I have been working with my high school students the last couple of months on something called "Proyecto Ciudadano" or "Project Citizen." In the series of trainings I've given them we've talked about what it means to be a good citizen, how to vote and what documents you need, how to choose candidates and how to be involved in the development process as young people. As a culmination to these talks I divided the students into small groups based on what villages they come from. I then had them sit down with poster-paper and brainstorm all of the issues that they see in their communities. They come up with things like deforestation, water contamination, spousal abuse, bad roads and insufficient classroom space. I then left them with the task of making presentations on their proposed solution for the problem they identified as the most pressing.
The following week when I returned I was impressed to find them practiced, organized and ready to present. Though they were incredibly shy and soft-spoken they had great ideas and I was impressed by all the hard work they had put into their presentations. Two weeks later I returned with the mayor's right hand man, the women's office coordinator, the forestry office coordinator and several local community leaders to act as a panel of judges for the presentations. The students again knocked the ball outta the park and impressed all those who came to evaluate them. I'm so proud. These kids are amazing.
One of the kids presenting
A group talking about environmental contamination
A skit about littering that had the kids in stitches
The judges calculating their winner
The winners!
1 comment:
What was the project that won? That sounds like a great, and well thought-out series, Char. Keep up the good work!
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