reflecting back on the first semester! :)

When starting global education I wasn’t so sure of what I signed myself up for and how well it would go over but I’ve learned many things and some of these happen to include, are how to take Q.C.V.I.’s (questions, connections/comments, vocab, and interesting/important parts of the story). Never before had I done this or even heard of it, after reading a story or an article you take note of these, vocab you don’t understand, connections and or comments to similar situations, questions you may have about the piece of writing, and interesting or important parts to help you understand.

Blogging was also a new experience for me. Weekly we are given a certain topic to write about, and after finishing your writing, you post it onto your blog with a picture, and it allows your fellow peers to comment and give you feedback on your posts.

Group discussions, never before have I participated in one until this year. I’ve always thought of a group discussion as people getting together discussing one topic but then when one starts to disagree with another that yelling and arguing would break out. In the ones we have done someone starts out by commenting on what we were previously learning about, then the students who want to join will raise their hand and wait to be called on to say their comment.

Debating I’ve always been interested about but never had the chance to participate in one, I never chose to because I’m one of those people who hates getting up in front of the class and giving a speech or presenting something, so I knew this wouldn’t be the best idea for me. Once we had all gathered around in a circle with our nametags on our desks it was time to start the “Rwandan” debate, placing blame on groups and countries for the tragic Rwandan genocide. Before this took place we had been assigned a group and been researching their job or title and how they affected the genocide. Debating isn’t arguing back and forth, yelling over the top of someone else’s voice so that you could state your opinion. Once a group had the floor they would say what they had to say and call on a different group to either comment back or bring up a new topic.

Paragraph responses, in one or two paragraphs we are expected to descriptively explain about what we felt or took from the task assigned. Using ethos and pathos which helps the reader build character and feel for your situation. From this first semester of freshmen year I will take many things with me that I didn’t know how to do before.

When researching, I learned the skill on how to find a credible source. If you type something in on google you can get a million different websites all claiming they have the answer to your question, but really there's only a few who have the right information. Credible sources are those well known like the New York Times, the BBC, the Washington post and websites along those lines.

Current events, I’ve never been as informed as to what’s going on in the world until I became a globie back in the fall. Every night we watch the news and the next day in class we talk about the national and international headlines. At the end of the week we are quizzed on what we have discussed. Current events has made me look at the way I watch the news much differently.

Cultural Events were also very new to me when I first started, every other month or so we are expected to go somewhere like to a museum, festival, plays and performances that represent another ethnicity or culture. After visiting you have the option of presenting a speech, writing a paper, or making a creative display. All have to be used once by each student for the whole semester, twice total for the whole year. My first choice was a written report which I did well on, I wrote about the invisible children film I had stayed after to watch in the auditorium. My next was the creative display for which I had visited the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, I had chosen to use a cork board and hung pictures of the pieces of artworks and paintings, with a description on the back telling how I felt about my visit there. And last I presented a speech. When presenting a speech you are expected to dress professionally and have an outline of what you will be presenting. I had gone to the Stevenson Pantomime Show earlier that month and spoke on that.

An Australian Native. (:

If I had the choice, I would choose to be a native to Australia during the early colonial period. When the British first settled in Australia they came because of the convict colony not intending to do any harm to the Aborigines. This seems like the better option to me because the natives in the other countries were treated worse.

The Native Americans were treated very badly they were used as slaves on plantations for cheap labor. After the early colonization of South Africa, gold and diamonds were found; bringing overcrowding populations the natives were left with no land, and could not buy out of a certain region. The Rwandans weren’t treated nearly as badly but their country was very segregated. Even after the tragedy of disease spreading, I still would choose being an Australian native.