It's a new semester and UNICEF-Georgetown's TeachUNICEF Committee has hit the ground running! We intend to continue visiting the Peace Room at the Perry School, and are also working to expand our work into other schools in D.C. On Monday the 14th, four committee members and I visited the Peace Room to give a lesson on poverty. The unit we based our lesson plan on included a story about Himal, a boy from Nepal who was living in poverty and who had to give up school in order to work. Below are some thoughts from the members who made the visit:
Ally: I really enjoyed my first TeachUNICEF experience and am really looking forward to my next. Although it was sad at times, I really thought it was a worthwhile experience. I learnt first hand the difficulties involved in getting the children to focus and actually take away something from our lesson plan. However, I did feel that I was able to make some progress with the little girl I was working with when we talked about and drew pictures of the differences between rich and poor.
Charlotte: Overall, I had an amazing time visiting the Perry School. The children were amazing -- so energetic but still so much fun! While it was quite an adventure, my experience reminded me how much young children deserve attention. Even though we weren't able to follow our lesson plan as well as we had hoped, I feel like our visit still made quite an impact on the kids. To me, it seemed like our mere presence at their school demonstrated to them how much we care. I think we can help make a big difference in their lives. While we weren't able to teach them too much about poverty, even introducing that word to some of them helped open their minds up. Pointing out Nepal on a map expanded their sense of being in this world -- we helped them see there are other people across the world that struggle with the same things many people here do. I just hope they enjoyed our visit as much as I know I did!
Katie: It was my first visit to the Peace Room, so I did not know what to expect. However, after meeting Ms. MJ and listening to her brief introduction about the school and its students immediately made me feel comfortable! Also, the Peace Room itself was relaxing. When the kids came in, I wouldn't say I was not quite surprised to see how excited they were. However, I thought it was a lot better than dealing with kids who would be afraid or prefer not to interact with us. The kids were very friendly, and after the big group was divided into two, they settled in. I first had a hard time trying to engage the student to our discussion about Himal and Nepal, but she got excited about the drawing activity, and eventually showed interest in our activity. I hope she understood a little more about poverty, children, and life in Nepal after Monday's visit. Overall, it was a very meaningful time for me and I would like to keep visiting the school and get to know the kids more. I thank our committee chair Lotus and Ms. MJ for this opportunity!
Berk: It was my first time going to a school with TeachUNICEF and I think that the Perry School is a great school to start with. First, I really liked the idea of a “Peace room” in which children decide on their rules, have material to express themselves, be reminded of the importance of international peace, and welcome guests like us. Considering the grade-level of the children we worked with, it was a tough beginning to draw their attention. However, I believe that as we became more familiar to them, and continue to try to follow our lesson schedule, they actually got engaged by the second half of our time there. I believe that we did a good job in taking Himal’s story out of the paper, and relate it to the children’s real lives. I think it would be beneficial to use much more audio-visual components when we try to engage with this age group. Although they seemed not to be interested in our topic when we first came in, they liked the idea of drawing what they hear and see about Himal. This can be supported by a short video that will both draw attention and avoid being monotonous. The children were obviously very active, and regarding what Ms. MJ told about their family backgrounds, I saw their ‘active’ behavior normal. By the end, we found different things that each child was interested about and they showed that they can learn much about Himal this way. Zakiya, the girl I worked with, was able to derive reasons and consequences from Himal’s story and she found it interesting to relate the story to the daily life in her community. Overall, I believe that our first trip has been a success and we can even improve it by holding more opportunities for involvement by the kids.
Lotus: The children were a very energetic bunch this time! We split them into two smaller groups, and it took some time for us to capture their attention and interest, but once we did, they were very engaged. Ms. MJ's group had a good discussion on the difference in life quality between the rich and the poor, and my group went through Himal's story and also a little bit of percentages - one of the children was completely fascinated by percentages, what they mean, and how to calculate them. These percentages dealt with the proportion of children in the world who lack certain resources, such as access to clean water and adequate nutrition. I think the girl I was working with was better able to grasp the magnitude of these deprivations through working with actual numbers. It was a joy to teach and interact with the children at the Perry School. There was room for improvement on our part - next time we could provide visual aids to spark more interest in the children - but overall, Ms. MJ, the volunteers, my committee members, and the children came together to make the committee's first visit of the semester a great learning experience for everyone.
