8 ways to mark World Tourism Day in school

World Tourism Day 2015 is on Sunday 27th September: providing you with a topic to use around this time. It is an opportunity to highlight the key messages the event promotes in an enjoyable way for students.

‘1 billion tourists, 1 billion opportunities’

The day aims to emphasise the importance of tourism and its value across the world. It also seeks to address challenges outlined in United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

No matter what ages you work with, this is such a versatile topic. It opens up a whole host of fun ideas for the classroom.

When I was reminded by a tweet this morning that the day was coming up, I thought I'd have a think about it and came up with 8 ways to mark it in school.

1. Virtual tourism: Skype or Google Earth
   
   It's an excellent way to help your students learn about other countries and cultures plus share their own experience too. There are some brilliant ideas out there on the most creative ways to do this.
   
   Skype Education is easy to navigate around and helps you find the best match for you and your class. I’ve seen so many teachers share things about the sessions they’ve had – so if you haven’t already, give it a try! Mystery Skype is a big branch of this. Invented by teachers, the general idea is that one class has to guess the location of the other class, all through Skype!
   
   There’s also some great ideas on using Google Earth to explore the world too – whether you have desktops or tablets, there’s a way to get your students virtually touring!
   
   
2. Organise a trip somewhere
   
   It's almost definitely something you've done before, and probably more hassle than a virtual trip, but it's so worth it. Seeing your students enlightened by the prospect - then reality - of visiting somewhere they’ve never been or experienced before, is wonderful.
   
   It can be a different continent (wow!), a different country, a different town or even a local site they’ve never been; whatever it is, starting planning now brings it that bit closer.
   
   
3.  Have a ‘try another culture’ day
   
   How this works depend on a few things – your role, how big your school or class is or even the enthusiasm of colleagues. It can be a schoolwide event, or just your class, but this can be a great way for students to experience other foods, languages, customs and character.
   
   It could mean simply bringing in a few different types of snack-type food and your class guessing which country it originates from, or it could be students bringing in things themselves. Get a class on Skype from the country you focus on, or perhaps invite in a speaker from there!
   
   
4. Get students sharing their own experiences of tourism
   
   They could write a review, newspaper article, blog post (if you have a school blog) or even design a leaflet for tourists. This doesn’t mean they need to have been somewhere far away or expensive – it could be where your school is, it could be on a place they visited at the weekend or where they went on a school trip.
   
   You could ask them to do it about somewhere they want to go, then they’ll have to do lots of research!
   
   
5. Run a SOLE session
   
   If you haven’t heard about Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs), read about them here. In short, they are “when educators and/or parents encourage kids to work in groups that they form, and are free to change, to answer big, open questions by using the internet” (SOLE toolkit).
   
   How about making the big question something tourism related? An example could be “What is the best country to visit in the world?", "What defines a tourist?" or anything you think.
   
   
6. Have a look on Global Dimension’s website
   
   Browse through the ‘tourism’ educational activities for lesson plans, resources and teacher packs.
   
   
7. Try one of our resources
   

   

   A slip from the Glenda mystery

   
   We have a range of collaborative learning activities. If you’d like a PDF ‘mystery’ on why Glenda, someone running a beachside hotel, may be cooking breakfast for the last time (more details here), comment ‘NTD Glenda’ at Let Us Know and I’ll email it to you.
   
   If you’d prefer to try an iPad app, take a look at our Geography mysteries (see our website) and comment ‘NTD’ at Let Us Know followed by the name of the app you want to try, and I’ll email you a free code to download it!
   
   
8. Get involved on social media
   
   Take a look at the social media pages of World Tourism Day and share your views.
   
   
   • Website here
   • Twitter @UNWTO with #WTD2015 and/or #1billiontourists
   • Instagram /untwo
   • Vimeo /untwo
   • Facebook /WorldTourismOrganization

If you have any ideas or have planned something already, please do comment or let us know on Twitter (@refthinking).

Thanks,

Natalie

International Day of Friendship

On 30th July each year, the International Day of Friendship is marked. Proclaimed only four years ago in 2011 by the UN General Assembly, the idea is that by developing friendships with each other, different communities, countries and even continents, bridges can be built and peace can come as a result.

"On this International Day of Friendship, let us cultivate warm ties that strengthen our common humanity and promote the well-being of the human family."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

All across the world, this has been celebrated. Individuals, communities and small to big organisations have spread the word. Just a quick search on Twitter shows there’s a lot going on. While many children develop friendships from a very early age, keep some, and make more, others do struggle. This may just be from time to time – facing temporary difficulties which ‘sort themselves out’, for example – but for some, they may go through year after year of finding it hard to make friends. There are many reasons for why this could be, but for this very reason, it’s essential to talk about it. This could be with someone they trust in particular, for example a parent or teacher, but as well as this, how about with their peers?

In many countries, the curriculum provides some guidance/stipulation that teachers must cover bullying for example, but not all. Plus, the way this has to be done is not usually enforced. If there was a simple way to trigger discussions in this area, with the help of some easy-to-use technology, would you try it? Even as just a starting point, then things go from there. This is why, to celebrate the International Day of Friendship, we have made our English/Citizenship/PSHE app/mystery story free for two weeks (until 7th August). While it can be used with any students you think suitable, the target age range is around 6-7 years old.

In pairs, or threes, students sit around one iPad and read 15 slips of information (interactively, on the iPad). They must start making sense of these together, helping each other to group them and work out why a young girl called Amy didn’t go to school this particular day.

It helps students:

• to recognise how their behaviour affects other people, to care about other people’s feelings and to try to see things from their points of view
• to listen to other people, and play and work cooperatively
• to understand that there are different types of teasing and bullying, that bullying is wrong, and how to get help to deal with bullying

If you want to try it, visit the App Store here now, search 'Digital Mysteries Amy' on the App Store or read a bit more about it on our website.

More information on the day from the UN’s website

“The International Day of Friendship was proclaimed in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities. The resolution (A/RES/65/275) places particular emphasis on involving young people, as future leaders, in community activities that include different cultures and promote international understanding and respect for diversity.

The Day is also intended to support the goals and objectives of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace and the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010).

To mark the International Day of Friendship the UN encourages governments, international organizations and civil society groups to hold events, activities and initiatives that contribute to the efforts of the international community towards promoting a dialogue among civilizations, solidarity, mutual understanding and reconciliation.”