Voices of Future Generations English - Blog by Voices of Future Generations

Finding Your Roar - Voice of Hannah Gold

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 11:30:38 +0400

Finding Your Roar

My dream was always to be a children’s author. To one day be able to walk into a bookshop and see MY books on the shelves – to see my stories and my voice out in the world. There was one small problem. As a child I was chronically shy. So shy, I was too afraid to speak up in class or ever share any of my stories.

It took many years to realise that even shy people are capable of achieving of big goals. And so, in 2019 I sat down to write my debut children’s book.

Inspired by my deep love of animals, The Last Bear tells the story of a 11-year-old girl who meets, befriends and then saves a wild polar bear. The book was never intended to have an environmental angle – at heart I just wanted to focus on this extraordinary friendship between girl and bear. But as I started researching Arctic habitat, it soon became clear that it was impossible to write a story about a polar bear without referencing the melting ice-caps.

The Last Bear was a book written from my heart. It’s an adventure story with a powerful emotional heart. And despite its Arctic setting, something about it struck a universal chord with readers all around the world. Since its publication in the UK in 2021, it has now been published into 25 different languages, including Arabic, won multiple awards and become a bestseller.

Lovely as this all was, I soon came to realise that the best part of being a children’s author was not the external recognition, but the impact I was able to make – including shining a spotlight on these incredible animals who so desperately need our help.

As Bear teaches April the power of her own roar, I would love everyone to know, no matter how small or shy you may feel on the inside, you’re never too small to change the world.

Voice of Hannah Gold

Hannah Gold worked in the film and magazine industries before taking time out to pursue her dream of writing. She lives in the UK with her tortoise, her cat and her husband. The Last Bear was her middle-grade debut which became an inspirational, international bestseller on release in 2021 and has gone on to win a multitude of national awards including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award 2022. Hannah’s books have sold over 290,000 copies worldwide and have been translated into 25 languages. She is also an ambassador for Whale and Dolphin Conservation (https://uk.whales.org/).

Favourite book right now?

Go Toxic Free by Anna Turns. By a well-known British environmental journalist, this book is fantastic for providing practical everyday tips to rid your house (and your body!) of toxic chemicals.

Favourite lesson at school?

Not really a lesson but it has to be storytime! Each Friday afternoon, we curled up on beanbags and listened, enrapt, as our teacher read the latest chapter of our classroom read. Books play such a huge, but undervalued role, in creating empathy and action in our children of tomorrow.

Favourite animal?

I always get asked this question in schools and my answer is always the same. ALL animals as each lifeform plays an integral role in the eco system of our planet. ALL animals deserve greater love and respect.

Favourite hero/heroine?

Lucy from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as I desperately yearned to travel through the wardrobe into Narnia and meet some talking animals!

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Mindfulness: A path to a Kinder You and a Better World - Voice of Ivy B. Ogbu

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 14:18:49 +0400

Mindfulness: A Path to a Kinder You and a Better World

Hey there, awesome young minds! Ever wondered how you can make a big difference in our world? Being a changemaker sounds like a big task with big shoes to fill. Well, I've got a somewhat easier but very impactful secret for you: it's all about something called "mindfulness," and it's like a magical wand for making the world a better place.

Imagine this: You're on an aeroplane, and they tell you to put on your oxygen mask before helping others. Why? Because you need oxygen first to fill up your lungs before you can help others. And guess what? Mindfulness is your mind's superpower!

Mindfulness means paying close attention to the here and now without judging. Like when you pause and think before reacting to a friend's comment or when you notice how much plastic you use and decide to use less. Mindfulness helps you understand your feelings and problems better, so you can make choices that make you and the world happier. It's like planting seeds of kindness, such as helping a classmate or cleaning up a park, and watching kindness spread all around.

Now, here's the big "aha" moment: Being kind to yourself makes it easy to be kind to others and our planet. Think about it: when you're happy and strong, you have the energy to make the world a better place.

Imagine if all of us changemakers practiced mindfulness every day. We'd become like kindness superheroes! We'd make small but impactful choices like using less plastic or saving energy, and guess what? These small acts help our planet stay healthy.

But that's not all! Mindfulness also helps us be kind to our friends and neighbors. When you're mindful, you notice when someone needs a friend or a helping hand.

And here's the best part: by being a mindful changemaker, you inspire others to be kind and mindful too. It's contagious, spreading a wave of goodness all around you.

So, remember, you don't have to change the whole world at once. Start by being a kind changemaker to yourself. Practice mindfulness, be kind to others, and watch the magic happen!

Voice of Ivy B. Ogbu

Ivy B. Ogbu is a sustainability specialist and a former UN employee with a passion for sustainable development. She is the author of "Raising Change Makers with Cyril”, a children’s book series that makes complex Sustainable Development Goals accessible

and inspiring for young readers. Ivy hopes to empower children, educators, and parents to take action for a brighter, more

sustainable future.

Favourite book right now?

Empowering Global Citizens: A World Course, Fernando Reimrez et al.

Favourite lesson at school?

In retrospect, while I disliked biology at the time, it was the only subject growing up that gave me my first ‘aha’ moment, which is the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life on Earth.

Favourite animal/lifeform?

Elephants.

Favourite hero/heroine?

I never had a hero/heroine – I know, it’s weird. But I have been inspired by many people, especially women such as Joan Ruth Bader I never had a hero or heroine—I know, it’s weird. But I have been inspired by many people, especially women such as Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jacinda Ardern, Malala Yousafzai, and the list goes on—it is super long!

Teaching Children Information Literacy - the voice of Sanam Bozorgi

Thu, 04 May 2023 15:04:20 +0400

Teaching Children Information Literacy

Often, when students enter college or university, they lack good information literacy skills.

What do we mean by this? Essentially, information literacy is the ability of a child to:

Decide what information is needed.
Be able to make choices about the different types of information available both in print and electronically.
Be able to locate and select relevant resources to satisfy an information need.
Be discerning and evaluative about the information that is found, and the process used to find it, and apply it to informed decision-making.

However, it is often the case that students, both at school and in higher education, rely too heavily on sources that are not suitable, such as Google or Wikipedia.

As such, it is crucial that we lay the background in school to improve students’ awareness of the concept of information literacy and why it is essential for their long-term education.

One of the most significant benefits of teaching information literacy to students is that it equips them with the skills they need to find and evaluate information critically. With ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence systems, students have access to a wealth of information, but not all of it is accurate or reliable. Therefore, it is essential for students to learn how to distinguish between accurate and inaccurate information and how to evaluate the credibility of sources.

Another critical benefit of teaching information literacy in AI era is that it helps students become better communicators. With the rise of digital communication, it has become more important than ever to be able to communicate effectively and to understand how to use digital tools appropriately. By teaching information literacy, educators can help students learn how to communicate their ideas effectively and how to use digital tools such as ChatGPT responsibly.

In addition, teaching information literacy can help students develop self-directed learning skills. Self-directed learning involves taking responsibility for one's learning, setting goals, and pursuing knowledge independently. With the vast amount of information available online, it has become more important than ever for students to develop the skills they need to learn independently.

One way to achieve this is by developing a whole-school information literacy curriculum that is embedded within the academic discipline, flexible, holistic, and student-centered.

However, it is not just about what is included in the curriculum; it is also about how it is delivered. The best approach is to collaborate between librarians and teachers to understand what students need and to design lessons that meet their needs.

After all, think of reading-comprehension skills that begin in the Foundation Stage and continue throughout school; the skills are built upon with appropriate instruction at each stage of learning.

This is the ideal approach to information literacy: introducing the skills in the early years, building on them as the student advances through primary school, and introducing new concepts of knowledge-seeking and analysis as they progress.

The key is that by incorporating these ideas into the students learning experience before university or college, they are familiar with these processes on arrival and in a far better position to take their learning forward, rather than grappling with new learning conventions.

Voice of Sanam Bozorgi

Sanam Bozorgi is a Teacher Librarian at The Arbor school, in this blog she argues the importance of teaching information literacy throughout school and how it helps students to understand the nuances of misinformation before they enter the higher education.

Wellbeing in Education - the voice of Robert Williams

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:07:28 +0400

Wellbeing in Education

Hello, my name is Rob and over the past two years my role at school has focused on well-being in education. Specifically, how we can begin to address the well-being needs of students that are ever changing and very individualized. In order to achieve this, I adopted an action research-based approach which led to the development of PEP (Positive Education Program).

First things first, we needed to develop a school-wide understanding of what well-being is and its individual components. For this, we adopted the PERMAH model developed by Martin Seligman. Consisting of 6 components; positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment, and health, the model had already been used in the region as the foundation for the KHDA longitudinal well-being census.

Next, we merged these components with additional school values (such as respectfulness and curiosity) and coded in a bank of questions that would then be used to individually measure student well-being against these metrics. Each class was then provided with a 20-minute slot in their daily schedule for PEP time. But here is the innovative part, the coaching and activities provided to each class was individualized based on their individual data. So hypothetically speaking, if Grade 1 flagged as displaying low levels of engagement, an engagement focused session was chalked out for them. Grade 2 having issues with health-related topics, health focused sessions were planned for them.

Students, parents, and teachers really bought into the idea which certainly helped in its implementation. However, it’s important that we continue by optimizing such initiatives. Who knows what such a model could look like in ten years? Data being collected in the background by an AI well-being bot? Students being able to determine their own well-being metrics and how they can allocate time to developing them? The possibilities are truly endless and in reality, we are still at the very genesis of exploring the role in well-being and how it can be developed in our education models.

Voice of Robert Williams

Robert has spent the last 9 years working in Dubai based schools in a range of roles such as homeroom teaching, head of science, and director of student success and well-being. The blog focuses on a well-being initiative that was developed as his thesis project whilst completing a masters in educational leadership.

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Why we are bringing whales to Dubai - Voice of Chris Vick

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 11:53:39 +0400

Why we are bringing whales to Dubai

What produces half of all the oxygen we breathe and absorbs huge amounts of carbon?

What, if we had more of them, could help solve the climate crisis?

Are you thinking trees? You’d be half right. But the ocean is working just as hard as the forests, soaking up vast amounts of the carbon we produce. It does this in many ways, but I am talking specifically about the tiniest plants with the biggest impact; the vast blooms of phytoplankton that stretch over huge swathes of the ocean.

And phytoplankton need whales. Why? Their poo is iron rich fertiliser.

Whales are our natural climate friends and allies. They are intelligent, social, totally awesome, and they help us protect the planet. You’d think helping them would be a no brainer.

Yet whales are threatened like never before. It’s not just hunting. It’s pollution, it’s the danger of being hit by a ship, or getting trapped in a kilometre-long fishing net. Because of these threats, many species are slowly vanishing from our ocean. Worse still, in lots of places we simply don’t know enough about how many whales there are, or how they are being impacted by the ships, nets and plastic we humans put in, or on, the ocean.

But there is hope.

Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) is heading to Dubai for Cop28 in November where the world’s governments, scientists and nature experts will work together to figure out how we can stop climate change.

WDC will be talking to the decision makers, presenting evidence from new research and arguing strongly, for governments and corporations to do better, especially for whales and dolphins and the ocean.

And the solution – the ‘thing’ we are asking them to do for the ocean, is remarkably simple:

Leave large parts of it alone.

The world’s governments have recently committed to 30% of the ocean protected by 2030.

That's a really big and important promise! If done right, WDC will help make sure the people making decisions at COP 28 know all about whales and what needs to be done to help them bounce back after so many years of being hunted.

We cannot, (and don’t wish to), stop fishing, shipping, oil exploration or other human activities, we simply need to make sure these things are done with knowledge, respect and appreciation when it comes to whales and dolphins.

The big win-win is that governments can take these actions to protect whales and allow them to flourish as part of their plans to tackle climate change.

In protecting the ocean, we will help whale populations recover. Their vast bodies will solidify carbon. And they will nurture huge phytoplankton clouds, sinking carbon, and producing the oxygen that all life needs.

By helping the whales, we will save not just the planet, but ourselves.

Favourite book right now: . Tyger, by S F Said

Favourite animal/life form: Orca (killer ‘whales,’ actually dolphins)

Favourite hero/heroine: Lyra (His Dark Materials)

Voice of Chris Vick

Chris Vick is Director of Strategic Development at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (www.whales.org) . He also writes books about the sea, nature and conservation for young people. His books have been shortlisted for major prizes in the UK and internationally.

His most recent novel, The Last Whale warns of the collapse of whale populations if humanity does not act to protect them.

‘A beautifully written conservationist call to arms,’ The Guardian.