Paths to Peace!

Last week 2 women, Amy and Mimi, came to out classroom and presented a project to us that we will be focusing on throughout the year. Basically, out seventh/eighth grade classroom will be communicating with another classroom through art, writing, and video. Doesn't seem to out of the ordinary, right? Wrong. The other classroom is actually located in Ghana! Throughout this school year we will swap ideas, thoughts, and stories with this class in the hope to increase understanding and create peace with other teens on the other side of the world.

When I think of peace I imagine everyone sharing resources, ideas, and friendship. I think of no wars, or guns or murders. I also imagine the police sitting around doing nothing, and the politicians focusing on things like healthcare and global warming; not just who to bomb next. I think the best way for the world to obtain peace is through open mindedness. yes, it sounds cheesy, but i believe its the only way. Through this project i want to work on doing just that. By keeping an open mind and learning about life half way around the world, i think it will help me be a more peaceful person all around. I want to work on listening to what others have to say and shaping my decisions not just around myself, but around other people too.

I think all of the options given to us would be great ways to get to know students in Ghana better: video, music, service - all of these would help to bridge the gap between us and teens across the globe. But the option I'm most interested in is probably art work. You can express endlessly in artwork: maybe you draw a picture of what you look like, or what your village looks like. You could draw the way you feel about war or peace or friendship. You could also simply draw for the sake of drawing! doodle to express what kind of person you are, or what your interested in. I would be so excited to receive a drawing from a student in Ghana to just give me the idea of where, how, and why they live.

I think we should try to do a mix of three different things. I think focusing on artwork, writing, and maybe even a little bit of video would give us the best opportunity to get to know the students in Ghana better. Maybe if we drew a picture of anything we wanted, something physical, or not, and then wrote a little bit about it and what it means to us, or why we find it important. Then maybe we could take a short clip of both classes and exchange them so we get to know a little more about what kind of classroom they work in, what their teachers are like, how they look, etc. (But I'm also aware video would be really difficult b/c of their lack of technology, so I understand if we can't do that..)

Another idea we were presented with that i really liked was choosing one poem and having everyone write a short amount on about how it makes them feel/how they reacted to it. I think that would teach us a lot about life outside of America.

My last idea, (we might already be doing this, I'm not sure,) is to have each person in this class paired with one other student in Ghana, so it becomes more of a really personal experience, and not so generalized. We could take time to tell out classroom about each of our "buddies" and they could do the same.

I'm very, very excited about this project and can't wait to get going on it! Thanks to Amy, Mimi, Martha, and Greg for giving us all this great opportunity!