Matan – 4/28/10 – Social Justice Teach-In

I think that the activity itself went very well. I had a lot of fun just supervising the kids on their work. They all seemed to be greatly enthusiastic about the project and were enjoying their time decorating their own individual quilt piece. I also think that the whole organizational aspect really worked. Giving the kids information about HIV/AIDS, talking about our organizations that we went to, then giving the activity. After this happened, they started working. If they had any further questions, they would ask us as we went around the room, but focusing mostly on our individual tables that we picked. We gave them a packet with further information about HIV/AIDS, which they would eventually take home and discuss with their parents about. I thought that being a teacher for two hours was quite exciting, yet a bit hard to grasp since of all the pressure that was riding on my shoulders. I felt prideful having the responsibility to give these kids something to learn about. I felt quite involved and happy once it sunk into my head that I should make the workshop a lot more fun that it seemed on paper with my interactions with the kids. My partners and I basically gave the kids information, and taught them how to display it, explaining this in an involved, and interesting fashion.

What I would have done differently in my workshop is maybe teach a little bit more on HIV/AIDS in our PowerPoint. I felt that there was not all of the information displayed in our PowerPoint, and one of the 20 or so kids that we had, I recall, mentioned that we should have explained more about HIV/AIDS. I felt a responsibility towards this, since I had done much research on HIV/AIDS, but it is a little upsetting finding out that it was not enough, and I feel that it was not. To explain this, I add that we put in as simple information as possible, in order to fit everything in, in 55 minutes. But I really hope that the activity covered the two steps back that we took. It sure seemed like the kids, despite everything, learned quite a lot when it came to the quilt, so that satisfied me quite a lot. The thing that I hope the kids walked away with was an elimination of discrimination towards HIV/AIDS and a new understanding on what it really is, the united-for-a-dreadful-issue feeling behind it, a significant words being “united,” united in goodness, and “dreadful,” purely dreadful. I hope that whenever they hear the mention of HIV/AIDS, they can say something significant about it that they learned in our workshop. I know that what I walked away with in this activity is a healthy, burning passion to help out the needy in our nation, no the world. I feel that it is our obligation to help out the unfortunate people in the world, since, like the girl in her 1990’s speech to the U.N. said, we are fortunate enough to live with more than enough of what we need. This is our chance to give back, to pursue our newly developed knowledge about social justice into a series of volunteering to help any cause that may need help of any kind.

I think what went well in the set-up group was the display of emotion that made the audience think that we felt compassionate about all of the topics having to do with social justice. It seems like the audience felt that we were really trying to make a difference in the world, and I, as well, think that we are too. The song that I participated in playing, I felt, spoke out to everyone in the middle school, whether one heard the lyrics or not. And no one noticed any mess-ups, or any missed notes that we had. It sounded good, and we were able to pull it off as a heartfelt moment. What I would suggest for next year, though, is giving more time per workshop and more time for the set-up groups to prepare for the final day. This would result in an even better and more outspoken Teach-in for the future. Aside from that, I had a very fun time volunteering for the AIDS Walk and Aid For AIDS. I also really liked working along side my classmates, and I think that I will take advantage of this project and further volunteer at the organizations that I volunteered at this year. I hope my partners on this project will join me as well for this needy cause.