bridgesaresocool-blog

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“Is it monday yet??”

This week we are going into class for the last time. We are going to be talking about the identities of others and how we can relate with the other. Looking forward to the class !!

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“We were surprised that Bente had a chicken in the yard. Japanese has it in the cage, but she has it in the yard.”

- A Japanese student’s feedback on Dutch student Bente’s video

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I didn't know they eat sushi!! I'm happy to hear that !!

Students from Japan

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Looking for a thought provoking and insightful video to engage with while taking a break from work? 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares part of one of her stories, providing a great example of how an individuals identity consists a lot more than what is seen by others. We used part of this video during our first lesson at Porta Mosana College and will continue the discussion of plural and dynamic nature of identity during our third lesson in two weeks.

We’d love to know what part of this video stood out for you.

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What is this video project that we keep talking about?

To foster the students understanding about their own identity, how identity is pluralistic, and encourage a global mindset we asked 50 students of Porta Mosana College to forms groups and make videos representing themselves. These videos have been shared with students in Japan who will reply with videos representing themselves. Similar to the first step in a pen pal or student exchange program but through videos (a 21st century and cost effective method!).Ideally, this will support these young teenagers to build international relationships and strengthen their global understanding.

We encouraged the students to share interesting things about themselves. At first students started designing videos about the Netherlands, although we know that the Netherlands is more than bike rides through fields of windmills or enjoying the canals of Amsterdam with the aroma of a near by coffee shop. With a bit of cultural insight from us, we encouraged the students to include things which couldn’t be found on the internet, with the students producing a diverse range of videos.

Here’s a sneak peak at one of the videos.

Do you want to see more? Let us know in the comments and we share some more with you!!

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What do the students have to say?

Last week we went into the classrooms at Porta Mosana College and helped the students make videos to share with students in Japan. It was great to interact with the students again, see the different ideas they all have, and help the students put their ideas into action. We gained some good insight about the students, the curriculum, and the project so far after the classes. 

Read on to find out the feedback we’ve received!

70% of the students think of themselves as citizens of the world and 56% of the students believe that the nation they belong to (primarily Dutch) is important to their identity

Let us know if you would be interested in seeing our identity questionnaire! 

88% of students enjoyed the class, rating the class either 4 or 5 out of 5 and 50% of students found the class insightful and beneficial to their global understanding and identity, although 16% did not. Next week we are meeting to reflect on the class and collaborate how we could improve this class to promote the students global understanding and identity. 

Do you have any ideas how we could encourage 15 year olds to develop a global understanding and identity?

68% of the students are enjoying the video project. Although, this means that 32% are not enjoying the video project or neither enjoy or dislike the video project. This is understandable, as multimedia assignments are not everyone’s cup of tea. For our final curriculum we will suggest that students who strongly object the idea of making a video could share their identity through different methods, such as letter writing, music, or animation.

How else could we increase the students enjoyment?

46% of the students find the video project insightful and beneficial to their global understanding and identity, demonstrating that the class itself (50%) has a greater explicit impact on the students global understanding and identity than the video project. We hope the students thoughts about the videos impact on their global understanding and identity will improve once they have viewed the videos from students in Japan.

40% of the students suggested more time to make the video. Our initial plan aimed to provide students with more time to make the videos, although as there is so much to fit into a curriculum and to allow time for international video exchange, unfortunately the students had less time than ideal to complete their videos. We’re delighted to know that the students would be willing to work on their videos for longer thought! Students also requested more information about deadlines and “what to do”. We aim to include additional opportunities to clarify the video task in the final curriculum.

Phew, Thanks for making it to the end! Stay tuned for a glimpse of the videos the students made

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We visited the fantastic students of Porta Mosana College again this week and helped them with their videos which they’ll exchange with students in Japan.

The students have some creative ideas and with some global perspective from us pitched in they are bound to produce some cool videos! We're definitely very excited to see what the video products look like

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What a PREMIUM Day!

Yesterday was jam packed full of PREMIUM activities for the BGB team.

Our morning started with our team dynamics meeting #reflection followed by some last minute rehearsals for our PechaKucha #practicepracticepractice

After lunch, Praveen rode around Maastricht to find a builders hard hat #safetyfirst before joining Martin at Porta Mosana College to work with the great students there on their video exchange project. No fear, Sarah and Svenja aren’t left out, they are going tomorrow! #divideandconquer

In the evening we all met again for our PechaKucha, and what a fabulous way to end our day it was. Gathering with other Premium teams, hearing about their journeys, and enjoying the delicious food provided was [insert all positive adjectives here]. To top off the evening we were awarded best presentation, a true honor! 

Now back to our spreadsheet to find a time we are all available to spend some quality premium fun at FunValley! #workandplay

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“Creativity is intelligence having fun” - Albert Einstein

In the last two weeks our brains have been having lots of fun designing our second lesson for the Porta Mosana students and our PechaKucha presentation. 

We met with our Coach and Client for a progress update and to collaborate on lesson 2. Once again, our meeting left us with new insights into the world around us and with our brains questioning if we can use ‘other’ as a verb. Are we not all essentially the same and because we differentiate people, we make ‘others’ hence we are essentially ‘othering’?

Under the warmth of the sun (thank you mother nature!) we brainstormed together in person (a valuable and rare experience for us) the structure and story line of our PechaKucha. Technology then allowed us, once again, to continue to collaborate together from various locations on the visual design and verbal content of our PechaKucha. Now to practice, practice, practice!

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We are very excited to have our first lessons at Porta Mosana College this week! 

Yesterday we tried out our icebreaker for the first time and the students did very well in guessing which statements were made by whom. :) What about you guys? 

Let us know your guesses in the comments!

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We live in a time where we quickly put people in boxes. Maybe we have more in common than what we think?

This Danish video demonstrates pretty clearly that despite society categorizing people into different boxes, we are not as different as we think! Could a key to a global understanding and developing a global identity be the acknowledgment and understanding that despite differentiating ourselves, we are all somehow similar?

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Global understanding is not always easy, although crucial for international relationships and living in today's diverse world. 

Providing high schools students with opportunities to broaden their international experiences is one way we hope to help high school students develop a stronger global understanding.

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The importance of our "global curriculum" project

Identity can be a dangerous thing. Formation of an in-group inadvertently creates an out-group of those not included, who then rapidly become easy targets of discrimination. Evidence most famously comes from Muzafer Sherif's Robber's Cave experiment in 1954, and Jane Elliott's classroom exercise on racism in 1968 (see links below).

From school bullying to football hooliganism, in a world of racism and police brutality; societal problems stemming from in-group/out-group interactions cannot be solved without being understood. Luckily, empathy can be fostered through this understanding and through interactions with outsiders that reveals the often overlooked diversity of their identities. Indeed, although identities are partly decided by the circumstances we are born into (e.g., race, gender, sexuality), they can also be moulded by society and are by no means limited to a singular category.

We hope to educate Porta Mosana College students on the mouldability and plurality of identity—both of ourselves and of others—to enhance not just tolerance and acceptance but also appreciation of the "other".

Our curriculum goals:

Awareness of plurality in self-identity

“What it means to be Dutch” discussion and poster presentation

Awareness of the "other" beyond a singular affiliation

Viewing and discussing cultural presentations received from overseas schools

References

http://www.simplypsychology.org/robbers-cave.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTVw9d3SIzA

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First brainstorm meeting with our client was very successful and some very interesting ideas are starting to form!