Almaden Country School
San Jose, CA - March 7, 2011
Nicole Moor's 7th and 8th grade classes at Almaden Country middle school in San Jose, CA, took an interdisciplinary approach to using Global Lives footage. Her project incorporated both math and English classes. “Information is better absorbed when it arrives in multiple places from myriad perspectives,” Nicole said. “As an English teacher, I can see endless possibilities using the footage to connect stories and poetry from different places in the world with examples of the contemporary lives of people who live in those places.”
Her students studied the statistics behind the demographic selection of the Global Lives participants. “The mathematical component of the GLP is fascinating, and if students were to embark on chronicling the lives of others, I thought it would be empowering for them to use spreadsheets and statistics to determine their video subjects,” she said. So, they analyzed their school population in a similar manner and chose subjects to document. The students also watched the GLP short films and reflected on them in their English class. “At the middle school level, there can be knee-jerk reactions to certain cultural practices and norms that are unfamiliar to them,” Nicole said. “But, the challenge of presenting the lives of others opened up great dialogue about how cultural practices are established in the first place.”
The GLP unit coincided with a visit from Carl Wilkens, the only American to stay in Rwanda during the genocide. “The students were excited to “meet” more people whose experiences were so far outside their own,” Nicole said. “Using the footage from GLP allowed the students to continue their exploration of the daily routines and choices of people, not unlike themselves, who happen to live in different geographic and cultural environments.”
Over the course of the term, Nicole noticed her students become more empathetic towards cultures seemingly disparate from their own. “Students also started to consider the stories contained within us all, if one takes the time to listen,” she said.
