ME' Education Project

7/30/2019 'ME' Education Project

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The MEEducation ProjectWhere arts-education and global thinking merge


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About: The Me Education Project

Me Education program incorporates a cross-curricular strategy, integratingmore arts-based and creative learning to help educators diversify their

classroom curriculum in ways that are consistent with culturally relevant and

responsive pedagogy.

ME offers creative and skil l bui lding activities in support of a post 9/11 artseducation curriculum to facilitate global learning in a classroom.

Me reflects the fact that knowledges are unique and difficu lt to express.

Presenting knowledge in the context of art, aims to inspire different ways of

acting inside different ideas and logics that helps bui ld empathy, relationshipsand conversations.

Art projects (theatre, photography, fi lm) that traverse multiple borders,

reference a diversity of cul tural allusions, and values bilingualism opens a

space for all students to be included as uniquely knowledgeable or equally

vulnerable in their unfamiliarity. Without limiting to any single question,

explanation or paradigm this approach helps create an environment of

dif ferentiated learning that addresses differences among learners, how they

learn, learning preferences and individual interests.


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- Mandate -To bring arts-education and global thinking into classroomsin a way that traverses borders, explores diverse culturalexperiences, and values multiple knowledges.

- Mission -To integrate and link existing works of contemporary artiststo curriculum to keep in pace with the diversity of thecontemporary classroom.

- Objectives -Opening spaces for all students to be included as uniquely

knowledgeable or equally vulnerable in their unfamiliarity.


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TARGET LEARNER

The targeted learners in our program are local high school students whocome from a variety of cultural, linguistic, national, and economic

backgrounds yet feel disempowered and marginalized as they do not have

access to the resources of the cultural and creative opportunity.


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Who are we?

Saniya AnsariBorn in Karachi, Pakistan, Saniya is an Artistic Director and Arts Educator. She founded

Toronto-based theatre company Modest Product ions in 1999. She has directed

Unburdened at CEPA Gallerys Festival Art of War in Buffalo, NY and a staged reading

at Asia Societys 'Creative Voices of Islam in Asia,' in New York City.

Saniya has taught Theatre Studies at Beaconhouse National University (BNU) in Lahore,

Pakistan and at SARAI-CSDS, South Asias fi rst public initiative on urban culture, mediaand daily life. At SARAI, Saniya directed performances based on the writ ings of 12

young people about living in the underbelly of Delhi, a metropolis, that are now

published in a book, Trickster City (Penguin India, 2010).

Having completed her B.Ed from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the

University of Toronto in 2010, she is currently developing arts education programs in

partnership wi th the Toronto Street Writers and York University. Saniya also has a

theatre project in development, as well as two documentary projects.

Laura SparlingAs a recent graduate from OISE where she specialised in the Intermediate/Senior

Division in Canadian and World Studies, Laura was awarded the Miyumi Sasaki award

for her dedication to social justice and urban education. She also has a M.A. in

International Affairs and is a twice published author.

Laura has worked with women's rights organisations in Mexico delivering workshopsaimed at enhancing the leadership ski lls of rural and indigenous women using

princ iples of popular education and has also worked on projects in Afghanistan and

East Timor to foster community and economic development in post-conflict zones.

Lauras artistry is found in the jewellery she makes and the multiple

other artisanal projects she has on the go at any given moment.


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How Did we Start? Why Did We Start?

This project is the extension of a one month partnership we made in

May 2012 which resulted in the development of a teachers study guide

for the contemporary post-9/11 play Unburdened.

The need for curriculum that is relevant to and reflective of the diverse

student body inspired us to innovate, to put on our entrepreneurial hats

and EDUCATE. We decided to develop our temporary partnership into

a long-term project that would br ing more arts-based learning and

global thinking into our Toronto classrooms - an alternative platform

for Education - that addresses the needs of Todays classroom.


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Past Workshops:

Academy of the Impossible

and the Toronto Street Writers (6 hours)

Development of playwriting and researchingskills

Invoked critical conversations aboutmigration, memory, personal relationships,and globalisation.

York University, Department of Humanities,Childhood Studies (3 hours)

Invoke critical conversations about Canadashistory as an immigrant colony and thebuilding of national identities.

Ontario Institute of Studies in Education,University of Toronto

Presentation, followed by Q&A with Prof.

Goldstein, Department of Curriculum,Teaching and Learning


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Testimonials on teaching Unburdened:

Unburdened is a modern theatrical piece which artful ly combinesdiverse identities, intricate relationships, and tensely opposing

worldviews. It is a critical resource for todays modern classroom:

The large issues the play deals with - here and there, the "glocalization" of space,

including national space, and the ways that belonging (and trauma) travels throughgenerations - fit nicely with how I approach " the nation" and the complexities,

tensions, and confl icts within understandings/experiences of "national culture.

Dr. Krys Verrall, (Childhood Studies Program,Department of Humanities, York University)

Among many other aspects of your play that I like, I particularly liked the way youwove together the intensely personal with the intensely public and polit ical. The

characters are all very real (and now, at 59, I more readily and sadly know that people

can be 16 or 33 or 50 forever--getting stuck knows no age or national boundary lines).

The issues of perspective, again polit ical and personal, are more keenly felt

in certain places in the world, and Karachi is surely one of them.Elizabeth Pelosi (English Teacher,Karachi American School, Pakistan)


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Performing Unburdened:

Provocative, sweeping, impressive. There is much I enjoyed, but my favorite

scenes and lines seem to all revolve around Saad. He is such an incredibly shaped,

flushed character. His l ines can somehow be overtly political yet carry with them a

great deal of emotion.

Hirsh Sawhney, Author of Delhi Noir

The staging and choreography worked fabulously in Alt Theatres black box and it

was a delight to see characters that are authentic and lively. The wri ting is

thoughtful, evocative, admirable and takes risks that pay off.

Sean Donaher, Artistic Director, CEPA Gallery

I enjoyed the play a lot. Really nuanced portrayals. You know of course that if Kats

mother is not Jewish she isn t either. Having had a Jewish father who was anti-

Zionist and would have been supportive of Kats decision than it seemed her father

might be, it made me think more personally. Kudos to you for a thought ful evocativework.

Rachael Cooper (Director, Cultural programming, Asia Society, NY


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Our Strategy = Arts + Global thinking

Cross-curricular

CulturallyRelevant andResponsive

Multi-modalenvironments

Bilingualism

Co-constructionof knowledge


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Goals & Outcomes:

Crit ical thinking ski lls Literacy ski lls (writing

and communicating)

Media Literacy

Diversifying culturalfocus of curriculum

Civic Engagement AttackingDisengagement

Building Empathy Build Relationships Building Critical

Conversations


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Looking Forward Our goals and needs

Increase

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programs

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Partner

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organisationsFundingFunding

Documents

ME' Education Project