Pangaea activity in school year 2011 has started at Mie University, Japan, as well.
As this was the beginning of the new year, total 4-hour facilitator training was held for two days on Fri June 3rd and on Sat June 4th, spending 2 hours each, with the participation by as many as 12 volunteers.
In the training, the fundamentals such as how Pangaea has started, Pangaea Charter and the only one rule Pangaea has, "You should not do things that disturbs others" were discussed. Then volunteers tried TAKO introduction that they are going to do with children the following day by themselves. Mie facilitators include some TA's (Teaching Assistants) who are assigned to the citi of Tsu from overseas and the foreign students studying at Mie Univ., which added color to their TAKO introduction.
On the second day of the training, how to work with children was discussed.
You can find out if children are focused or not by looking at their eyes. The ones who is looking at one point is thinking, so you do not need to talk to them even if their hands are not doing anything particularly. On the other hand, the ones who are looking at here and there are giving out the sign to say they do not know what to do, so you should talk to them to help.
The ones who are good at drawings draw pictures with great care, but the ones who is not good at it would just draw something and that's it. However, it is unlikely for them to be receiving any feedback from other kids unless they pay attention to what they draw. You should ask children "To which house would you like to send message?" so they would think by themselves. Then help them by saying "Let's do something together", or "Would you like me to help?".
If you need to deal with 40 to 50 children, it is difficult to enforce discipline without teacher saying "you should do this". But the role of Pangaea facilitators is different. If a child is not good at drawing, then facilitators help. If a child is good at it, then facilitators do not need to do anything just because they are facilitators. They are there to help children so they can have imagination for others to think how they would feel if they were in the other children's position.
In the afternoon of the 2nd day of the session on Sat June 4th, the 1st activity of the year was held.
Two children made pair for TAKO introduction, as half of the children participated Pangaea for the firs time. First, they are to ask a series of questions to find out their three favorite things, as if they became news reporters. Then they introduce their partners in front of all participants in the way everybody would be interested.
There are the ones who were a bit shy as they made presentation for the first time. But other children listened to even the ones with low voices attentively.
All facilitators including the ones who just finished their training on the day of the activity showed the great teamwork with the leadership of "Spike", Mie facilitator leader. Ms. Park, Associate Chancellor of Mie University, who came to see the activity praised their work and said that she thought they were "professionals" in dealing with children.
According to Yumi, President of Pangaea, to have more options is to be given power to live.
Children at Mie site are lucky to be given opportunities to interact not only with their peers from various schools and Japanese facilitators, but also with TA's (Teaching Assistants) from overseas and foreign students studying at Mie Univ., to know that there are many countries in the world and different ways of thinking.
Comment from Ms. Joohee Park, MIZY Center, Korea
