more of you would have read it.
Lost: Two Days of Posts So far two days of posts have been lost. Wednesday and Thursday are gone.
A post on the best time management apps for the iPad. (Corkulus, 2Do, and NextThing) A post on being an original, and one other post.
Lost: The Backup of the Posts Backupify has backed up Google Docs, Gmail, etc. but perhaps in celebration of Friday the 13th it DIDN'T backup Blogger as it says it did (probably b/c my blog was down when it tried.) So much for redundancy.
Guess this is why many savvy bloggers use Windows Live Writer and perhaps I should go back there for composing posts to have an extra backup on PC.
Lost: Links Broken Retweets now link to nothing. I have places to get these posts back but if blogger restores, will I have problems?
Lost: Conversations Several posts have been actively shared and discussed in the last few weeks:
FOUND: The High Standards of Retweeting in the Educational Space Many people wonder if others retweet without reading.
You don't have to wonder about the readers of this blog! The shocking decline of retweets actually shows that most of readers here DO READ and then retweet. (The Cool Cat Teacher blog has very well educated readers, after all! ;-))
That is comforting and encouraging and says a powerful message to those trying to send JUNK through the educational space. We check our links. Oh yes!
The comments some of you made here during those two days ARE NOT gone ( Disqus is the commenting system here) except for those orphaned by the dissappearance of their parent posts. Disqus is a better system anyway than the native blogger commenting system in Blogger.
Not Lost: What is Really Important Did you die without getting my posts or my blog for two days - I doubt it. Who is that important?
We celebrated my daughter's birthday, went shopping, ran several miles, screened some PHENOMENAL videos for this year's NetGenEd project and got our annuals at school this week.
Some of you still called me about speaking at your conference next year and that is cool too.
Found: Identity Theft Warning Not the kind of identity theft that comes from someone stealing your credit card and driver's license number.
The kind that comes from thinking that something IS you.
The Cool Cat Teacher blog is an important part of my life right now, but it ISN'T me.
Should I "lose" this blog today, "lose" all of the friends, "lose" any kind of influence I may have, it would hurt but would I cease to exist? I doubt Boots the cat pictured in the top right hand corner of this blog cares a bit. And you can't lose people who are really your friends if they are still alive.
Is there anything in your life that you're doing right now that if you could not use it or access it that it would cause you to be physically upset? Are you allowing your identity to be stolen by something you do? Beware of Identity Theft, my friends.
FOUND: Identity Reaffirmed This blog cannot steal my identity. The nature of social media itself might not cause groupthink but it certainly causes group speak. We need people to talk about what needs to be said not what he or she said all the time. Some originality.
Sometimes you would think that some of this technology is going to save the world. It is not. Nothing replaces the hard working, attentive, well educated teacher. Nothing. Why is so little said about what is really important in the classroom?
I am personally reaffirmed to be an original me. Please be an original you.
Found: The Gift of Blogging When we thought we were losing Mom to cancer several years a go and she pulled through by the grace of God, we told Mom she'd have to put a bow on her head at Christmas and walk in the room and say
This week is a reminder to me that this blog along with the readers and retweeters are gifts. Put a bow on your head.
How can a blogger love her readers? When you come up to me at a conference and you've felt the words I felt -- it gives purpose to the time spent alone plugging away at the keyboard.
How can a speaker love her audience? When I see you there, some of you stressed about the grading. Not knowing how you have time to do pd but knowing you need it. Pulled in a million directions. Most of you sitting there with wounded hearts over a student, a situation, a test score. To teach means that you are archery practice for the most careless inexperienced generation alive. You deserve the best because you are the best.
You deserve writing and speaking to help you know that:
You CAN help schools transform into a 21st century learning model without sacrificing content.
You CAN help us reach every child with an amazing, personalized education.
You CAN overcome the Achilles heel of our generation (an over-reliance on test scores as an indicator of effective education) and still teach.
You CAN parent this generation to be successful.
You CAN be an amazing administrator who understands teachers.
You CAN be in school IT support and understand the teachers in the classroom.
We CAN work together to learn about each other's countries and cultures and improve the understanding in our world!
You are a gift, may the good Lord let me be one right back.
FOUND: The Importance of Diverse Platforms Be it Twitter, Facebook, or Youtube it is focused on the same mission of inspiration, effective technology education, and the nobility of teachers. Two days of downtime on blogger stinks but it isn't the end of the world. There were other places I could share.
Not Lost: The Last Six Years of Links Some have told me that I'm less of a blogger if I use Blogger.
"Everybody whose anybody is on word press, " I was tweeted.
To use a southern expression: HORSE HOCKEY!
Links are more important than the platform you use. I'm not giving up the links built to this URL over the past six years because of one outage. Whether you use Edublogs, Wordpress, Typepad, Tumblr, Posterous, Blogger, Elgg, or whatever, if you stick to it, know your audience, consistently post, you can be a contributor in your blogging space.
If I were a Seth Godin, I could go where I wanted and the traffic would follow, but I'm not. When I reach 100,000 followers then I could probably move with minimal problems, but not yet. I'd hire someone to handle the headache.
Bloggers who are beginning and move their URL early on are taking a step backwards. Yes, I own coolcatteacher.com and vickidavis.info and tons of other domains. I can configure them in my sleep. If someone thinks I'm not professional because of my URL, so be it, but right now, I feel I should stay here to keep momentum and conversations going.
I want to be a full time teacher in the classroom who encourages and inspires other teachers to be their very best even when they don't feel like it and when the world offers nothing but criticism and right now, I'm not ready to move my blog.
Staying the Course (for Now) We'll wait and see what Blogger does in the future but meanwhile, I've got grading to do and a graduation movie to make and the final deadline on the Flat Classroom book due in three weeks. Time to sit tight and make it through the next few weeks. Knowing Google, they'll aggressively deal with the problem and implement those new changes we've been hearing about soon enough. (Dynamic views has me excited! See the youtube video in this post.)
Sometimes it is good to have things you care about crash.
Maybe we learn to find what we've had all along and to lose the unimportant. We lose the unimportant and find out what we're really doing with our lives.
"“The first step to understanding African difference is to ‘listen’ to African cultures and attempt to discover Africa in its own words and in its own context. We should work at understanding how Africans conceive of reality and how that reality has been shaped by their environments and histories. In other words, we must allow Africans to be our teachers.” To learn from Africans, in ways devoid of romanticism and the insidious projections that dominate the meta-narratives described in this essay, is serious work. For such a learning journey unites the personal and the political, the spiritual and the artistic, and is specific in its character. Such learning defies easy generalizations and categories. Inevitably, true stories about Africa are about individuals acting autonomously, standing outside of the stereotypes and pre-conceptions that even their own societies promote and protect. Only out of a heightened awareness of difference and a fidelity to the autonomy of Africans and their admirers alike can arise the raw material out of which new and necessary narratives about Africa."
“An interdisciplinary web portal for reflection, critique and documenting contemporary Portuguese-speaking African cultures” is how Buala is introduced. In an interview with Global Voices, Buala’s creators Marta Lança and Francisca Bagulho discuss the grounds and justification for a space that grapples with culture, history, politics, the arts in general and the city – the space par excellence of “constant change,” the living stage for playing out contemporary culture..."
They perceive it as platform and:
a “place for long, in-depth articles that focus on serious, complex works that do not dispense with irony and with the urbancultures of African youth in the Diaspora that has much to say, with people who study Africa without historic blind folly and fantasy, who wish to contribute to reflections on (and with) the continent.”
Why is the life expectancy of Ghanaians (replace with most of Africa) less than 57 years? What are the links among African cuisines, diets, health, popular cultures, and quality of life? These are all questions that interest me. As a writer, blogger, and editor, I'm particularly interested in ways folks communicate about these topics--topics I believe are sadly neglected by development experts...[continue reading]
Sudan has been an experiment that resonated across Africa: if we, the largest country on the continent, reaching from the Sahara to the Congo, bridging religions, cultures and a multitude of ethnicities, were able to construct a prosperous and peaceful state from our diverse citizenry, so too could the rest of Africa.That we have failed should sound a warning to all Africans. Sudan, at one million square miles, is the continent’s largest country, sharing borders with nine other states. The fault lines that have divided us as a people extend from Eritrea to Nigeria. If Sudan starts to crumble, the shock waves will spread.Khartoum today projects a sense of normality, modernity and relative affluence. This is in sharp contrast to the rest of the country. Lack of investment, underdevelopment and the exclusion of populations on the periphery from the political process has resulted in alienation. It has strengthened local identities.We have not nurtured that sense of brotherhood and unity. Rather, since independence the way Sudan has been governed has undermined any potential for a common Sudanese purpose.
...despite the considerable merits of their nation and their diaspora, Nigerians will always be linked in some way to the 419. The younger generation in particular: they now controversially define themselves as “Naija,” signaling a departure from an older generation stuck between Western charity and local authoritarians. This younger generation rolls with a swagger disdainful of global pity and deeply suspicious of “big man” politics. However, the very term “Nigerian” has come under fire by nations for whom that swagger is seen as criminal despite the overwhelming number of Nigerians contributing healthily to their cultures and economies. It is not uncommon for Nigerian hustlers in South Africa to pass as Ghanaian, or for legitimate and law-abiding migrants to cringe when asked for their passports.
The struggle against corruption in Africa has come to rest partly on the initiatives of individuals of great convictions. However, the struggle for a fair, just and equitable humanity risks losing direction if it relies primarily on individual initiative at the expense of collective action and on modernizing institutions at the expense of transforming their internal work cultures for better state-society relations. John Githongo’s presentation will reflect on the essentials to transforming institutions and the role local level ideas and participation can play. He will illustrate this using the Zinduko and Twaweza initiatives that he currently co-ordinates...[watch accompanying video here]
This is a reprint from last year, but I want to make sure everyone reads it again, especially conservative teachers in the classroom... I'm going to post it today, so that you teachers can read it over and run it on Friday (9/10)...
One of my readers emailed me to ask me what I do as a teacher on 9/11, and I responded to him, but I should have let you all know what I do on 9/11. I know that there are some teachers who read my blog, and might be interested in my lesson for that day. Here is what I do as a teacher, every year on September 11.
First, as a teacher you will need to lay out why it is important for students to remember what happened in 9/11/01. It is a teachable moment, so does have educational value, especially for social studies classes. Our nation changed on that day- there is a pre-9/11 mentality and a post-9/11 mentality, and post-9/11 our nation is proactive about our security by passing legislation, engaging in wars, and having more aggressive interrogation techniques. Our nation changed that day because we lost so many people, people who might have cured cancer or invented the flying car, and because the terrorists hit us so hard in our homeland, destroying our innocence and naive beliefs that they couldn't do that.
Next, review what happened for those students who are not fully aware of all the details. Make sure that your review is short - who did it, what they did, the number of deaths, the impact of those deaths, the impact on the US, and the lasting impact on the US. Also address at this time the heroes of 9/11- the leadership of Mayor Giuliani, the firemen and police, and the average people who were also heroes.
Also at this time, address conspiracy theories and 'truthers,' and dispel those myths in no uncertain terms. Don't go into the myths and do not leave any doubt in students minds that these conspiracy myths and 'truthers' are wrong- they dishonor the deaths of those who died, they dishonor those who worked hard to stop something like this for happening again, and they dishonor you by insulting your intelligence. Students need to in the future confront 'truthers' the same way that they would confront a Holocaust denier. This introduction portion should take no more than 5 minutes.
9/11 is not part of history- it is a part of these students' present. It affects their lives, their world, and their government. These students are becoming adults and joining the world as educated people, and in order to join it fully, they need to experience what 9/11 was in order to fully understand it. It is important for students, especially those who were too young to remember, to feel that day. They need to feel what our nation felt on that day- they need to face the emotions and see the sights that we all saw, so that they can fully be a part of this world we live in today. This event has to be personal to them, an emotion that they feel, just like we all did. It can't just be worksheets and videos'- the teacher needs to have them discuss their feelings before and after the event.
For the next 5-10 minutes, discuss with students what they remember from that day and get them thinking about where they were, what they were doing, and how it impacted them. Try to encourage them to remember not just the events of the day but the emotions and feelings that they felt. For older students, they might still remember a bit of this, but the younger students might only remember vague impressions. That's okay- after today's lesson, they will remember it better.
Before showing the video, make sure that you ask students if they had any family members who worked in New York City during these events or lost anyone on 9/11. These students can leave if they become too emotional or if they feel they can't handle the lesson. Tell all the students that it okay to be moved by this video, and that if they feel moved to tears, they can step out of the room. All they have to do is say they have to use the restroom or something- if they really have to use the restroom, they can say that too- and the class won't know if they are leaving because they have to use the restroom or because they have to cry. Students need to feel safe and that it is okay to express emotions- many people openly weeped on 9/11 and there is nothing at all wrong with that.
Next, show the video. The video that I show is In Memoriam - New York City, 9/11/01 (2002). I choose this video because it does not have political commentary, it does not sugarcoat the events, it does not try to soften the events, and it is not edited for language or violence. It is the best video I found that simply shows the attacks on New York City, over and over again, from different angles, with pictures and video both mixed in. There are several interviews that are heart-breaking, but not too many of these to overwhelm the pictures from the attacks themselves. This video is disturbing- as was 9/11 itself. The video is bursting with tenacious and inspiring humanity- as was 9/11 itself. And the video provides an appropriate balance too, as it is narrated by the wisdom of New York City's then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani. This video in particular makes it virtually impossible to forget the 3,047 lives lost to terrorist brutality. This is not a journalistic endeavor, but a potent visual reminder that 9/11 was a day of unity, transcending the horrors witnessed here.
For a 60 minute class, only show about 30 minutes, or up to the part where they begin to look for survivors, and then down the volume and tell the students that they only found 11 people in rubble. For a 90 minute class, show the whole video, and afterwards just let the room remain silent for a minute or two before you begin the next portion of this lesson.
For the last part of this 9/11 lesson, you as a teacher will need to spend about 10 minutes asking students how they feel. First ask them if this was how they remembered it- if their memories or what they have seen since matches with the feelings that they have right now. Most students will be shocked and stunned by what they just saw- you will need to gently ask students or call on a couple that look like they are not too shaken and can get out an answer.
Then ask the students to try to describe some of the feelings that they have now. Explore these feelings and ask students to try to verbalize what they are feeling. Do they feel shock? Are they sad? A lot of students may feel angry, or be scared, or full of pride about the heroes, or determined, or confused, or feel like they want to help, like they want to lash out, like they want to do something to stop it from happening again. All of these feelings are okay- validate these students and let them know that it okay to feel these ways, since this was how we felt as a nation.
After each feeling is talked about and explored, follow up with the students and ask them what possible policy responses there might be to those emotions- ask them how they can translate their feelings into action and rise above the situation without losing sight of it. This part of the lesson is a great time to teach- spend a minute after each feeling talking about how America felt that same way and what we as a nation did and are doing about that emotion. This will help the students to understand why our nation responded the way we did to this event.
America was angry and wanted to punish those who attacked our nation- and not only those people directly involved, but those people who cheered when we were hurt so bad, those nations who supported terrorism or encouraged it, those peoples who helped those who attacked us. That's why we started the War on Terror, that is why we are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and after seeing the video, students will understand better these things. America was scared, and is still scared, and that is why the Patriot Act was passed and security procedures were stepped up, and we should still be scared as a nation and vigilant about our security. America felt like it wanted to do something, anything to help, and that is why this day to many becomes a day of service, and students can help out even today by giving blood or donating items to our troops. America felt like it had to do something to prevent this from happening again, and part of that is the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and if students want to help this effort, they can join the military or the CIA or the FBI. America was confused, and that is why we are making more of an effort to understand what may have motivated these people to do this to us, and students need to learn about other cultures and try to understand them better. America was sad, and are still sad today, and students can attend local vigils and remembrances around the area and express their sadness.
Validate the students emotions and then connect them to what we did as a nation and what the students can do now. When students are out of emotions and you have made all your teaching points, walk away from the students and just let them talk among themselves for the last couple minutes of class. Students will recover from their shock and gather themselves again before going back out into the world. Many will remember this lesson for a long time to come.
This is the lesson plan that I have for 9/11. Feel free to use it in your classrooms.
Africa’s future belongs to builders. Our civilization has evolved and contemporary African civilization is dualistic with one part based on laws and other institutions underpinned by a market system and another that is based on what can be described as African norms, traditions and custom...I have come to the inescapable conclusion that business development is unsustainable without moral capital investment.This view is not only supported by my personal experiences but by the notion that markets and morals evolve together and are, therefore, aspects of the spontaneous order of any society.
National cultures cannot be undergirded by foreign funding. The problem with the African elite is that they have no sense of culture and no ambition beyond the stomach. Western capitalists understood that a nation with culture makes better business decisions – the Rockefellers and Carnegies. A nation with a sense of culture has a sense of what it is worth. It can take pride in what is locally manufactured and at same time be weary of outside exploitation.The African elite, and they are the ones with the money have no notion of legacy building, or being remembered through endowments – it’s the politics of the stomach, of immediate money-making and spending, usually abroad.
Since flag independence in the 1960s, African governments have been in a rush to normalise authoritarian rule and human rights abuses under the auspices of maendeleo (development) and economic growth. A short stroll in any African village today confirms that the globalised Western culture of justice delivery or innovation that most African leaders seem to trust has not improved the well-being of our local communities or delivered justice for them. On the contrary, it has often blocked viable indigenous innovation of cultures and suffocated African justice. Here in East Africa, cultures of innovation have largely accrued from the jua kali (informal), and not the formal sector. Indigenous cultural innovations have also been at the centre of development in most highly indebted poor countries (HIPC), such as in Uganda or its slightly richer sister Kenya, notably because of wanainchi (citizens) exceptionally limited access to capital. As such, when it comes to delivering justice in Africa, we ought to revise our priorities by doing away with existing preconceived ideas that might have worked within the European cultural setting. They have clearly not worked in the face of the socio-cultural heritages of African societies, and neither has the opposite, the Africanisation of Western concepts of justice delivery.
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