Teacher Q & A: Alyssa Connor, Wellesley Public Schools

Alyssa Connor teaches sixth grade social studies at Wellesley Middle School. This spring, she participated in Primary Source's A Century of Conflict and Resolution in the Middle East seminar and returned to the classroom with a wealth of new resources and perspectives. Her students have been particularly engaged by the use of Google Earth to explore the traditions and geographical patterns of Muslims' annual pilgrimage, the Hajj.

Primary Source: As an educator, what are the biggest challenges you face when teaching about the Middle East?

Alyssa Connor: For me, the most challenging aspect of teaching this topic is being able to present the many complex layers in a balanced way. I am constantly questioning my word choices, time spent on each view, the tone of the different sources I give to students, and more. Sixth-graders tend to want to issues to be very black and white, so it can be a new sensation for them to feel conflicted about who is right and who is wrong in a situation. If students walk away confused, feeling empathy for all parties involved in this conflict, then I feel like they are closer to understanding what needs to be done to achieve a resolution.

PS: How did the A Century of Conflict and Resolution in the Middle East course change the way you teach about the region? What has the impact been on your students?

Alyssa: I walked away from this course with useful resources that I immediately incorporated into my lessons. The Project Look Sharp (a media literacy initiative of Ithaca College) lessons, for example, were a new resource to me. I definitely plan to explore and use that site more next year. Overall, I feel like the different sources we explored, like the online interviews, the movies, and the live videoconference with teachers in Jordan offered me more ways to let my students take in the different views first hand. Having so many primary sources to choose from took the pressure off me to convince my classes that there were human stories and experiences behind all of the politics.

PS: Primary Source also brought a Google Earth workshop to your school. Tell me about that experience and how you've used the technology in the classroom.

Alyssa: We were actually teaching about the Hajj just as we learned about the Google Earth Hajj program that had been created by the Middle East Policy Council. We were so impressed with it that we decided to just go ahead and let students explore it as much as they could. Kids learned how to maneuver the program, move from site to site along the Hajj, and view the pictures. Later on, they chose an image from each of the main stages of the Hajj and wrote a haiku to explain what happens at that point in the pilgrimage. It was definitely an engaging way to think about the Hajj, and we have a better idea of how to improve the experience for next year's students.

PS: In your opinion, how can technology help to broaden students' perspectives and increase global awareness?

Alyssa: With the use of Google Earth to teach about the Hajj, students saw some of the most up-to-date images of the pilgrimage I have ever been able to present. For my non-Muslim students, the Hajj suddenly became something more relevant to their everyday lives. Up until this year we had been relying on old posters and articles to try and illustrate what happens during this holy pilgrimage, but the Google Earth images suddenly brought this old tradition right into the world of technology that they know best.