April 4, 2018

Refugee Rights Day.

On this day I decided to try out a lesson plan shared on twitter by @bcteal.

https://bcteal.wordpress.com/2018/03/14/refugee-rights-day-2018/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

I thought the subject would be a touchy one so I cleared it with my Coordinator first.

So it actually did turn out to be.  

I tried to follow the lesson plan as stated but did sidetrack to fit my team.  

Of course like a good teacher I led them gently into the subject.  

Pictures up! 

Everyone walked around quietly taking in the six photos.  Next, time to say what you thought about the pictures.

Wow! Just Wow!

My student literally opened up in a literary way that really surpassed my expectations.  So many emotions were expressed.  

Each picture meant something to someone.  

Sadness, optimism, hope and acceptance.  

The most popular or most commented on was the photo with the boat.  That picture as seen below shows lots of people on a boat in the middle of the ocean.  Many are seen hanging from the sides of the boat.   The picture according the students conjured up the thought of danger.  Danger to the vulnerable, especially and older people.  They made reference to the many media reports of boatloads of migrants overturning in the oceans.  One student had a close friend who perished.   

The second photo garnering lots of attention was the one with a sea of tents.  

The views were at different ends of the scale.  The represents loss was a view shared, the thought that someone or families left the comfort of their homes to end up in a tent.  A tent with the none of the amenities that one is accustomed to.

Another view on the same picture was that the tents represented hope.  They represented a transition.  "They" were in a place other than the place of pain.  Maybe the migrants in those tents were grateful for a shelter.

Whatever the opinions we had a very good discussion on this important day.