• Wednesday, April 24, 2019

    Agenda:

    • Today you are presenting to 7th graders not once but TWICE. They are going to come through, see your presentation, and offer you advice and constructive criticism. You will have a few hours to work on it, then will present again after lunch.
    • If you want to see (a) what should be in your presentation and (b) what form they'll be using, you can find those both here.
    • Your grade today will come from 1 place: your participation today. If you also have not met with your mentor teacher (your grade from March), you may also remedy that today.

       

      In your spare time, make sure your process journal is ENTIRELY filled out. You'll be turning that in after Showcase Night on April 30th.

      Helpful Links: Project Guide (White Pages) and Process Journal (Blue Pages)

    Wednesday, March 27, 2019

    Agenda:

    • Everything you need to have done can be found on these slides. Please follow along with them step-by-step at your own pace.
    • Your grade today will come from 2 pieces: (1) participation throughout the day and (2) meeting with your mentor teacher. If you are missing one/both of these pieces, your IB grade will be affected.

       

      By the end of today, you should be working on your presentation. The next C Day (April 24th), you will be presenting your project to the entire school!

      Helpful Links: Project Guide (White Pages) and Process Journal (Blue Pages)

     

    Wednesday, January 23, 2019

    Agenda:

    • It's time to hammer out all the details of your project! By the end of the day, the entire process needs to be flushed out, because when you leave school today, YOU ARE DOING YOUR PROJECT.

      Here we go!

      Here is the slideshow presentation, for you to click through. You need to be done with all slides by the end of the day. If you have reached this point too early, make sure you have checked in with your mentor teacher to be signed off. You should have a clear picture of what you're working on with your group over the next couple of months.

      We will have one C Day to check in, but the next *BIG* C Day (at the end of March), we begin to sum up and reflect on how we did on our project!

      Helpful Links: Project Guide (White Pages) and Process Journal (Blue Pages)

    Wednesday, December 12, 2018

    Agenda:

    • Find your passions and determine what service project you'll want to work on. You'll be spending 15(ish) hours outside of school working on it, so it should be something you're interested in. 
    • Find your group.

    • Here we go!

      Here is the slideshow presentation, for you to click through. You need to be done with Slide 23 (page 17 of your Project Guide, and page 19 of your Process Journal) by the end of the day. If you have reached this point too early, you will be told to return to find more information, to really make sure you have this project ready to go. If you finish with these early, you will begin your planning stage, which you will pick up again in January.

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      The next C Day is where you will finish planning, and begin putting your project into action!

      Helpful Links: Project Guide (White Pages) and Process Journal (Blue Pages)

    Wednesday, November 13, 2018

    Agenda:

    • 8th Grade Superlatives Voting Form (one ballot per person!)

    • STEP ONE: Read the following excerpt from Wonder (R.J. Palacio).Think about your own experiences and whether or not you think that facing challenges and overcoming them makes a person stronger.   


      I know I am not an ordinary ten-year-old kid.  I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream. I ride my bike.  I play ball. I have an XBox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess.  And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds.  I know other ordinary kids don’t get stared at wherever they go.

      If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal face that no one ever noticed at all.  I would wish that I could walk down the street without people seeing me and then doing that lookaway thing. Here’s what I think: the only reason I’m not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.  But hey, I’m not complaining. You can’t exactly blend in when you were born to stand out.


      After reading the excerpt, answer the following debatable question in your Process Journal.  You will use your own prior knowledge and experience for this task. Your answer must be at least a paragraph in length and restate the question.  This is a debatable question, therefore there is no correct answer, but you must provide support for your answer with the reason you chose to answer the way your did.


      Question: Does facing and overcoming challenges make us stronger people?

    • STEP TWO: Read the stories of individuals who overcame adversity through perseverance and grit.  Find similarities and differences between the two stories.


      Out of Tragedy, a Good Life by Olympia Snowe NYTimes June 2012  

      5 Influential People Who Faced Adversity Growing Up by Meghan Werft Global Citizen October 2015

       

       

      After reading the articles, on a blank piece of paper, create a graphic organizer to depict the names of the individuals, important aspects of his/her story, and things that are similar between the two individuals and their stories.  An example might be...

      Person 1: (add their name)

      What are some important aspects of his/her story?

      What is the same or similar about the two individuals?

      Person 2 (add their name)

      What are some important aspects of his/her story
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      You could also choose to do a Double Bubble Map or a Venn Diagram.  

       

       

      After you have created your graphic organizer, answer the following question in your Process Journal.

      Question: After reading the stories or watching the video clips about folks who have overcome adversity, what do you think the MAJOR reason that these individuals persevered?  Why? (Restate the question in the answer and provide at least a paragraph in response)

    • STEP THREE: After watching the Introducing Upstander video, in your Process Journal, explain in 2-3 sentences, what you think it means to be an Upstander.

       

      On the Starbucks Channel there are many videos of people demonstrating being an Upstander.  Using evidence based on the videos you watched, answer the question below.  To document, use the title of the video, the webpage, the date published (aired), and the date you watched in your citation.  If you would like, you can also include evidence from the articles from Step 2.

      Question: Based on the stories you saw about people overcoming adversity and now the videos about Upstanders, do you believe the following quotation is true, “Strong people stand up for themselves but the strongest people stand up for others.” Why or why not?  (This should be an extended response completed in your Process Journal.)

    • STEP FOUR: Take notes on what you see in the videos (10 Bullied Teens Who Are Now Changing the World, 10 Kids That Changed the World, and For the Heroes: A Pep Talk from Kid President), in your Process Journal.  You will be using all that you have learned in the next step.

     

    • STEP FIVE: What are you Passionate About?

      By now, after sifting through the materials provided in this activity, there should be a few themes emerging, such as perseverance, kindness, compassion, and doing the right thing.


      In order to take action on an issue of local or global significance, first you need to have a plan and a passion.  MAybe by discovering your passion, you can be the next kid to change you school community or even the world.


      Over the next few hours, I challenge you to think about the world around you.  Discover what you really care about or what you think is totally unfair, and capture it here.


      Maybe you will revisit this when you complete your Community Project starting in December.  For now, I want you to find a passion and write down a plan. What you decide to do with it is up to you.  Record your ideas in the organizer below. This will require creative thinking. Note: you will not be required at this time to act on your action plan.

     

     

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