A Teacher's Journal: Raising Awareness on Darfur

The project---birthed by DC 8th grade teacher George Mayo and Tampa 3rd grade teacher Wendy Drexler---is titled Many Voices: Darfur...and it is remarkably approachable. The only product that students are being asked to produce is a comment on the Many Voices project blog on March 6th or 7th.

To make commenting even easier, I've created a list of commenting strategies which you can find here. George and Wendy have also created a list of prompts that your students can respond to when commenting. And George's students have created a collection of resources that your students can use to get caught up to speed about Darfur.

Many classes are taking this project even further---and are inviting you to join them! Here's a pledge to end genocide that your students can read and sign, showing support for those who are being mistreated around the world and here's a Voicethread presentation that includes conversation around political cartoons that you can comment on:

The best part of this project is that it ties into the required curriculum of several different content areas. Almost all of our language arts curriculas expect students to participate in cooperative dialogue by reading and responding to the thinking of others. Social studies classes across grade levels study issues related to power and government---and seventh graders study Africa directly.

Many classes are also focusing on Black History month right now, using this time to study themes like justice and injustice in America. These themes resonate in our students---and make for natural connections to the Many Voices: Darfur project.

There are also hundreds of high school kids who already know tons and tons about genocide in Darfur, as I learned through the incredible piece spotlighting their work in the News and Observer on Thursday. For those students, the Many Voices project would be a breeze!

That means jumping in and participating in this project is not something "extra" for you to do. Instead, it is a chance to get your toes into the digital waters while teaching your curriculum. Your students can be a part of something much bigger than themselves in less than 30 minutes. All they need is a chance to participate.

Couldn't be a much better opportunity than that, don't you think?

If you're interested in seeing your students participate, consider the following simple steps:

1. Begin by introducing your students to exactly what's happening in Darfur. I used this powerful multimedia presentation to learn more myself...and then chose parts of it to share with my students.

2. Then, ask your students to do a bit of free-writing about the idea of genocide. Should the world community care when a group of people millions of miles away are being mistreated? Why? What kinds of consequences do genocides have on the world community? What kind of actions should the world community take to help unprotected members of different races or religions?

3. Have your students proofread and edit one another's free-writing. Comments to blogs don't have to be long and complicated in order to be powerful----but like any writing that is being shared with a broad audience, they do need to be grammatically correct! Ideas are cheapened when they are riddled with mistakes.

4. Design a system for getting your students access to a computer on March 6th or March 7th. Sign up for the computer lab if it's available. Create a sign-up sheet for your classroom computers if it's not! Consider allowing students to leave comments during silent reading time. Make commenting a station activity for that day.

That's it! By taking these four simple steps, you can help your students understand how genocide affects everyone----and give them an experience in digital collaboration that they won't soon forget.

If you're interested in talking more about how to make this work in your classroom, look me up in the Lotus Notes address book and drop me a line. I'd be happy to help!