The Hamas Israeli War

Curtis, I teach contemporary world problems and this war sure qualifies.  What we do in CWP is have our students all pick a country at the beginning of the term.  Nobody gets the USA.  Through the course we have them analyze issues in the categories Globalization, Conflict, Human Rights and Environment.  They all have built a website using Google Sites, and they meet regularly as 'experts' on their country in small groups to discuss world issues.  Since Monday, my kids who have middle east countries (nobody in the class has Israel) have been talking about the new war.  The kid who has Ukraine absolutely connected it and so did Taiwan.  So I can vouch for the fact, seniors al least, can and do care about this new war and see the ramifications it presents for the whole world.

Curtis, I teach contemporary world problems and this war sure qualifies.  What we do in CWP is have our students all pick a country at the beginning of the term.  Nobody gets the USA.  Through the course we have them analyze issues in the categories Globalization, Conflict, Human Rights and Environment.  They all have built a website using Google Sites, and they meet regularly as 'experts' on their country in small groups to discuss world issues.  Since Monday, my kids who have middle east countries (nobody in the class has Israel) have been talking about the new war.  The kid who has Ukraine absolutely connected it and so did Taiwan.  So I can vouch for the fact, seniors al least, can and do care about this new war and see the ramifications it presents for the whole world.

Bryan Dibble , thanks for sharing an interesting approach. I really like that they create a shared website. Do students engage with each other on the website? What sort of discussions do you have in class?

 John Vidoli This week they discussed country leaders.  They introduced the leader, how they get elected or take over, and one historical leader from their country.  Some when way back, others it was the last guy.  My Brazil kid talked about the swing from right to left, Chile talked about the death in the 80s.  My kid representing Cuba spoke about the current leader and then about Raul Castro.  I asked him about Fidel, and he said, "Who's that?"  It's not all roses.  Next week it's the impact of the war in Gaza, either how it affects the country or just what position your country has on the conflict.  It's pretty cool having them group up and discuss these issues.

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I am looking forward to hearing how this goes. Here's the real world we need to be preparing students for - complex, nuanced problems that may not have a "right" answer, that requires hundred, if not thousand year old context, just to understand the components of the issues that people are trying to resolve. My heart hurts.