Outreach News

by Rachel Weiss, Outreach Coordinator

• Exploring South Asia in Classroom Online Resources
  
  The outreach program continues to work with the participants from the 2003 and 2005 Fulbright Hays Group Projects abroad programs to India . Many of the lesson plans that were created by the educators are now online. To make them user friendly for teachers who have not had first-hand experience in India , most of the lessons come complete with background information, resource materials, pictures and power points presentations. There are lesson plans for all levels: elementary, middle and high school. Here is a sample from each level:

  Elementary:

  • Human Power or Machine Power
  • Water: Access and Use
  • India Motifs and Kalamkari
  • Money in India: Comparison Shopping
  • How Many Languages do you Speak
  • Flags as a Tool to Share Identity

  Middle:

  • Market Simulation
  • Kolam: A Living Art of South India
  • Two Nations Struggle for Independence
  • India Simulation Game through a Web Quest

  High School:

  • Peace and Violence: The Teachings of Gandhi
  • Women in India: Tradition vs Modernity
  • Organizing a Business Trip: A Computer Applications Project
  • Microfinancing Works for Local Citizens and Foreign Business
  • Coca Cola vs. People of India
  • Civil Disobedience

  A unique lesson plan was created to be used in conjunction with our Gandhi Discovery Box. This box, which is part of our lending library, comes complete with various resource materials and books, as well as a power point, lesson plan, and the following artifacts which are representative of Gandhi’s last possessions and materials that were key to his fight for independence: an Indian flag, a charka (spinning wheel), eating bowl, eyeglasses, 3 monkey statue, sandals, salt, sand, and cotton. This box has already been used in 10 schools around Wisconsin .

   

• 6th Annual International Children’s and Young Adult Literature Day
  
  On November 18, 2006 the Center for South Asia sponsored the visit of Suzanne Fisher Staples, an award-winning young adult literature author, to Madison . Suzanne was invited to speak at the 6th Annual International Children’s and Young Adult Literature Celebration sponsored by the Wisconsin International Outreach Consortium.

The all-day interactive workshop for K-12 educators, librarians, and children's literature enthusiasts, aims to internationalize the statewide reading curriculum. Suzanne’s talk, “Under the Same Sky,” explored how stories teach us the value of going beyond tolerance by immersing us in the intimate details of the lives of people in other cultures.

Suzanne was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She grew up in a small community beside a lake in Northeastern Pennsylvania. She was one of four children: two girls and two boys. She graduated from Lakeland High School in Scott Township, Pennsylvania, and attended Keystone College in La Plume, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Her areas of study were English Literature and political science. She worked as a news reporter and editor for United Press International for ten years in Hong Kong , India , Pakistan , Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, New York, and Washington, DC. She later worked as a part time foreign news editor for The Washington Post. She returned to Pakistan in 1985 to assess the lives of poor rural women on an assignment with the United States Agency for International Development.

Her most recent book is "Under the Persimmon Tree" published in August, 2005. Her other works include "Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind," a 1990 Newbery Honor book and its sequel, "Haveli," "Dangerous Skies," and "Shiva's Fire," all of which have won numerous awards. For more information about Suzanne go to: http://www.suzannefisherstaples.com

In addition to her talk at the workshop, Suzanne’s book “Shabanu” was selected by Wisconsin ’s First Lady, Jessica Doyle, for her statewide reading initiative, Read on Wisconsin (http://readon.wi.gov/) to be the October 2006 read for all children in grades 6-8. Mrs. Doyle invited Suzanne to the Governor’s Mansion for a book reading with a class of children, their teachers, and some parents.

Teacher Workshops 2006-07

 

In October, the Center for South Asia’s outreach program collaborated with other area studies programs at UW-Madison (Center for East Asian Studies and Center for Southeast Asian Studies) to coordinate a unique teacher’s workshop entitled: “Asia in Your Community:Cultural & Religious Practices.” This all-day workshop for pre-service teachers and K-12 educators took a group of 30 on a bus in and around Madison to explore community and religious centers, organizations, and restaurants. Included in the tour was: the Bayview Neighborhood Center (organization interacts primarily with the Hmong community), a Thai Theravada Buddhist merit making ceremony and lunch at Sukhothai Restaurant, Chinese Martial Arts and T’ai Chi Demonstration, South Asian Folklore and Storytelling by Kirin Narayan at the Chazen Museum of Art, visit and interaction with Ven. Geshe Sopa at Deer Park Monastery, dinner and Indian dance performance at Maharaja Restaurant.

During the fall and spring semester, the center co-facilitated a professional development seminar for the Madison Metropolitan School district, entitled “Behind the Headlines.” Each seminar lasted 8-weeks and focused on headlines of current events from different world regions, examining the facts, media representation, and history that create the stories in which we read. The goal of the seminars were for teachers to examine their knowledge and preconceptions about places in the world, and how best to approach discussing world issues in the classroom.

The fall lectures focused on peoples and cultures:

• Critical Thinking about the News: An Example from Africa
• Europe and Central Asia : Why is France Rioting & Democratic Elections in Central Asia
• India : The World’s Largest Democracy
• Elections in Mexico and the effects on the U.S.A.
• What do we know, and need to know about the situation in Darfur ?

The spring lectures focused on nation building and democracy :

• Democracy in Russia
• China
• Overview of Postcolonial Southeast Asia
• Elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Democracy and Nation-Building in the Middle East

Conferences

During the academic year, the outreach program was busy visiting schools around Wisconsin and presenting at various education conferences throughout the state:

WCSS/IEC (Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies/International Education Conference) (March 2006); John F. Kennedy Elementary School, Madison (April 2006);

National Outreach Conference (April 2006); Wauwatosa East High School, Wauwatosa (May 2006);

Global Studies Summer Institute, UW-Milwaukee (July 2006);

WEAC (Wisconsin Education Association Conference) (October 2006);

National Council for the Social Studies, Washington, D.C. (December 2006); Xavier School, Cross Plains (Jan 2006, Jan 2007);

Northwoods International Elementary School In-service, La Crosse (February 2006); Netherwoods Elementary, Oregon (March 2006);

UW-Oshkosh International Education Certificate Course (March 2006);

Diocese of Green Bay and St Norbert’s College teacher’s conference for catholic school teachers (October 2006); Lowell Elementary School, Madison (October 2006); Madison East High School, Madison (December 2006); Madison Metropolitan School District (MMDS)

ARISTOS Scholars meeting (January 2007);

Manitowoc Catholic School District In-service (January 2007);

Visual Arts staff meeting for MMSD (February 2007);

WCSS/IEC (Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies/International Education Conference) (March 2007);

Janesville School District In-service meeting (March 2007); University Lake School, Heartland (March 2007) and

UW-LaCrosse workshop on Children’s Literature for K12 teachers and pre-service teachers (April 2007).

 

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