Leadership is about to come alive!
This Thursday, the NCCS Leadership class will begin a month long simulation project based on the Kurkum Peace Talks Conflict Resolution Role Play activity (Ulkoasianministero). Traditionally, the Kurkum Peace Talks is a one day, two hour, activity where students take on a variety of roles and backgrounds of six different people-groups based on a fictional conflict in a fictional country. According to game materials, "The role play encourages students to think about conflicts, crises, peace and mediation. The aim is that, through their roles, students understand the complexity of various conflicts and the reasons why the resolution of conflicts and crises both between and within states entails many types of challenges" (Ulkoasianministero, p. 3). As developed, this game gives students the opportunity to develop and use the leadership skills of facilitation, mediation, cooperation, creativity, communication and problem solving that we have been focussing on and developing in leadership class discussions and BreakoutEDU challenges so far this year.
Taking this role play a step farther and incorporating my personal love of teaching through interactive simulations, we will be diving deep into a one month long simulation of the peace talk process in the fictional country of Kurkum. To begin, students will choose a card out of bag that will determine that they are a member of one of six different people-groups. Each group has a specific position, varied interests and strong stakes in the conflict in Kurkum. During the simulation, students will use the leadership skills they have developed to seek to reach a mutually agreeable resolution to the conflict that is satisfactory to all six people-groups.
In order to foster deeper understanding and cultivate background knowledge, we will be immersing ourselves into the land of Kurkum and its neighboring states. On day one, each people-group will be using recycled materials to build structures that represent their geographical area and cultural characteristics. These structures will be moved into the library to surround the giant political map in the center of the room.
Stay tuned to see and read about our progress as we move through this challenging, exciting, rewarding, fun simulation!
This Thursday, the NCCS Leadership class will begin a month long simulation project based on the Kurkum Peace Talks Conflict Resolution Role Play activity (Ulkoasianministero). Traditionally, the Kurkum Peace Talks is a one day, two hour, activity where students take on a variety of roles and backgrounds of six different people-groups based on a fictional conflict in a fictional country. According to game materials, "The role play encourages students to think about conflicts, crises, peace and mediation. The aim is that, through their roles, students understand the complexity of various conflicts and the reasons why the resolution of conflicts and crises both between and within states entails many types of challenges" (Ulkoasianministero, p. 3). As developed, this game gives students the opportunity to develop and use the leadership skills of facilitation, mediation, cooperation, creativity, communication and problem solving that we have been focussing on and developing in leadership class discussions and BreakoutEDU challenges so far this year.
Taking this role play a step farther and incorporating my personal love of teaching through interactive simulations, we will be diving deep into a one month long simulation of the peace talk process in the fictional country of Kurkum. To begin, students will choose a card out of bag that will determine that they are a member of one of six different people-groups. Each group has a specific position, varied interests and strong stakes in the conflict in Kurkum. During the simulation, students will use the leadership skills they have developed to seek to reach a mutually agreeable resolution to the conflict that is satisfactory to all six people-groups.
In order to foster deeper understanding and cultivate background knowledge, we will be immersing ourselves into the land of Kurkum and its neighboring states. On day one, each people-group will be using recycled materials to build structures that represent their geographical area and cultural characteristics. These structures will be moved into the library to surround the giant political map in the center of the room.
Stay tuned to see and read about our progress as we move through this challenging, exciting, rewarding, fun simulation!