Teaching About the United Nations

A wonderful resource on teaching published in 2006 about the UN is available for purchase at:

http://catalog.socialstudies.com/c/product.html?record@TF39783+s@4FZRUzkJdLGZI

This was prepared by Jenna Arnold of the UN Works Unit of the Department of Public Information. It includes a teacher's guide, student handouts and a PowerPoint presentation with extensive slides about the UN, historical through 2006.

Teachers may incorporate slides into other presentations and use this in a very flexible way. Great too for Model UN preparation!

UNITED NATIONS CURRICULUM BUNDLE: PowerPoint® Presentation and Activity Book

Introduce students to the foundation and facets of the United Nations while helping them develop critical thinking skills. The PowerPoint^® presentation features documentary photographs and film clips and informative text on 50 animated slides accompanied by a script, a 20-question multiple-choice quiz, discussion questions, extension activities, and related Web sites with annotations. The reproducible unit directs students to online primary sources, spurring analysis, interpretation, opinions, and well-shaped arguments. Topics include the League of Nations, Dumbarton Oaks, the UN's charter and organization, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the UN's agencies and their roles in the world today. The PowerPoint is contained on a single CD-ROM. Grades 7–12. Social Studies School Service. ©2004–06.

Globalization, Education and Us

I urge everyone to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U -- a most dramatic rendering of the world in which today's children are growing up, created for a school district in Denver and now spreading around the world.

New Video in Going Global Season Three

We've substituted another of Bill Miller's excellent interviews for the episode originally planned.

Season Three's Episode 60 is a new interview with Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. Dr. Migiro talks about her role as Deputy S-G, in relation to the UN Millennium Development Goals, management issues within the UN, climate change, and other timely topics. She is a Tanzanian.

For more information, see her biography, speeches and responsibilities at: http://www.un.org/sg/deputysg.shtml

UN Millennium Development Goals Awards

A September 12, 2007 press conference and luncheon launched the MDG Awards Festival and Telecast event at the UN. Grammy Awards producer Nile Rodgers presented a special crystal statue symbolizing the Awards to Her Excellency, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain, the President of the 61st UN General Assembly, in view of her work to promote achievement of the MDGs.

The Permanent Missions of Madagascar, the Dominican Republic and other UN Member States, Offices and Agencies of the UN, and the Public-Private Alliance Foundation are supporting this event. An Awards Selection Panel of Experts and a Distinguished Panel of Judges will determine winners.

Winners will be selected for their actions toward promoting the eight MDGs, with a special category for programs that work with more than a single MDG. Corporations, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, schools, higher-education institutions, intergovernmental organizations, business and professional associations and individuals are all encouraged to apply. For the application form and more information, see: http://www.un-mdgawards.org/

We encourage Westchester County individuals, organizations, schools, colleges, corporations, NGOs to apply!

UNA Southern NY State Division website is Live!

UNA Southern NY State Division's new website is live, at http://www.unasouthernny.org/ .

The site will soon carry information about the Young Professionals for International Cooperation (YPIC) group and its many activities.

Highlights of the Southern NY State Division include an upcoming Middle Atlantic Conference, now in planning stages, a kiosk shared at the UN with WFUNA -- the World Federation of UN Associations -- and a new course for business leaders on world affairs.

For information, email Catherine White, President of the division. CatherineDWhite@AOL.com

High Schools help distribute Going Global

A big thank you from the UNA Westchester Chapter

Westchester Teachers Janet O'Toole, one of the leaders of the UNA Student Alliance at Walter Panas High School, and Demetrios Mihailidis (Mr. M.), social studies teacher working with the 9th Grade Academy at Mt. Vernon High School, are delivering Going Global with the UN videos to their local stations (Yorktown Cablevision and Mt. Vernon). This saves the Chapter extra miles, and puts videos not being shown in a given time period to use in the classroom.

The first eight videos of Going Global Season III are new, with the first one covering the UN in 2006, and some short spots. The next five are interviews with the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic, Executive Director of the Public-Private Alliance Foundation, the UN focal point of Human Influenza and Avian Flu, the Executive Director of the UN Fund for International Partnerships, the Vice President for Education of UNA-USA and an intern working on Model UN and Global Classrooms, and the Director of the New York Office of Sport for Peace and Development. These are followed by a 2007 UNICEF report on the State of the World's Children, and excerpts from The Century Foundation's February 2007 conference on Weapons Threats and International Security.

The next 17 videos depict the UN Millennium Development Goals, with stories from around the world. These are repeated from last year's Season II, to give widest possible coverage to the importance of work toward meeting the MDGs.