Mingdao High School Model United Nations

Mr. Gibson's WORLD MODEL U.N. OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION

Ni hao parents and students,

May I first take this opportunity to say "xie xie." I am honoured and feel privileged to teach your students as part of the Global Citizenship Program at Mingdao High School. At this point and time I want to share a few things about myself, how the course has been developed, and how I plan to teach the course.

I am a 23 year old American from St. Louis, MO, a large city in the American Midwest. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, MO which I received in December of 2007. I have taught in the Cape Girardeau School District in Cape Girardeau, MO for two years and one year at Korean International School of Qingdao in Qingdao, China as a homeroom teacher. I am also studying Mandarin.

Your sons and daughters have a tremendous opportunity to study in two languages and two worlds. I pledge to do my best to bridge Taiwanese Culture with Western Culture during our study of Model United Nations. In the Global Citizenship Program, we want our students to become "global citizens" aware of, and prepared for, the increasingly more interdependent, multicultural and globalized world while still being aware of and proud of their cultural identity as Taiwanese. We aim for students to be like tall trees. We want them to have strong roots in their home soil, yet be tall enough to see what's going on in the rest of the forest.

WHAT IS M.U.N.?

Model United Nations is a simulation of the real United Nations. In Model UN, the students are assigned nations and given a topic to research and solve. After the initial research stage, we simulate the legislative process that happens in the U.N., or any other legislative body. The students will try and find partners, draft resolutions and "solve" problems such as human rights, the environment, economic development, etc.

WHAT SKILLS WILL STUDENTS GAIN FROM M.U.N.?

In our M.U.N. class, the students will gain a lot of skill in regards to researching and writing in English through creating numerous "country profiles" and researching all the different issues and how they pertain to their respective countries.
As our class writes more position papers, and as we have more and more debates, the students will study different methods for crafting and making better, more logical arguments and in the process they will develop critical thinking skills.
Participation in M.U.N. leads to the development of public speaking skills through all the speeches that they will make in class and at conferences with other schools.
Ipso facto the students creating country profiles, studying how the U.N. works, and defending the arguments of other countries, their knowledge of the world and international relations will also expand greatly.
Last but not least, by reading, researching, writing, speaking and listening in English, their English level will increase dramatically.

WHAT CURRICULUM DOES M.U.N. FOLLOW?

Since many of you are aiming to attend university in a western country such as The U.S., or The U.K., the performance expectations, learning goals and thematic strands for our World History course are based off of what was developed by the American National Council for the Social Studies (Schneider et. all, 2004). The thematic strands include...

Culture
Time, Continuity, and Change
People, Places, and Environment
Individual Development and Identity
Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Power, Authority, and Governance
Production, Distribution, and Consumption
Science, Technology, and society
Global Connections
Civic Ideals and Practices

For a complete list of which learning goals and thematic strands will be used in each lesson, please see the course syllabus.

HOW IS THE CLASS BROKEN UP?

Since we have already gone through Model UN over the summer, the students know the basic outline of how a U.N. Conference works. However, in order to compete with other schools, it is necessary to formalize everything. So, the first four to five weeks will be spent learning all the correct formats and technical terms for creating country reports, position papers and resolutions as well as learning the proper procedures for carrying out a conference and correct ways to address other delegates and chairs.

Once we learn the formal requirements of M.U.N., we will start to have mini conferences again within our class. At this point and time, we will have one conference per week for the rest of the semester. As we have conferences, we will gradually learn the structure of the UN by having at least one of all the important committees and subsidiary bodies (such as "Human Rights," "Security Council," Economic and Finance Committee," etc.).

As time goes on, and as our class gets more familiar with the legislative process, the structure of the U.N., doing the research, making arguments, and giving speeches, we will be more and more prepared for inter-school conferences where we have a conference with other schools in Taiwan and possibly internationally. After we have watched one or two inter school conferences and had at least eight to twelve mini conferences with each other, our class should be ready to represent Mingdao High School in an inter-school conference! Expect our class to participate in one inter-school conference by the end of the Fall Semester.

For a more detailed look at the schedule, please see the class syllabus. Later on in the semester, we will schedule some days in which we view other schools compete in inter-school M.U.N. Conferences and much later in the semester, we will schedule our class in some inter-school M.U.N. Conferences in Taiwan.

WHAT TEXTS/ BOOKS WILL BE NEEDED FOR M.U.N.?

In M.U.N., there is no textbook. Nor will I assign any specific text to read. Each student will be given a country and a topic. It then becomes each student's INDIVIDUAL responsibility to find lots of relevant information on their topic that they can use when they write their position papers and create their arguments. The students will need time to go to the library and research via the internet. Again, this class depends on INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY! I am only here to help them research, write, speak, and listen more effectively.

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF M.U.N.?

The goal of M.U.N. is to prepare the students for inter-school M.U.N. Conferences while at the same time teaching them how to research, craft arguments, use logic, think critically, and develop better English speaking skills, listening skills, and fluency all while providing the students with an opportunity to gain confidence in their abilities.

WHAT WILL A TYPICAL DAY BE LIKE IN M.U.N.?

For the first four weeks, a typical day in M.U.N. will be split in between the computer lab or library working on research. After that, the first half of class will be spent having a mock conference and the second half of class will be spent doing research. As research is being done, I will be helping each student develop better research, writing, and speaking skills.

WHAT SHOULD THE STUDENTS BRING TO CLASS?

Bring a pen, paper, notebooks, and all of your research. On days in which some sort of homework is due, make sure to bring that in as well. On days in which we have conferences, make sure you are prepared and have all you notes.

WHAT IS YOUR POLICY ON CHEATING

I take cheating very seriously. Cheating is dishonest, unfair to those who work hard and has serious consequences for society if it is allowed. If you are caught cheating, I will assume that you have cheated everyday! I will not show any compassion or mercy to those caught cheating. The first time you are caught cheating, your parents will be called to the school and you will receive a zero on whatever assignment you cheated on. If you are caught cheating a second time, your parents will be called again and you will receive a zero on your assignment and a zero on your next unit exam.

Please keep in mind, plagiarism is the same thing as cheating. If you get information from a source and write that information as your own, this is cheating. You must cite all of your sources MLA style. When you start your research papers, you are not allowed to copy text from a book, website, or any other source without citing where you got the information and you are not allowed to use any quotes without putting them in quotations and citing where you found the quote. For an example of how to cite sources, see below or look under the section "What Books/Resources Will We Use?."

EXAMPLE:

In the 15^th century, after interacting with various other cultures and tribes and learning their ways, the Safavids aligned themselves with the Shi'a branch of Islam, conquered Persia and began to build a great empire (Beck, pg.15).

This website, <http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm>, has an easy to follow list of how to cite your sources.

WHAT IS MR. GIBSON'S CONTACT INFORMATION

Cell Phone: 093-904-5858

Email Address: mtgibby1985@hotmail.com

Model U.N. Blog: http://mingdaohighschoolmodelunitednations.blogspot.com/