Features
Peace in the Classroom
With summer holidays coming to an end, schools across the world are welcoming students back to the classroom, and Peace One Day hopes to meet them there.
In its latest initiative to advance learning in the areas of conflict resolution, global citizenship, human rights, and the link between sustainability and peace - using Peace Day, 21 September as a focus - Peace One Day Education is providing access to free resource materials to every school on earth. Together with the support of its partners, Peace One Day hopes to inspire a generation to become the driving force behind the vision of a united and sustainable world.
Introduced earlier this year, the Peace One Day U.S.A. Education Resource (recommended for Grades 6-12) and the Peace One Day Citizenship Resource, 3rd Edition (recommended for Key Stages 3 & 4 in the UK) explore issues of peace, non-violence, and the protection of the environment through nineteen student-centred lesson plans.
Both resources are now available as a free download to anyone who registers at the Education page on the Peace One Day website.
"I honestly found the materials to be among the best that I have encountered in my years as a teacher. They gave our students the courage to speak their minds and have changed their attitude for the better," said Deborah Ghoreyeb, a teacher at Capital High School, in Sante Fe, New Mexico (United States), who recently incorporated the resources into her classroom instruction. "I've been particularly impressed with the clarity and usefulness of the lesson plans," she added.
Each of the 19 lesson plans is organized into easy-to-follow sections (Background for Teachers; Purpose of the Lesson; Lesson Objectives; Teacher/Learner Activities; Reflections/Ideas to Discuss; and Homework) and was created by Peace One Day, in collaboration with a group of classroom teachers, who served as advisors throughout the development process. In addition, the USA Resource has benefited from a recent Pilot Program that was held in ten states and included forty-four teachers and educators from twelve U.S.-based schools and education institutions.
"We've had a tremendous response to the Education Resources," says Peace One Day founder and filmmaker Jeremy Gilley. "The thing that has been most inspiring to us is the feedback we're receiving from teachers and students, who say that they not only find the materials engaging but have also been able to put the teachings into practice. They say it's a truly empowering feeling."
Seeing students be able to actually apply the material to their daily lives was an outcome echoed by James Cootes, a teacher at Mount Tamar School, in the United Kingdom. "One student told me that, instead of getting angry with his dad, which is what he used to do, he now takes himself away and meditates!"
Other users have highlighted the relative ease with which they have been able to integrate Peace One Day Resources into existing curricula. In one recent survey, respondents were asked to indicate any curriculum areas where they would recommend using the Resources. Almost 90% of respondents said that they would recommend using the Resources as part of a Social Studies curriculum, and an equal number of respondents indicated that the Resources were appropriate for a Civics Education lesson.
Aron Merrill, a teacher at Williston Central School, in Burlington, Vermont, said that, "The Peace One Day Education Resources connect to many aspects of our curriculum in literacy and social studies. And in the case of our 8th and 12th graders - who are required to complete a community-based, service-learning project - the Resources actually reinforce the type of work that the students must already complete."
Also included in the new digital versions of the Resources are a number of features designed to promote ease-of-use for educators. Among the more popular tools is the Teacher Note Functionality, which allows teachers to add notes, insert bookmarks, and even yellow-highlight text sections, all of which are saved on the Resource for later reference.
And in instances where teachers do not have internet access available in the classroom, they can now utilize the Save for Offline Viewing feature, so that they can download the Resource on a different computer and then transfer it via USB or CD without losing any of the functionality of the online version of the Resource.
The materials also contain an array of multimedia, including video clips from Jeremy Gilley's award winning documentary, The Day After Peace, as well as additional footage of Jeremy interviewing key individuals from United Nations and government, as well as Nobel Peace Laureates. These video clips are embedded within the pages of the lesson plans and resources, but can also be viewed in the included media browser, which serves as a single-source library housing all of the videos contained throughout the 120-page resource.
To date, over 1,700 people - representing more than 1,500 schools, learning centres, and youth groups - have registered and downloaded the Resources.
And although the Resources were created with special reference to the U.S. and UK education systems, Peace One Day is pleased to announce that teachers from 76 countries have already registered and are using the Resources in their own classrooms.
So please, if you have not done so already, register at http://education.peaceoneday.org/ to receive your free download of the Peace One Day Education Resources and then encourage all of your colleagues to do the same.
Together, we can inspire a generation to become the driving force behind the vision of a united and sustainable world!
And don't forget to film or photograph your school's Peace Day activities and send your images to Peace One Day for possible inclusion on our website, broadcast of Peace Day celebrations, and future education materials.
For more information or to send us your queries, feedback, and other thoughts, please click here.