Paul Park is a high school English teacher in our school division currently serving in Afghanistan. I’ve worked with Paul over the years with a variety of web tools. Just prior to Paul’s leaving last month, he volunteered to spend time in a number of our schools talking to students about his upcoming adventure. Paul wanted to provide an insight into the war from his perspective and set up a blog to facilitate this.
He’s already posted a few times and is directed much of the content towards students. Here’s an email Paul sent out to our teachers yesterday:
It’s still in its infancy but I do have three posts up already that might be of interest to you and your students. I’ll try to post as often as I can but things are pretty busy here in KAF–I don’t get any days off so I have to squeeze my computer time into my evenings. I’m aiming for at least two posts a week. Maybe I’ll even try to set a routine so that you can build it into your own schedule. No promises, though, because the situation is always changing here so I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to post at any given time. I will try, however.
A small warning–my blog is about my experiences in Afghanistan. Make no mistake, it is a theatre of war and I will be discussing some mature subjects. This is not to say that I will be getting into gory details and I will try to be positive for the most part. However, the topics of war, religious differences, politics, fighting, injuries, and unfortunately, death, will come up. My aim is to post topics that will allow students to better understand Afghanistan in many respects: the culture, the politics, our presence here, daily life both in KAF and the country itself, and, of course, the conflict. Ultimately, I want to make connections and generate discussion. To that end, I will write about these topics in the most respectful, professional manner that I know how but unless you’re willing to discuss these topics with your students, you might want to steer clear.
This is a great opportunity for your students to connect with an educator/soldier. He’s also expressed interested in live Skype calls.
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Thanks for posting this. I added him to google reader so I can get updated on his experiences in Afghanistan. I look forward to learning more about this topic.
Dean, thanks for this post. I shared it with other teachers.
Thanks, Dean, for sharing this on your blog. I’ve received comments from across the country, the states, and even around the world and I have you to thank. Hopefully this will translate into more students getting connected with what I have to offer. And another big thanks for helping me to get the ball rolling on my blog.
Thanks for the link to The Sandbox. I am teaching a unit on Afghanistan for the next three months (Grade 8, Geography) and his blog can be a solid “real life” link to connect my students to the topic. The more we read about Afghanistan, the more my students know why the Canadian Forces are there!
Amazing article! Detailed and very interested. I am going to recommend this blog to my friends.