School Travel

Retrieved from https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/lifestyle/a/19504562/kids-urged-to-walk-to-school/

School travel has changed so much over the last thirty years, as the idea of sustainability and global warming has become more prevalent it would be common to think that the rate of students walking and riding bikes and scooters to school would have increased. However this is not the case, in the last three decades more than more than double the number of children are choosing to travel by car (Baslington, 2008).

It is important for students to have the opportunity to feel like global citizens, and for this to happen they need to have opportunities to conduct and adopt more sustainable habits (recycling, walking to school, etc) (Bradbury, 2013).

The following learning activity is based upon the former Australian wide walking bus project (Travelsmart, 2007; Vichealth, 2015). There are multiple reasons that parents and students choose not to walk or ride to school, some of these include: lack of opportunity, parental fear, and major reliance on car travel (Cook, Whitzman, and Tranter, 2015). However parents should not let these deffer them from allowing their children to have freedom to move and exercise outdoors.

This initiative is student centred, and would see students given the opportunity to meet at one of three designated meeting areas and walk to school as a group.

This lesson is based upon the curriculum outcomes: ACHCS033 and ACHCS034 (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authoirity, 2015).

Students will be shown the following video to introduce the concept:

After this students will be asked the following focus questions:

How can you increase your mobility in your journey to school?

What are the issues that surround students independent mobility?

How can we increase students walking or riding to school?

Following this discussion students will be given the opportunity to implement their own walking bus within their school community, where students are given the opportunity to either walk or ride to and from school. However to meet the requirements of civics and citizenship education students need to engage in identifying and agreeing upon roles, devising groups and planning routes, as well as creating a presentation to present to the principal and students’ families. For this initiative to succeed there needs to be a strong focus upon the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability as students consider the concepts of cultural, environmental, and social sustainability (ACARA, 2015b).

To encourage, and enable students thinking regarding sustainable futures students will also be given the opportunity to take part in a program that focusses on bike safety. This will inform them how to be safe and informed when riding to and from school.

To try to endorse this as a whole school initiative students will invite family, local government bodies, and local press to launch their initiative. This also allows student to get involved with their schools community, as well as their wider local community.

References:

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2015, May 15). Humanities and Social Sciences: Civics and Citizenship curriculum, v. 7.5. Retrieved from http://v7-5.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/civics-and-citizenship/curriculum/f-10?layout=1

Baslington, H. (2008). School travel plans. Transport Reviews, 28(2), 239-258. doi: 10.1080/01441640701630863

Bradbery, D. (2013). Bridges to global citizenship: Ecologically sustainable futures utilising children’s literature in teacher education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 29(2), 221-237. doi: 10.1017/aee.2014.7

Cook, A., Whitzman, C., & Tranter, P. (2015). Is ‘Citizen Kid’ an independent kid? The relationship between children’s independent mobility and active citizenship. Journal of Urban Design, 20(4), 526-544. DOI: 10.1080/13574809.2015.1044505

TravelSmart (2007, September 4). Walking school bus – a guide for parents and teachers. Retrieved from http://www.travelsmart.gov.au/schools/schools2.html

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander History and Culture: Cultural Investigation

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (TSI) people so much of their culture comes from the facets of their identities. These mostly include food, clothing, shelter, transport, art and music. Music, ceremony, and performance in particular are extremely important for Aboriginal life and culture; they are often seen as the core values of these individuals spiritual and cultural lives (Australian Government, 2015).

Image retrieved from https://beka2035.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/continuing-interest-aboriginal-dance/

During this lesson year four students will begin to understand how important these things are to the Indigenous culture, and how they impact these individuals lives. This lesson is based on the year four English curriculum (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2015a, ACELA1488, ACELY1687, and ACELY1689). As well as the year four humanities and social sciences curriculum (ACARA, 2015b, ACHHK077), and has strong links to the cross curriculum priority Aboriginal and TSI histories and cultures (ACARA, 2015c).

Image retrieved from https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/welfare-over-culture-indigenous-children-have-a-right-to-safety

Increasing students knowledge of this topic is important for their development and knowledge of Australia as a country, as well as how to remain respectful and considerate of this culture as well as many of the other cultures around the world (Goodwin, 2012). Teaching students these skills from as young as four-five years old will embed the skills, respect and empathy they will need to succeed throughout not only the remainder of their schooling, but also their life.

Image retrieved from https://megoracle.com/2012/06/08/a-letter-to-nan-chauncy-catch-up-on-indigenous-reconciliation/

During this lesson students will present a powerpoint with a partner about one of the following topics based on Aboriginal and TSI culture, these include: Food, art, music, shelter, transport and clothing. Students will choose their topic, and work with their partner to complete their presentation. Students will be given the following questions to help them with their research:
What does your topic look like? Write, draw or include a picture
Why is your topic important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?
How is your topic used by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? Write, draw or include a video.
What did you learn about this topic throughout your report?

Image retrieved from https://www.emaze.com/@AZLIIIIC/Aboriginal-Art

It is quite often that parents own points of view and opinions can influence children in both positive and negative ways, sometimes if parents hold any negative biases these too can be passed on to young children often unintentionally. Sheffield, Morris et. al (as cited by Moges and Weber, 2014) agree, stating that children often see and imitate how their parents display emotions and interact with others. It is vital for students to become well adapted to their environment that parents do not physically show their biases to their child. It is important to allow the child to grow, learn and adapt to their learning environment, as well as build their own points of view; and not just adopting those of their parents.

References: 

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2015c). Cross curriculum priorities. Retrieved from http://v7-5.australiancurriculum.edu.au/crosscurriculumpriorities

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2015a). English. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/english/curriculum/f-10?layout=1#level4

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2015b). History. Retrieved from http://v7-5.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/history/curriculum/f-10?layout=1#cdcode=ACHHK077&level=4

Australian Government. (2015). Australian indigenous ceremony – song, music and dance.  Retrieved

from http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-indigenous-ceremony

Goodwin, J. (2012). Indigenous culture: It’s everybody’s business. Every child magazine, 18(1). Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-publications/every-child-magazine/every-child-index/every-child-vol-18-1-2012/indigenous-culture-everybodys-business/

Moges, B. & Weber, K. (2014). Parental influence on the emotional development of children. Retrieved from https://my.vanderbilt.edu/developmentalpsychologyblog/2014/05/parental-influence-on-the-emotional-development-of-children/

Controversial Topic: Olympic Games

The environments and homes in which people live in are the main influencers of ones health and wellbeing, and are closely linked to our identity and belonging (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2015). Global education is vital allowing students to improve their understanding of inter-connectedness of place (Dyer, 2005). Through the understanding of their own country and culture as well as others around the world. The Olympic games allows this to happen, it encourages countries to work together as a team to promote the idea that their country is prosperous, strong and healthy. For many the values that the Olympics hold can be a philosophy of life, blending sport with education and culture to create a way of life based upon the value of good examples in the spotlight, and the respect for universal ethical principals (The International Olympic Committee, 2017). However it is questionable whether this is truly the case with some unethical situations taking place within the Olympics.

Image retrieved from https://bruceherwig.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/rio-2016-olympic-logo-design/

During the lesson students will understand the impact that hosting the Olympic games can have on the host country, especially if that country is impoverished. This lesson is based on the year six Geography curriculum, focussing mainly on the concept of differences of economic and social characteristics of countries (ACARA, 2015a, ACHGK034). As well as this students will also consider the stereotypes and characteristics of Brazilian people as shown in the media. This relates to the civics and citizenship curriculum (ACARA, 2015b, ACHCS041). 

Image retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/world-cup/brazils-olympic-challenge-n135036

The introduction to this lesson will see students watching the following video from the Beijing Olympics, an impoverished country much like Brazil (Olympic Channel, 2012).

Unlike many Olympic education lessons in schools this one does not aim to endorse the ideas of strength, power, and excellence shown by Olympic athletes (Lenskyj, 2012), but rather on the viewpoints, and opinions that surround the Olympic games, and how to critically analyse and evaluate these view points. 

 After watching the video students will consider and answer the following questions, including:
Do you think the Olympic games are important, why?
What are some similarities between Beijing and what you already know about Rio?
Will the Olympic games affect the lives of Rio's people, how?
How do you think the lives of the athletes change when they go to the Olympic games?

Citizenship education allows students to view issues such as injustice, and conflict (Bickmore, 2006), and create their own points of view about these issues. To allow students to compare and challenge the idea of the Olympics students will be shown the following two videos. The first the conventional view of the Olympics shown by the 2016 Olympic trailer (Toon Explainers, 2016). The second, a less conventional view of the true characteristics of Rio (Vox, 2016).

At the conclusion of these videos the teacher will ask how the Olympics are being portrayed in each video, these answers will be recorded in two columns. Students will be asked to consider and compare these ideas and discuss and present the following questions:
How are people being affected by the Olympic games?
Are the Olympic games as glamorous as the media are portraying?
How can this situation improve?

Students will complete a two minute oral presentation on their understanding and research of the 2016 Olympics, students will present this to their peers.

References:

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2015, May 15). F-10 curriculum: v. 7.5. Humanities and Social Sciences key ideas.  Retrieved from http://v7-5.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/geography/curriculum/f-10?layout=1

Australian Curriculum,  Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2015a, May 15). F-10 curriculum: v. 7.5 Geography-year 6.  Retrieved from http://v7-5.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/geography/curriculum/f-10?layout=1

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2015, May 15). F-10 curriculum: v. 7.5. Civics and Citizenship- year 6.  Retrieved from http://v7-5.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/civics-and-citizenship/curriculum/f-10?layout=1

Bickmore, K. (2006). Democratic social cohesion (assimilation)? Representations of social conflict in Canadian public school curriculum. Canadian Journal of Education 29(2), 359–86. Retrieved from ERIC.

Dyer, J. (2005, November). Opportunities and challenges for global education in social education curriculum. Paper presented at the AARE Annual Conference, Parramatta, Sydney.

Lenskyj, H. J. (2012). Olympic education and Olympism: Still colonizing children’s minds. Educational Review 64(3), 265-274. DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2012.667389

Olympic Channel. (13 December 2012). Beijing 2008: Olympic Legacy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds6RN3BP3dM&t=9s

The International Olympic Committee. (2017). Promote olympism is society. Retrieved from https://www.olympic.org/the-ioc/promote-olympism

Toon Explainers. (22 July 2016). Rio 2016 Olympic Games - New Trailer. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfN1DqhS4vs

Vox. (27 June 2016). 2016 Olympics: What Rio doesn’t want the world to see. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W_zM7koJy8