Oxfam Development Project Reflections

Central Idea:  Organisations allow people to come together to take action.


This week our big focus finding out how a humanitarian NGO like Oxfam operates and the type of thinking and decision-making teams need to make to take effective action. 

To see our reflections, see the link below:

Oxfam Development Project Reflections (Whole Class)

Oxfam Community Development Project

Central Idea:  Organisations allow people to come together to take action.


To help us understand how a humanitarian NGO like Oxfam operates and the challenges they face in decision-making, today we imagined we were members of an Oxfam project teams designing a sustainable development programme for a small village in rural Bangladesh.

The other key purpose behind this learning experience was to help us develop stronger collaboration skills and to gain a hands- on sense of what real teams in the working world experience as they try to collaborate.  


See slideshow link for the steps we took today:Click Here


We began we reflecting on what we had already discovered about NGOs and then examined the meaning of two key words: 

A key element to our development programme is to help the village become sustainable so we discussed what they means and examples of what could or could not constitute as being sustainable.



We then reread the facts about the village and found some key points we needed to understand:

Developing effective collaboration skills is key in the real world when we work in teams. We brainstormed what we know helps and what hinders effective collaboration from happening:

It is important that a team understands the roles and responsibilities of each team member so we made notes to ensure everyone understood:

Teams making decisions together and completing budget reports, inventories and taking minutes of their meetings:

During our project, we received feedback about how well we were collaborating, our time management and some observation feedback comments:

Time for some additional feedback: 

Before we headed out to recess, we joined in a circle and shared some reflections- challenges we were facing, what we were learning about NGOs etc.

A few of us commented about leadership thinking the leader was in charge or that the leader should be telling others what to do.

Upon returning from recess, we looked at these images and discussed what they tell us what a leader's real role is:

(From website: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/qualities-of-a-good-leader/ )

(From website: http://archiengi.com/that-separate-a-boss-from-a-leader/ )

We discussed how a leader is responsible for ensuring the success of the team and to help team members achieve their goals rather than bossing team members around. 


This helped change a few mindsets about what a leader really is. 


We then continued developing our programmes.

One of the key elements we needed to think about is our budget.

For the first year, each team is allocated a definite budget of 18 500 francs. What the team decided to spend the money on to help develop the village was certain.  However, the 2nd and the 3rd year of the project an anticipated budget of 15 000 francs each year is allocated.  This money though is dependent on Oxfam being able to raise that amount of money from public donations.

Real NGOs sometimes operate this way.

The teams need to think that there is a possibility that in the 2nd or 3rd year, not enough money will be raised so they need to plan what they would drop from their development programme.  



We haven't completed our projects yet so this will be continued tomorrow...........

Self and Peer-Teaching Multiplication Strategies

Like every classroom, there are so many different levels of conceptual understandings and skills when it comes to multiplication. 

To cater to all the different learning levels, last week we experimented with flipping our classroom whilst also giving the us choice in what we learn.

We chose two of the strategies explained via YouTube according to how they assess themselves with understanding multiplication.

As always, when the children are given these three columns we discuss how there is no shame of which level of strategies they choose to do, but that it is important to choose a level that suits where they are at.

We discuss a lot how we can build strong neuron pathways particularly in maths learning and we practise peer teaching others a lot as a means of building them. 

     

By teaching our parents this time, how the strategies work, we were given an opportunity to further deepen our understanding and hopefully strengthen those neuron pathways we were building. 

Some samples of what they recorded from their self-learning:

It's pretty exciting to see the diversity in strategies and learning that took place at home during the week and all of it differentiated (and slightly student-owned) 

In groups of 3, we first chose the most interesting or what we felt was the most useful strategy we had learnt and recorded how we could explain it at the same time as our partners on a y-chart.  

To add a bit of creativity, we also created a catchy name for the strategy we had learnt. Some really funny ideas emerged from doing this. 

Some samples:

Each child in the trio was then given 7 minutes to teach the others in their group how the strategy worked and to give them questions to practise and assist them with the strategy.  They used their explanations on their y-charts as a visual teaching tool. 

Students peer-teaching:

A lot of engaged and interesting learning took place for those 21 minutes.

Students asking questions for clarification, wonderings and evaluating the usefulness of the strategies they were being taught.  

Some groups took their learning further by debating which strategies were more effective and one group decided to have a race amongst themselves by trying to solve the same question but using their own learnt strategy to see which was the faster method. 

Following this we grouped together and reflected on what we had discovered about multiplication:

-        °  There are so many strategies to multiply

-   °   We need to practise to perfect the strategy.

-   °     Some strategies are really difficult and others really easy.

-   °     Some strategies take much longer than others

-   °    Some strategies don’t always work for some numbers

-   °   Some strategies suit some people better than others

-   °    Always check if your strategy is correct

-   °      Some strategies require us to add, subtract or divide even though we are multiplying!

     We then discussed our thoughts about this learning process we went through.

    We all agreed that what we did really helped us build strong neuron pathways for those strategies. We discussed how we first needed to learn and understand the strategy. Then, explain it visually, Then, create our own questions to test it out.  After that, we needed to think of a clear way to communicate it to our parents. Then, we created a different way to visually explain it and then teach two others how it works. 

     Some others felt it was an effective way to learn because they could a level that matched their needs and another remarked how she really liked reading the feedback commnet her mum had written for her.

Another student shared that he liked being able to learn the strategies at his own pace at home because he feels he sometimes needs extra time to understand new concepts.

d  A lot of amazing learning took place this week and for a class filled with so many different levels, we felt this was a really successful strategy in trying to meet them all.  

    To conclude, we discussed ways we could improve this activity next week after we learn two more strategies for home learning this week and will try out some of the suggestions that were shared to make our learning even more effective.

Excursion to the United Nations & International Red Cross Museum

Our Excursion to the United Nations, Geneva and the International Committee for the Red Cross & Red Crescent Museum

           

  How did our excursion help us deepen our understanding of our central idea:

             Organisations allow people to come together to take action.

 

Andrea: At the Excursion I learnt How the conference meeting rooms are constructed and what they look like. I was also told that the when the League of Nations still existed they had only one building and the the UN build another one next to it with a bridge. I saw what the conference rooms used to be in the old building. At the Red Cross museum I learnt about what they had done in Rwanda with the children and how they didn’t speak and they took photos of them and handed them out. I learnt how the red cross started. I felt that the game we played was quite cool. I saw what the red cross flag used to look like. They told me and I saw how people would go up to them if they had lost contact with someone and they would write it down and archive it  into a chamber and there were over 7 million cards. I realized how people fend off and get ready for a tsunami. I learnt that the way the Red Cross gets money (other than donations) is that all the countries have a meeting to decide who will pay x amount of money to the Red cross for fees to go to there area.I learnt that NGO’s and governments sometimes come together.	Chiara: Excursion Reflection I used to not even know what the Red Cross was, but when I first heard about it I thought that the Red Cross only helped with water supplies and food and help only some countries that needed help and I thought that that wasn’t very nice if they only helped some countries and not everyone Now I know that they help fight diseases, sicknesses, migration, resources ( food and water) to poor countries, medical help to 187 countries out of 196. United Nations I didn’t know much about the United Nations before I learnt about it I knew that it was an  intergovernmental organisation that helped people around the world Now I know that the United Nation helps 193 countries out of 196 and I thought that was very good I also learned about the Human Rights and that there is a Declaration of Human Rights in the UN and that, since most european countries thought about rights in a different way than each other this woman at the UN took some of all of the different human rights and made the Declaration of Human Rights.
Neha: Some of the things which I learnt from our excursion to the United Nations and the Red Cross and Red Crescent are….. I used to think  that  the United Nations headquarters is in Geneva, but now I know that the headquarters are in  New York along with the Court of Justice and the Secretariat. Earlier, I thought that from each country only one delegate came with no one else. But now I know that from each country some delegates come together if they wish. There are many conference rooms some in the old wing and some in the new wing. The old wing is formed by the League of Nations and the New wing is by the United Nations. United Nations have meetings for a very important topic where they all have a chance to meet each other. The United Nations have peacekeepers who try and maintain peace all around the world by fighting. And finally I learnt the difference between the government and the United Nations	Ayana: Our excursion to the UN and Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum was a fabulous visit to Geneva! It helped me understand a lot about our central idea: Organisations allow people to come together to take action. One of my biggest understandings was about the difference between what governments do, versus what NGOs and the UN do. I like what the Red Cross and Red Crescent does, I think it is a very effective way of making the world a better place. The story of how it started enthralled me. I used to think that people that founded NGOs had to be important or famous people, but now I know that people, like Henry Dunant (who founded the red cross) don’t have to be important! Henry Dunant saw many soldiers lying on the ground in urgent need of medical care, and without looking at the color of their skin, or what language they speak, he started arranging medical care immediately. He was just a merchant! I used to think that the International Federation of the Red Cross only worked for healthcare, but now I know that they also work toward disaster response. The IFRC responded to 632 worldwide disasters in 2008! In all, visiting the museum was a great experience. At the UN, I discovered how the UN meetings worked. I was very surprised to hear that the only reason the UN building in Geneva had to build two doors was because the two countries that were having the conflict had to be equal and leave and enter at the same time. The UN was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about how the UN solves conflicts. The UN translating booths were really cool. I learned the 6 official languages of the UN are: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and Russian. The UN was a lot of fun, and I hope to visit again in the future.
Carl-Emil: Excursion Reflection I used to think that the red cross was a organisation that only helped people in Switzerland, Italy and France and it was a French organisation and that it just was a really big hospital, but now I know that it is  a swiss organisation that helps globally in almost every country in the  entire world (187 out of 196) by giving food, water and all the essentials to people in the world like shelter or money. I used to think that the un was an organisation that tried to stop deforestation of forests but now I know that, it is an organisation that works to make peace around the world and fights diseases and to make peace they talk about the things instead of fighting.	Maxi: I used to think that the Red cross is an intergovernmental organisation because I thought that a lot of governments join in it like in the UN. Now I know that the red cross is the biggest ngo in the world after helping about 1 billion people to survive.They also help wounded people and people that have lost their family in hard times. First I thought that the RED CROSS only helps wounded people. Now I know that  the red cross does several things to save people's lives such as find the family for lost people.
Hugo: I used to think that the INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS was a boring subject but now i think it's an important subject and  think that they are really important for helping people get ready for tsunamis, hurricanes, helping with diseases and a lot more. I used that the UN Was useless and really did not help the world at all But now i think learning about the UN is fun and going to the HQ in geneva was fun I really liked the architecture if the buildings and i think  it was really fun going to the HQ and i hope we can do it again a time soon.	Lewis:Excursion Reflection I have learnt many things that I didn’t know before in the United Nations and Red Cross museum.First of all,I will write about the UN. The UN building in Geneva is very important because delegates and presidents come from all over the world to discuss problems.There is a building in New York,Geneva,Vienna and Nairobi.The building we went to had two wings, the new  wing and the old wing the old wing was where The League of Nations had meetings.I learnt that the UN is very important in Geneva. In the Red Cross museum, there was a big round wooden table where we could touch it to play a game.They also had an amazing hologram with colour that showed poor people pooping on the ground and getting diseases because of that.I learnt that the Red Cross is more important then I fought because without we would probably be dead.The Red Cross sign is on every first aid kit box etc.
Salim: I use to think that the UN was made alone, but now I know that All the countries around the world gave something to build the UN. I use to think that the red cross was Governmental Organisation but now i know that it is an InterGovernmental Organisation. I use to think that the Red Croissant was a croissant factory but now i know that it is an author sign for the Red Cross	Nadia:   Yesterday when we visited the Red Cross and Red Crescent and UN helped me learn a lot about the organizations. I used to  think that in the UN all the things were from Switzerland, but now I know that there are so many interesting things in the building from other countries. For example, India gave the headquarters peacocks! And China donated a special painting to the UN in Geneva too! In the Red Cross and Red Crescent I found it very interesting that, during the war, Soldiers who lost loved ones would come to the Red Cross and Red Crescent and they would describe the person to the Red Cross and Red Crescent and the RCARC (Red Cross and Red Crescent) would write it down on  a small card would go to prison Camps and show the cards. If there was a Match, or bad news, the RCARC would tell the soldier and the soldier who was looking for the person would know and be able to stop looking.
Diego: I learned that the Red Cross helps to find people who are lost and the first step to do is go to the Red Cross and tell them what was their name, second name and say lods more things about the person so if they find it they can tell  it is the person who they are supposed to find. The Red Cross helps if a natural disaster happens and with war too. The Red Cross was created at 1967. The UN has a really big place where if you get lost it would be difficult to find you. The UN has six common languages  they they normally use and if a person doesn’t talk that language they can just put another language in the earpiece and they will hear the language that they want. I use to think the places where the UN chose to stay was not little and not big, but now I know that it is a gigantic place. The UN was created to make a 3rd world war not happen so the world wouldn’t have lots of slaves and people dying.	Layane: Excursion reflection UN : I learnt that the UN also have translators (machines) that are in the arms of the chairs. If people don’t understand, the translator (human) is listening and speaking at the same time and his voice is sent directly into the machines. They can watch the representative peak in a language they don’t know but understand everything at the same time. I learnt that the main languages of the UN are: English French Arabic Spanish Chinese Russian RCRC: I learnt that the RCRC committee protects the human dignity. I learnt that we can learn whilst playing and having fun. I learnt that the RCRC has archives containing info about missing people that families tried to find after a disaster.
Sophie-Marie: Our Excursion to the United Nations and Red Cross & Red Courgents United Nations I used to think that there is the in New York Headquarters and the Security Countzler are in New York and that there are no other places to meet for the United Nations, but now I know that there is an other meeting place in Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi in Africa. Also, I used to think that if the United Nations members have a meeting that it is PRIVATE that no other people can sit at the top and watch, but now I know that if the United Nations want that the meeting is PUBLIC other people can come and watch. Red Cross I used to think that the Red Cross was created after World War 2, because after World War 2 there were a lot of sick and injured  people so they made the Red Cross to help injured and sick people, but now I know that that the Red Cross was created after World War 1. Furthermore, I used to  think the Red Cross ONLY helps SWITZERLAND, because Henry Dunant the one who created it was from Switzerland, Geneva.	sed to think that the Red Cross only helped get water and food but now I know that they also find missing people by asking the person that ost the other person details and then and the head of the prisoners if this missing person is there and if so then they tell the family and bring the missing person to the family but if it is bad news they will tell the family what happened such as if the person is dead and the family doesn’t need to keep looking for the person they lost. I used to think that the U.N only helped with the resources but now I know that they also help with human rights and to let the countries obey them
Jules I used to think that the UN was only for helping one country and know I know that they help other countries to. I used to think nothing about the Red Cross know i know that in the world war one they used to help people that got lost in the war and the most of them were soldiers they had to ask you where you lost them ,the date of birth,and how old they were.:	Kayla: Excursion Reflection Yesterday, we went to the United Nations in Geneva and the Red Cross/Crescent museum. My personal favourite was the Red Cross/Crescent museum because I thought that the actual tour was better there than the United Nations. That doesn't mean that the United Nations isn't that good at an organizational point of view. I would of thought that the United Nations office in Geneva would be really old with cracks in the walls but it was the opposite. The walls, floors, ceiling, pillars and all the decorations were all gifts from the countries that apart of the United Nations. We learnt that there is a massive mug type world sculpture that was sent over from Japan, a really nice rug from India (which turned out to be the same design as sidney's rug) and lots of other gifts. The best part about the United Nations was when we were taken into one of the rooms where they have the assemblies and the security council talking. The Red Cross/Crescent helped me to understand how some countries really need help from these organisations. The room in the Red Cross/Crescent that that all the details of lot's people and family members was my favourite and most helpful in the whole museum as they explained to me how many people get lost and can find their family anymore, I learnt that this normally happens after a war, natural disasters and things like that. This excursion really helped me to understand a lot more about our topic!
Adam: On our excursion to the UN and Red Cross Museum, my understanding of the Red Cross deep end because there I saw how some people are living, for example some children in Africa are living or were living on the streets with their ribs sticking out of their skin and their limbs being mostly skin and bones. In addition, I saw pictures of people living on and eating from rubbish dumps, but the most gruesome thing of all, is naked, wounded, starving and filthy people living on rubbish dumps. You can’t even imagine being them. I also learnt how the Red Cross is helping to restore family links in Rwanda, where there is a war. Lastly, another very impressive thing was that there was a room where there were 7 MILLION  requests  to  find a lost person.	Ryu :Red Cross I used to think the Red Cross it just help people that get something bad from war . But now I know that red cross doesn't just active on war ,  they work so many thing For example Tsunami , typhoon . I also learnt from game , and I know  that red cross just doesn't work after damage they work before the damage to safe place and people.   I thought that Red cross is just safe  the people for peace countries and I didn’t think that they work in Syria or the other dangerous  countries, but now I know that the work same activity for every countries even if it dangerous countries. UN I used to think UN is just have one of big meeting room also  I thought UN is just work by war problem and something that just happen in few countries like some countries what to have land but also the other countries also want to have that same land.  But now I know that they talking about a lot of thing by using translate. I didn’t know that in UN they can speak 6 language( Chinese , English, Arabic,French spanish Russian) and they talk through by translate.
Pavi: Yesterday’s visit to the United Nations and the Red Cross museum, helped me learn in more detail about what these organisations do. I used to think that the United Nations helped prevent wars and conflicts, but now I know that the UN also helps people with their health and helps stop pollution, building things etc to keep the world safe. The UN holds meetings and debates in rooms with chairs large screens and translators.The walls, paintings,floor etc are gifts from the members. In the back of the room, there are people in a cabin who translate the language the delegates speak into one of the 6 languages that the meeting is held in. The 6 languages are English, French, Arabic, Russian, Chinese and Spanish. There are a total of 193 countries which are members of the UN, but Palestine and the Vatican City aren’t members as they aren’t large and independent. The UN’s General assembly can’t make laws , while the Security Council can make suggestions to governments. The UN created the document of human rights. In the Red Cross museum, I learnt about the history of the Red Cross and how it takes action in the world. Before, I thought the Red Cross wasn’t a global  organisation, but now I know that there are 189 countries which are members of the Red Cross. The Red Cross has 3 symbols. They are the Red Cross, the Red Crescent( recognised in Islamic countries) and the Red Crystal( recognised by people who don’t know the other 2 symbols). The Red Cross was found on August 22 1864 when Henry Dunant created the organisation. The Red Cross helps people with medical aid, basic needs, finding lost people(WWI) and Rescuing soldiers and anyone in war.