Getting Started in the classroom with Three Cups of Tea

Are you looking for teaching tools or curriculum to use with Three Cups of Tea or Listen to the Wind? Please scroll down the blog to where it says "For More Information". You will find several teaching tools if you click on the links provided. The Pennies for Peace site has toolkit with a wealth of information. You will find detailed curriculum for various grade levels as well as videos, maps, photos, implementation tools and stickers. Also, the free printable guide on the TeacherVision site offers discussion questions, cross-curricular activities and research projects to enhance the reading of Three Cups of Tea and Listen to the Wind. In addition, you will find many videos on You Tube with Greg Mortenson discussing his projects and his mission. Some are put to music and are quite inspirational. Good luck in your lesson planning!

Welcome Back Teachers

I hope you have settled in to the start of a wonderful and exciting new school year. We would love to hear from you and find out what is happening in your classrooms with Three Cups of Tea. There is so much information out there and so many resources, but it is wonderful to hear from those of you who have been involved in this project, who have received books and have developed lesson plans and curriculum to teach along side the inspiring story. Please feel free to leave comments on my posts or email me if you have something you would like to share on this blog or if you have any questions. I would be happy to get back to you and pass information along or put you in touch with some of the fabulous teachers I have gotten to know through my involvement in this project. I hope to be posting many of your ideas on a more regular basis.

There are so many inspiring quotes from Greg Mortenson that are great jumping off points for lessons or even units of instruction. I would like to leave you with this one:

"I've learned that terror doesn't happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us. It happens because children aren't being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death."
-Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea Served at Sanborn

Three Cups of Tea has been used at Sanborn for a variety of purposes and by different classroom teachers for the past two years. The book has been on several of our suggested reading lists including our summer reading list, the Sociology reading list, and the Middle Eastern and African Studies class list. Many faculty members have read and enjoyed the book as well.

We were very excited to hear that we will be receiving multiple copies of the young reader’s edition of Three Cups of Tea. This version will make Greg Mortenson’s message of promoting peace through education accessible to a wider audience.

Our plans for using the two different versions of the book have expanded for next year. Our sociology teacher read Three Cups of Tea prior to the Greg Mortenson event in Exeter on March 5. As a result, she has decided to require it as part of next year’s sociology class. Her honors and “college prep” students must participate in “Social Action Projects” and the book will be used as an example of one person’s ability to effect positive change in the world. Also, our Global Studies teachers are looking forward to using the young adult version with freshmen students to supplement the unit on world religions. Global Studies is a required freshman humanities class that deals with a variety of global issues. It is wonderful that we will have enough copies for the message of the book to be discussed by such a large audience.

The Sanborn community is very thankful for the generous donation of copies of both the adult and young reader’s edition of Three Cups of Tea.

Ginny Bartlett is the school librarian at Sanborn Regional High School, Kingston, NH.

A wonderful evening with Greg Mortenson at Exeter High School, March 5, 2010

Press Release

New Hampshire Serving Three Cups of Tea is proud to announce that renowned author and humanitarian Greg Mortenson will be coming to New Hampshire on March 5, 2010 to speak to high school students about his work promoting community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson is author of #1 New York Times best-seller, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School At A Time, Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea. Mortenson is also the co-founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute. In 1993 Mortenson’s life was saved by villagers after his failed attempt to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world. In gratitude to the villagers, Mortenson announced he would return and build the children a school. Since then, and against great odds, he has seen to the construction of 131 schools.

Since 2008, the Oristano Foundation and The Cricenti Trust have made copies of Three Cups of Tea available to high schools and middle schools in New Hampshire. Heather Cummings, Director of Curriculum at the Governor Wentworth Regional School District, Foundation liaison and co-chair of New Hampshire Serving Three Cups of Tea, reports that currently 37 schools have received books and teachers and students are using the story to build an understanding of the culture and hardships of life in these distant and isolated villages. “These students have become fascinated with the Mortenson’s work in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are learning that not everyone in these countries are bad people looking to harm the United States. Students here are learning that Mortenson believes that ‘If you educate a girl, you educate a community’ and education can change culture.”

Educators in these schools have been developing curriculum and learning experiences around the book. They share their experiences at regional get-togethers and through the Three Cups of Tea blog (http://nh3cupsoftea.blogspot.com/). Some of the educators are also involved in more formal curriculum work through the College of Graduate Studies, Plymouth State University.

This event, being held at Exeter High School, is being sponsored by the Lakes Region Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee of the New Hampshire School Administrators Association.

Mortenson’s interest in New Hampshire is with the high school and middle school students reading Three Cups of Tea. Therefore, the Exeter High School auditorium where Mortenson will appear, is being reserved for students, educators and invited guests. The general public is welcome to watch a simulcast at the Cooperative Middle School in Stratham.

Media Contact: Dr. Kathleen C. McCabe, College of Graduate Studies, Plymouth State University, can be reached at 279-4753.

Note: Greg Mortenson will not be available for interviews. The press is welcome to attend the event and witness Mortenson’s address from an over-flow room.