Instant Comfort - today's art therapy project In my art therapy group today I brought in small match boxes - easy to carry in your pocket. The idea is to have something to remind you of good self talk when your most troublesome emotion is bothering you. The outside of the box tells what bothers you. Inside are words and phrases you can say to yourself for comfort. Here's what my students created. UPDATE: Since several people have asked me how I did this, here is a small tutorial (without photos, I'm sad to say.) Buy a packet or two of small match boxes at any supermarket and empty the matches out. Sculpture by lifetime sailor & artist Frances Bruno Catalano Located in Marseille, France – Frances says “‘I have travelled a lot and I left Morocco when I was 12 years old. I felt that a part of me was gone and will never come back. ‘From years of being a sailor, I was always leaving different countries and places each time and it’s a process that we all go through.” Or just how I feel on a Monday morning.
A Dispatch from a Syrian Refugee Camp By Lionel Beehner A few quick and random thoughts on my recent trip interviewing refugees along the Syrian-Jordanian border and in the notorious Za’atari camp. Za’atari Refugee Camp, JORDAN: Many girls in Za’atari do not attend schools, live in female-headed households, and are married off early. First, the refugees were not the worst off in Syria, which means those internally displaced could pose greater challenges in the long run. Second, the refugees I interviewed are stubborn, and reminded me some of American twenty-somethings who refuse to buy health insurance — most never thought they’d be in this position. Za’atari Refugee Camp, JORDAN: Um Shahnaz and her three daughters in a trailer in Za’atari; her other two daughters and husband were killed in an airstrike against her home in Daraa. Third, Jordan is not their first choice. Fourth, the Syrians I spoke to thought their time in Jordan would be short-lived. The health needs of refugees keep rising. All photos by the author.
Storytelling With Wearable Technology | Edutopia Empower our refugee children with storytelling Wearable technology is incredibly exciting for educators and students of all ages. In the past few years, mobile devices have found an essential place in the classroom. If you've used smartphones and tablets as instructional tools, you know how powerful these devices can be in the hands of students. Will this also be true for wearable technology? When we think of wearable technology, products like the Apple Watch and Google Glass might pop into your mind. So what does this have to do with storytelling? One exciting feature of wearable technology is that it can change our view of the world and collect information about our interactions in different spaces. Google Cardboard Virtual reality might seem like it falls into the science fiction category. Fitbit The Fitbit is one of my favorite wearables, and just one device can bring storytelling to your classroom. GoPro This wearable camera can help students capture their perspective. Apple Watch The world is changing.
Empowering Students Through Multimedia Storytelling Perceptions of people and events are very much dependent upon who you are and what your experience has been. Events in Ferguson and Baltimore, among others, highlight our misunderstandings of each other, and how the same facts can be interpreted entirely differently. What's worse, people of color and underrepresented groups are defined by journalists covering these events, who themselves don't reflect the ethnic composition of our country as a whole. Recent studies have proven that stories can change perceptions and even make people more tolerant. Groups like Youth Radio and Cause Beautiful are empowering teens in poor and minority-majority neighborhoods to become multimedia journalists. No matter your class demographics or grade level, ELA and social studies teachers should integrate similar projects in their own classrooms, because every student will benefit from learning to craft a compelling visual story backed by persuasive facts and ideas. What Is Multimedia Storytelling?
Germany: 800,000 refugees - and then what? Berlin, Germany - Squeezed onto a small rubber dinghy with 12 other people, Mahmoud Kazazz held on tight to brace against the waves in the Aegean Sea and prayed. It was his third attempt to cross from Turkey to Greece by boat. On the previous two tries, the rickety vessel capsized shortly after taking off near Izmir. Soaked through, shivering in his wet clothes, and exhausted, Kazazz refused to give up. "I had a life in Syria, I had friends and family and school. As the civil war in Syria worsened, he embarked on a perilous, dangerous and costly journey to reach safety and a better future in Europe. Kazazz is one of the hundreds of thousands of people who have come to Germany in recent months - from Syria, Iraq, Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, and Afghanistan. Last weekend alone, 20,000 refugees arrived in Munich. "The world sees Germany as a country of hope and chances," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a news conference last week. RELATED: Germany's intrepid refugee helpers
“I want to go to school!” With his tears and determined screams “I want to go to school!” Baker, a 5-year old Syrian refugee in southern Lebanon, was able to prove that his physical disability, though it may not allow him to walk, could never stop him from attending his Early Childhood Education programme (ECE) with World Vision. World Vision believes that physical disability should not hinder any child’s education. However, it can be a challenge when education centres are not equipped to cater for special needs, as was the case with Baker’s centre, due to the limited duration and funding of the programme. Baker, however, faced these challenges head-on. The teachers shared their concerns with Baker’s mother, Shayma, and asked her to give them a couple of days to prepare an alternative plan tailored to Baker’s needs. “Baker did not stop crying when we told him that he would have to wait until the next week in order to go to school.” Shayma had to find a quick solution. Baker can stand but cannot walk.
How Syrian Children Are Drawing and Using Art Therapy to Heal the Trauma from War In an upscale district of Downtown Beirut, two pre-teen boys rapped in Arabic during an exhibit showcasing the artwork of Syrian refugee children. Ramzi, a 12-year-old originally from Daraa, Syria, beatboxed as his friend Ayham, also from Daraa, spit rhymes. Guests watched quietly, impressed, as the two boys recalled life before the uprising turned civil war wreaked havoc on their country. This was part of an exhibit called “Light Against Darkness,” the result of a three-month art workshop that focused on helping children overcome the trauma of war through creative expression. Others were not so cheery. Art-therapy sessions first started as a response to sketches like Suha’s, said Ali Elshiekh Haidar, a representative of Najda Now, the Syrian NGO that organized the workshop in conjunction with the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut. For some children, expressing that voice on paper was no easy task. Since the sessions began, however, the children’s spirits seem to have been lifted.
Syrian refugees along the Serbia-Hungary border wonder ‘what’s next’? The family sat on a mat in the shade of trees in a paved area near the border. They slept on the ground near the border the night before. Neither Teasadi nor her husband, Ali, know when they and their four children will move along or what their chances are for crossing the border from Serbia to Hungary. Last night while they were sleeping, the border was closed. Now the refugees have been told to move from one border crossing to another while they wait to see whether they will be allowed to enter Hungary. Teasadi was a teacher in Daraa, Syria, before she and her husband decided to sell everything and take their family away from the war. What makes the closing of the border especially difficult for Teasadi, her family, and the many others like them is that they can't go forward and literally have nothing to go back to. Their four children: Hamid, 10; Zamzam, 9; Noor, 6, and Abdul, 5, seem to be taking everything in stride. Teasadi turns her head and coughs quietly.
Syria war refugees in Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan don't all want to come here Bestselling author Mark Haddon visited the Zaatari refugee camp in JordanThere are 600,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, 80,000 in the Zaatari campMany of the refugees are living in difficult conditions since leaving SyriaSome refugees have started businesses in the camp to earn a little money By Mark Haddon For The Mail On Sunday Published: 00:18 GMT, 27 September 2015 | Updated: 07:50 GMT, 27 September 2015 Mark Haddon (pictured) , author of bestseller The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, recently visited the Syrian refugee camp of Zaatari in Jordan This is two stories. One is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. I’ll skip the politics, except to repeat what most people know, that the war in Syria is complex and violent, and God knows when it will end. Most of the families I’ve spoken to over the past few days come from an area in the south of the country that has been hard hit by fighting. I’ll give you the numbers, though, because they’re staggering. Scroll down for video: