Teaching International Relations Program

Dear Alex,

Thank you for participating in TIRP outreach! This folder is for your four session reports. This is a public forum and we encourage your professors and teachers to review your journal entries for feedback. Make sure your report of classroom activity is appropriate for public viewing.

Remember:
1. Each entry must be submitted within a week or before the next session, whichever comes first.
2. Entries need to be at least 500 words. It is your responsibility to save a copy of your report.
3. Your reports should focus on the content of the TIRP session. Spend no more than one paragraph discussing logistics. Include the key IR concepts and specific student responses.
4. Select "Post Reply" not "New Topic" when submitting each entry. This will ensure that all your
reports are posted in a way that will be easy for CALIS staff, professors and teachers to read.


A CALIS staff member will review your entry each week and leave a posted message approving it toward your extra credit. Thank you for your participation in TIRP!
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Report 1 - APPROVED - 10/20/09 - Lauren
Great job Alex

Report 2 - APPROVED - 10/28/09 - Lauren

Report 3 - APPROVED - 11/2/09 - Lauren

Report 4 - LATE/ CONTENT APPROVED - 11/16/09 - Lauren
Great job, Alex! Thank you for your participation in the program I hope you will continue to volunteer with TIRP in the future!

Report #1
For our first session at Glendale High School my group and I decided to discuss the Arab Human Development Report and link it to a Levels of Analysis handout entitled “Explaining Behaviors of International Actors.” After introducing ourselves and explaining what the TIRP program was, we went over the Levels of Analysis handout and broadly explained what each level signified. For Level 1, I questioned the class on how the Iraqi government was affected by this individual level and the notion of bounded rationality. One student was quick to point out that the Suddam Hussein regime was a dictatorship and proceeded to relate that point to Hitler’s Germany. After giving similar examples for each level and discussing the student’s responses, we proceeded to read the case report.
After “popcorn reading” the article, each TIRP member was in charge of explaining a few vocabulary words within the article. The vocabulary words we chose to specifically focus on were the ones highlighted in the guide of the case report: political aim, reform, and conspiracy theory. After reading each paragraph the TIRP team would “debrief,” and hit the main points so it would be easier to understand what the article was about. We also tried to incorporate the levels of analysis into “the debrief” so the kids could think about them when answering the questions attached to the case.
After reading the whole article as a class, we asked the kids what they thought about Arab human development, and what they thought about human development in general. Many students were quick to raise their hands. Some answers included medical research, technological advancements, political and popular cultures, and citizen rights within society. After a general consensus of human development was established, we asked our core questions: Why are Arab countries “paralyzed” in regards to human development? What does this have to do with rulers and governing systems? And Why is the Arab Human Development Report credible? Answers included overdependence on oil as an economic resource and little to no advancements in fields such as medicine, science, or technology. Many girls in the class touched upon the lack of women’s rights in the Middle East and how that was unfair. One girl stated, “I would hate not being able or allowed to read or write. That would mean anytime I wanted to write something I would have to ask my husband or my son.” A boy in the class also commented on this point stating, “It must feel demeaning to women that their male children, kids much younger than themselves, are able to read and write, when they can’t.”
After discussing the first set of questions on the page, asking the students to basically “debrief” the main points of the article again as reinforcements, Rashi, Jacqui, and I asked what the kids thought about the situation in Iran right now- what they thought America should do with the situation. One student related the Iranian situation to the previous situation in Iraq. While the majority of the class seemed to think that America should wait to see if Iran proved to be a valid threat, basing reactions off of initial Iranian actions, one student disagreed. He said that it would be best to get rid of any threat than deal with the consequences of an action, and gave 9/11 as an example to support his claim.
I was beyond impressed with the students in this class. They were all extremely bright and willing to participate with material that was very advanced. Initially we thought that the class we were teaching was comprised of 11th to 12th graders. We were surprised to find out that they were indeed 9th graders. I am very much looking forward to working with these kids again this coming Tuesday.

Report # 2
For our second session at Glendale High School, my TIRP team and I decided to use a role play case titled “Nigeria and the Curse of the Black Gold.” After arriving there, Jacqui provided a summary of the Nigeria case for the students. She had already read this case for one of her classes and had an in-depth perspective of the situation. Without adding any opinion or bias, she gave factual information regarding the case describing events that took place, legislation that resulted, and a list of actors.

After this summary, we divided the class into seven groups of two, allotting each group a role. The roles included the Nigerian government, the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, Royal Dutch/Shell, IMF/World Bank Joint Commission, the Nigerian Labor Congress, and the UN Commissioner for Human Rights. Before letting them read each individual blurb summary about each of the roles, our TIRP team defined some vocabulary words in accordance with the case. Words included strategic perspective, per capita income, interdependence, foreign debt, interest, and informal sector.

Following the case debrief, we allotted time to all the groups to read their roll summaries. While this was happening, Rashi, Jacqui, and I went around from group to group asking if they needed any clarification or explanation. One group I helped with was the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force group. They had difficulty understanding what the group was, and why the people in that group felt the way they did. I tried relating it to them. I asked them how they would feel if all of a sudden, a foreign company came into their backyard and started drilling for oil, damaging their backyard and not giving any money to them for it. They responded with, “that’s not very nice,” and “I think I would be really angry.” To this response, I asked, “If you were really angry about something, what is a peaceful way of going about it?” To my surprise, the student immediately responded with, “I would protest.” I then mentioned how the first time around, the protestors were shut down, some of them even being killed. The students then went back to the role summary and decided that violent means were the last resort, but were necessary to get the point across.

After each group had finished reading their role summaries, we asked the whole class how they would react to this situation, looking at it from their role group’s perspective. The responses we received were representative of how intelligent the class is. The Royal Dutch/Shell group brought up the issue of “ethical paradigms,” a topic we briefly discussed in the last TIRP session and brought up how this oil situation was helping the US, and therefore the world economy, but greatly negatively affecting Nigeria and the people that live there. He concluded his point by saying, “It’s hard to decide which one is more important. Even though the US is helping more people, the whole thing is really unfair to the people of Nigeria.” Each group defended their roles and we mediated a mini-debate.

The class period then ended with a synopsis of the current situation in Nigeria and the result of the Royal Dutch/Shell presence in the region.

Excited for next time!

Report #3

This week we conducted the Daniel Pink NPR case and related it to the Economic Perspective Lifeline handout. We began by defining vocabulary, focusing mostly on economic Darwinism, blue-collar worker, white-collar worker, and market system. We tried setting up the audio for the NPR case online through a class computer but the software for the flash player needed to be installed and we didn’t want to waste class time fixing that problem. Luckily, we had made copies of the NPR transcript for each student, and proceeded to read the case popcorn style. Similar to the last couple sessions, we debriefed the content of each paragraph after the student finished reading it aloud. Different questions were brought up during this period about vocabulary words or concepts that they didn’t understand. A few kids in the class were confused about what the differences in industries were: service vs. labor. We took time to explain these differences and used the small table chart from the Daniel Pink Questions Sheet. We showed the students that only 1% of the American population participated in agriculture production, while more that 70% participated in the service industry. We related the service industry to bank jobs, hotel services, sales, etc. After addressing this point we continued to read the case.
After we finished collectively reading the case we broke up the class intro groups of two to answer the questions about the transcript. We allotted ten minutes for the students to answer the questions and the TIRP team members went around from group to group to check up and answer and questions that arose. After the students completed the worksheet, we discussed the answers as a class. One student related economic Darwinism to the money market saying “the more money you have, the better off you’ll be. You’ll be richer than all the other companies that you are competing against.”
When we finished answering the other questions, we began discussing our core questions: How do jobs going abroad impact the American economy? What are ways that America can react to this? What can we predict of the American labor force? How does this affect our generation and the job market we expect to enter? To answer these questions, we tried to emphasize the focus towards the students. To do this we used the economic perspective timeline which highlighted various events in history during their lifetime. To analyze these events we reintroduced the four worlds which the students remembered. We asked all the students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Many responses included, doctors, lawyers, engineers of different sorts, one student even said he wanted to be famous. For all of these professions we gave hypothetical situations about the various industries and asked how it would affect them. For example, we asked one of the kids that wanted to be a doctor how he would react to increased technological medical advancement in foreign countries- how he would take advantage of that in America. He responded positively, saying that he would try and develop American technology to more effectively serve the same purpose. This response reinforced the American “service market” concept.
I still am blown away after each session with these students. They are so bright for freshman in high school and I have really enjoyed working with them.
Looking forward to the fourth and final session!

Report 4

For our last TIRP session my group and I decided to do the Nuclear Iran case and DEPPP chart. We started the session by defining some vocabulary words and discussing them in class to get the students familiar with their meanings. We went over the terms IAEA, nuclear power, Non-Proliferation Treaty, and foreign diplomacy.
We then jumped right into the reading, each student read a little bit of the article. After each paragraph we stopped and debriefed/summarized what was said as some of the diction proved challenging. Some students were very surprised with Ahmadinejad’s position on nuclear development especially regarding the US and Israel. The student brought up westernization and asked why Iran was threatened by western ideology. The TIRP team explained Ahmedinejad’s extremist ideology and the relative importance of the Middle Eastern foothold the US holds in Israel. The class then asked more questions about the relationship between Israel and the US and we spent some time talking about foreign diplomacy and the importance of maintaining a presence in the Middle East because of our dependence on oil.
After we finished reading the article we divided the class into groups to complete the DEPPP chart attached to the case article. We asked the students to break down the DEPPP chart through the eyes of Iran since we had already been analyzing the case from an American stand point. We explained that it is always important to analyze cases from all acting standpoints to understand the case holistically. Some student found this part of the exercise difficult as they did not understand why Iran was so frustrated with the US. To help them, Rashi, Jaqui and I went around to the groups to discuss points and ideology with them. After the class finished the chart we got back together as a class to debrief the exercise as a class.
Interesting points were brought up. One student mentioned how it was unfair that only some countries got to develop nuclear power when other couldn’t because of some treaty that was established. Another student added that if one country had the resources, they should be able to develop their own programs to defend themselves from the threat of other countries nuclear development programs.
We then asked the core questions that we had mentioned in our TAP: Why is it important that Iran wants to develop a nuclear program? Why should we care? And we also asked what can be done about this situation? Answers varied, but the general consensus was that America needs to be worried about this development because we don’t want any enemies in the Middle East because of our dependence on the oil in the region. In response to the question, “what can be done?” students suggested a less threatening policy towards Iran- we then brought up the term pacifism and explained what it meant.
After we finished this portion of the activity we had about ten minutes left in the class period as asked the students if they had any questions about college and the application process. We ended up talking about student life and our various activities that we are involved in outside the classroom and then packed up and said goodbye.
This was an amazing class- very bright and intuitive. I had a really good time with all of them and hope to have another TIRP session with Mrs. Macaulay.