CASADY YAC BLOG: Communication with Social Responsibility Council in Bogota Colombia

Proposal for a YAC Advocacy Project: International Connections: Poverty and ANTI-bullying

"Hi everyone, I just wanted to show you the blog I started to show off all the social responsibility work we're doing at my school http://ccctes.wordpress.com/ and the YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/cccenglishschoool?feature=watch Please let me know what you think, thanks. Mike Mackenna, Social Responsibility Director @ Colegio de Inglaterra, English School, Bogota,Colombia."

I, Mike Mackenna, mikemack42@gmail.com, as director of CCC Social Responsibility, am very excited to have the chance to share with you the great social responsibility work that our students do. CCC stands for Collaboration, Connection, and Continuity; and we want these aspects to be present in all the social service work we do. The first thing I want to show you is a photo from La Noche Sin Techo, which was Friday, September 21st. In the photo you can see our student leader of the TES project with Techo, Julian, leading a discussion about poverty with the students who came to the event. He has other students so interested in Techo that they’re willing to sit around and discuss poverty on a Friday night. All us teachers should agree on what a great accomplishment that is!

Here's what we're doing in my classes from Nov-March.

1. 6th grade- researching issues that cause social isolation (bullying, racism, etc.), writing a newspaper article and a poem about the issue as individual assignments, then as a group presenting one of their poems to the whole year group, after which they lead a discussion about the issue and give a recommendation for a way to take action about the issue.

2. 7th grade- same as 6th grade, but they will be focusing on environmental issues in Colombia

3. 8th grade- same as 6th grade, but they will be focusing on the risks faced by community leaders/activists (union leaders, journalists, land-rights campaigners, etc.) in Colombia