The world is not always fair for people all around the world. The war, poverty, and racism force people to leave their homeplace for good in order to live or survive,at least. At this point, the humanity’s role is to provide a safe environment for aggrieved people in need. We, the teachers, may come across with these innocent victoms-children. Because every individual has the right to education, they must be supported and protected to help them continue their lives. In this regard, the teachers’ role is to promote social and cultural cohesion between students in classrom to provide an equal and safe environment for all students including the ones who comes from different backgrounds.
The activity given below, “ Have You Ever?” gives all students an opportunity to explore each other which is a way of ice-breaking. Apart from that, the teacher also can learn more about students’ background which is an obligation for the process of preparing activities and materials for a lesson. Especially the second objective of the lesson plan; “To explore the value of knowing and appreciating similarities and differences in a group.” is the most beautiful part since peacebuilding requires appreciating similarities and differences to promote the feeling, empathy. Because empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, it should be given priority in the school environment for building social cohesion. The activity of the lesson which is similar to an interview would help students to understand each other’s feelings such as happiness, sadness, pain, hopes and dreams etc. I believe, for friendship, cohesion and peace; we need communication and fellowship. Also, even though walking around as a whole class may sound a bit chaotic, the noise and chaos is actually the best part of the activity since they make sounds “together”. The last part, raising hands to certain questions, which promotes students’ sense of belonging is also an effective way of exploring students’ background because young learners’ tendency for talking about themselves is a fact ! In addition to these, the activities not only creates a friendship among students but also creates a communicative environment which is also another factor that is essential for non traditional classrooms. I loved the activity’s offer of “sharing” because the more we share, the more we can find something in common.
