Monday, November 01, 2010

The Global Debates Newsletter October 25

52 days to go!

Featured in this issue :
  • Magic number 200 by November 1!
  • Stories and updates from the TGD contestant
  • The Global Debates International Migration Portal!
  • Feature of the week – The Migrants plan & IDEA Global Challenge
  • New partners of the project
  • Interview with ...
  • Frequently asked questions


Magic number
Up to this date we have 140 institutions from 54 countries registered. In the BigIDEA from October 8 we mentioned that we would like to reach 100 registered schools by October 11 and you helped us make it happen!
We set ourselves a new goal this time. In the next ten days we want to reach the magic number of 200 registered schools! Help us and tell your friends on Facebook, from your neighborhood and other schools to register today!

Stories and updates from TGD Contest:
Some schools put on debates and other activities and they shared it with us already! Do so as well! We have received the first Migrant rights action plan from Ken Rukundo from Namilyango school, who described how rights of Namilyango migrants have to be improved.
The first Blog entry from Yena Oh from Grover Cleveland High School tells a heartbreaking story of an asylum seeker named Fatima from Iraq. She is divorced and waiting for being recognized as refugee, who is in imminent physical danger.
Four schools in Uganda have organized public debates already. One of the debates was attended by about three hundred students and teachers, Chairperson of Human Rights Commission in Uganda and the division councilor of Uganda Human Rights Commission. He also gave a keynote address on the legal framework, legal instruments and the situation analysis on Uganda’s status when it comes to the social and economic rights of migrants.
We are also very pleased ot announce that the Final topic of the National Tournament in Belarus, which will be attended by 40 teams from Belarus and Russia, will be on migrants rights!
Great job guys and please do tell us more! We would like to share it with the rest of the contestants!

The Global Debates International Migration Portal!
This portal at Debatepedia is designed especially for The 2010/2011 Global Debates, so make sure to check the resources, links to the relevant institutions, treaties and the reports. We've also developed a pro/con article for the main fall topic to research the many arguments and quotations involved. Make use of it when preparing for your public debate!
Feature of the week – The Migrants plan & IDEA Global Challenge
Brief information:
what: Migrants plan and the IDEA Global Challenge
deadline: November 15, 2010
submission form: migrant plan
guide here
Extent: Aim for 3-5 double-spaced pages
Points: required plus top ten entries will earn 500 bonus points

To enter the IDEA Challenge, submit an essay summarizing the best arguments and evidence you
gathered for your public debate. Your essay should present your team’s best arguments for the
proposition, the team arguing in favor of the resolution. You are more than welcome to get inspired by the materials, which are presented on the InternationaMigration Global Debates portal. Please remember though that if you formulate arguments only based on these, it might not land you the top 10 chart and the 500 bonus points! Also you may consider to test your plan in practice – by debating it in your practice session or at your public debate. The public, elected officials and your opponents might give you interesting ideas to improve your plan even more!

Every school that wants to qualify for the main prize needs to submit the Migration plan anyway, so why not do it earlier (by November 15), so that you can earn some points for it! Please don't forget to use the appropriate submission form!

Please note that we will be strict with plagiarism. In practice this means that we will not be accepting ANY pieces submitted by you that have been written by someone else without giving that person credit for the writing.

New partners
IDEA would also like to thank the following new partners for their dedication and support: Levizja FOL – Kosovo, Zentrum polis – Politik Lernen in der Schule – Austria, New Vision – Ukraine, The CA-F School – Zimbabwe, European Network of Science Centers and Museums, Doga Colleges – Turkey, PlayDecide – Netherlands, YActivists! - Youth Activists of Thailand.

Interview with Veronika, Forum Director and coordinator of The Global Debates

Here are the 10 tips from Veronika, who was in charge of the “Best Youth Forum we ever had” quote from speech of Noel Selegzi at the closing ceremony of the 2010 IDEA Youth Forum:

1.Start planning early! There is nothing more disappointing than having great ideas and not being able to carry them out because of bad time-management.
2.Brainstorm and go wild! Start with blank sheet of paper and only the motion written in the center of the sheet. Then let everyone speak for 2 minutes about possible projects, events and ideas they have about how your team can participate in The Global Debates. After everyone is finished do another round expressing opinions about the ideas of others and their preferences. Finish with a list of possible activities that the whole group would like to do.
3.Make sure you take notes! At the beginning of each 'staff' meeting assign a chair and a note-taker for that session. Chair should make sure all the points on the agenda for that meeting are discussed in timely manner and that everyone had an equal chance to speak up. The note-taker should write down the main points as well as conclusion that were discussed at that meeting and should make sure there is a provisional agenda for the next one.
4.Be innovative! Don't copy ideas of others, without giving them the recognition. We want to see your work, not someone else’s! Judges will disqualify the work (essays, blog entries, etc) that plagiarize from other sources.
5.The way to winning this contest is to: organize more than one public debate, invite elected officials and make sure you get covered by local media – online, press and TV!
6.Make sure you read all manuals carefully! In order to be fair to all contestants we need to follow rules, when awarding the points. These rules are specified in each manual at the beginning. If you are unsure about whether your activity will be awarded with points, please contact us at: GlobalDebatesTeam@theglobaldebates.org
7.Meet the deadlines! The deadline for all your activities and for submitting the report forms is DECEMBER 15. There is a special contest – The IDEA Global Challenge, whose deadline is November 15!
8.Organize the events in local language! When organizing your events think about what is the most commonly used language by the people who attend your event. If you end up organizing the events in other language than English, please make sure the summaries and report forms are in English.
9.Use our hashtag #globaldebates! When posting your photos on Flickr and commenting about your TGD events on Facebook or Twitter please use the #globaldebates. That way the whole TGD community can see them on our TGD website.
10.Join our TGD Facebook community! Discuss TGD events and your successes on our Facebook page. It is a good way to get inspired, come up with better ideas and be on top of the news in regards to TGD initiative as well as migration issues.

FAQ
Q. Is it possible to combine students from more schools?
A. We prefer if the students are from one school, as that is also easier for the participants. However we do understand the difficulty with putting a team together. So we do allow a team to have students from different schools. Please remember that one student cannot be part of more teams!

Do you have more questions? Please check here or write to the Global Debates Team GlobalDebatesTeam@theglobaldebates.org.

No comments: