| What
to do for Peace Corps Day?
I've done
something for Peace Corps Day the last 3 years.
Some ideas include making some of the recipes
on the FOG site. High school kids are
always hungry and young children are curious
enough to try anything. In many of the presentations
I've done, I have brought along music and
taught them some Mbalax, the Senegalese national
dance. They usually just laugh, but its a
lot of fun!
If you're
having trouble coming up with a presentation,
send me an email. I'd love to discuss your
ideas for Peace Corps Day 2002.
Presentation in PowerPoint
Above are
links for the Powerpoint presentation that
I have used for the last 3 years. It is geared
towards 2nd-4th year French classrooms (high
school). Most French teachers are quite receptive
to having speakers come in with ANY knowledge
of Francophone Afrique. One will need a Proxima
Projector for this particular presentation
that any Guinea vols could use for Peace Corps
Day. It's a really simple project that easily
could be modified. One could add/ remove slides,
insert their own pictures, translate into
English, whatever.
I usually
start with the PowerPoint, give history of
Peace Corps and countries served, show props
(realia, ect) from Guinea, answer questions,
etc. I try to get freebies from the regional
recruiter in Minneapolis. That is getting
harder to do. Last year, headquarters
sent out really cute Peace Corps trading
cards. I used these and other freebies at
the end of the presentation to reward students
who could answer questions correctly about
PC. Examples include, "Who founded Peace
Corps? In what year? What countries are served?
What is the Peace Corps mission (broken into
3 components for 3 prizes)?", etc. I
have visited at least 12 schools in the past
few years and it usually goes over well. Since
the file is so huge and old (I made it in
98), I don't know how usable this particular
presentation will be, but it will give some
ideas, I hope.
How do I find/ contact
a teacher about Peace Corps Day???
The following
are suggestions that I sent to Stephanie on
how to locate and make contact with a teacher
in your area. If any of this is confusing,
or if you simply have questions, contact me
at: cdiouf @ esc.cr.k12.ia.us or cdiouf @ esc.cr.k12.ia.us
As far as
finding a teacher is concerned, do NOT be
shy. I would call up the school closest to
where you live (provided that you don't have
friends or relatives teaching near you), introduce
yourself, tell them about Peace Corps Day
and your willingness to come into the school
for a presentation. Ask to speak with Social
Studies or French teachers (they'll be teaching
of course but you can get their voice mail).
When talking
to the teacher or secretary taking a message
for the teacher, I would focus on the ever-important
theme of cultural understanding and cross-cultural
experiences. If the office is unwilling to
give out names or is at all uncooperative,
find the websites for schools located near
you.
For example:
Put into your search engine the name of a
school located near your place of work, university,
etc. Once you find the particular school's
home page, look under "Academics",
"Subjects" or "Departments".
Find the Foreign Language, Social Studies,
really any department. If the chairperson
is listed, contact him or her first. Either
the names will have direct links to the teacher's
email address or you can write down the name
of a few teachers and then look up their addresses
under the link, "Faculty", "Staff"
or, "Teachers".
You can send
individual emails to teachers in the various
departments. Copy and paste an email (explaining
what you want to do) to a couple of teachers
a week until you find an interested faculty
member. I hope this doesn't create too much
interest or demand. I really think that this
will work. Almost all schools have websites
with teacher email addresses listed (well,
at least in Iowa). Bonne Chance!
Take care
et bonne annee,
Cindy
Kankalabe 96-98 |
