iTune summaries "Edible Schoolyard" and "A Night in the Global Village"

Students at Martin Luther King Junior High in Berkley, CA plant, harvest, cook and eat is their edible classroom. Founded by a restaurant owner who was trying to find ways to improve school lunch programs, this concept is like non other. Students who do not excel in academics, gain pretige in this hands-on classroom. Here they teach basics that they do not learn at home along with social studies, math, science, and life. Kids are captivated by this experience. Teachers are trained to make the garden the center of teaching and to include all areas of learning in their experiences.

Students of the Rocky Mountain School in Denver, CO, participate in a night that is part National Geographic and part survivor. They travel to Heifer Ranch in Perryville, AK where they are put into different cultures to walk in somebody else's shoes for a night. They experience the hunger, poverty,living conditions, sanitation (or lack of), and lack of essentials needs for the night. Students are divided into a group with one adult and form a family. One member of the family is fitted with a device to appear pregnant and has to lose the use of one arm. The countries they are divided into are Guatemale, Thailand, Zambia and a refugee camp. In the refugee camp, they have no supplies, and they cannot speak the language of any other countries. All other students are equiped with some things, but not everything they need. They must trade and work with the other countries to get all of their essentials.

Students are taken out of their comfort zone and must cooperate and work together to make it through the night. The next morning they meet together and perform skits to show their experiences.

These are great tools to be used as a teacher. They take the students out of the classroom and make learning fun. This is turn makes students want to learn as they actually experience and have hands on work in all areas.

I think more schools should be able to do this. However, most schools are unable to afford such experiences. The podcasts make it possible for all students to at least have some experience of such things.