The First Grade and Animal Shelters

Just before we left for Spring Break, Gail and I spent time discussing how to continue our discussion with her class regarding making a difference. Knowing her girls are very interested in animals and their service learning project this spring involves helping a local animal shelter, we began wondering how we could help the girls put that passion to even greater action. Gail created a LiveBinder, and we began filling it with resources, one of which is the shelter's website. However, as we looked at the site, we realized it has no content meant for children other than a simple page advertising field trips and tours of the facility. That got us thinking. What if Gail's class created content for a children's information page, similar to the ones found on ASPCA and AVMA? Maybe the girls could create a PSA or informative coloring pages or a list of ideas and ways to help animals. The ideas suddenly seemed limitless.

The next step was to continue the discussion with the girls. So Gail suggested I share the story of my two Jack Russell puppies. I put together a presentation, and the next day, I told the first graders my story. I told the girls it began when my children decided they really wanted a puppy. As I investigated the best way to get a Jack Russell puppy (my family is partial to these dogs), I discovered the Jack Russell Rescue organization. I explained to the girls we decided that rather than buy a puppy from a breeder, we would rescue a dog in need of a home. As it turned out, at the time of our search, there was a litter of pups that had been dropped at a shelter. While explaining the adoption process to the students, we discussed how that seemingly small choice on the part of my family made a huge difference in the lives of those dogs (we ended up adopting two!). Now my little dogs have a loving home with all they need to keep them healthy and safe. Through the discussion, the girls helped Gail and I brainstorm a list of ingredients essential to caring for animals: shelter, food, water, a yard in which to run, medicine if they are sick, and most of all, attention and love. Throughout the discussion, the girls were amazing. One student even made the association between my adoption story and one of their summer reading books, A Home for Dixie. Gail and I couldn't have been more pleased with the observations and comments the girls made. They shared stories of their own pets, some of which were also adopted. We talked about how important it is to support shelters and how keeping homeless animals safe and healthy requires money and support from the community, which is all of us.

The next steps this project takes should be quite exciting!

Making a Difference (Lindsay and Renee's project)

Lindsay (6th grade) and I (5th grade) are working together on our Inquiry-based learning project. Under the umbrella of Making a Difference, we decided to take advantage of a unique opportunity. One of our teachers took a year sabbatical to work with different classrooms around the world. Here is a link to her blog. Her interest and objective is to help these students share stories about themselves with the rest of the world. Our students have been "following" her and listening to the stories of the young people she meets. We've also participated in two Skype sessions.

Using this video as a prompt, our students first responded in KWL fashion using Moodle Forums to two questions:

1) What did you learn from watching and listening to this video?

2) What questions were not answered in the video? What questions do you still have?

The video is narrated by a Cambodian HS student who, with his team, created a video about the dwindling number of wells and clean water in his village.

In addition, I had them answer a survey question: Does your family get their water from a well?

Lindsay and I will take their questions and after sorting and coming up with themes, we will create a Google Doc for different questions. Then the students will do research to answer the questions. Based on what they come up with, we'll move to the next step in deciding what action to take in order to make a different.

Lindsay has located a local professor who is a member of Engineers Without Borders. We're hoping to get him in to speak with our students.

That's what we're doing.

The Process of Making a Difference

Over the last few weeks the students in my Peace Studies class have been identifying issues which interest them so that they can develop a plan of action to try to address the issue. They have now created their action plans and are attempting to raise awareness and to make a difference, if only a small one. The sheer fact that they are trying to make a difference is a step forward. It has been exciting to see the range of topics being explored- from packaging food that was made but never served in our dining hall and sending it to local food kitchens to addressing adult illiteracy to protesting against puppy mills.  

 From: peaceactionphiladelphia.org

Each student is expected to identify and analyze:

* the causes of the issue and its history

*  the organizations (Governmental and/or Non-Governmental (NGOs) working in the area of their issue. They must identify and discuss:

§  who they are;

§  what they are doing;

§  what their successes are;

§  what obstacles they face;

§  and whether or not they making progress and how one  can tell.

·        They must describe the criteria they are using to gauge success- use of philanthropic dollars, impact on the problem, education, rehabilitation, placement of those who are oppressed (ex. places to live for those who are homeless), other?

·      

* any other people who are involved with the issue and what they are doing. What is working? What isn’t? Why?

*how the issue relates to peace, social justice, and non-violence, as well as why the issue is important. Why should we care about it?

The culmination of this project is a multimedia presentation of their analysis of the items above as well as their analysis of the action plans and their effectiveness. 

These students would benefit from feedback. Those who have social media sites so far can be reached at: 
AIDS in South Africa 

End Family Illiteracy - Facebook

End Family Illiteracy- Twitter 
Drive Safe Now (Eyes on the Road) 

Global Warming 
Help End Animal Experimentation 

Help Homeless in Baltimore 

Help Stop Violence Against Native American Women 

Hunger in the Horn of Africa
Recycle Plastic Bags

Stop Discrimination Against Hispanic Immigrants 

Stop Puppy Mills 

Stop Teen Dating Abuse

Support Veterans with PTSD 

Please encourage these students with your questions and reactions.

Cross-posted with Ruekmusings.blogspot.com

The planning begins!

Collaboratively planning a project is no easy task for a group of educators... it's even more of an adventure when the team members are located in different parts of the world! Alrighty, we admit, we could find one another simply by crossing the Pennsylvania/Maryland border, but that is a time-intensive task requiring all sorts of carpooling and fuel and calendars and free time.

What's a team to do? Turn to Google docs, of course.

After introducing ourselves in the PLP Hub, we got the ball rolling with planning after our last group webinar. The GDoc has been essential in sharing our contact information, important links, and beginning the brainstorming process. Today, the GFS team within our group met to brainstorm ideas about our PBL project.

Our team has now embarked on two initial steps of the planning process: 1) select and research a topic 2) identify concepts/brainstorm topic, gain ownership through questioning. The GFS team started an amazing list of details related to the topic: sustainability.

I'd love to explore the topic in-depth... how about we create a concept map to help organize our thoughts? Shall we use Mindmeister? Bubbl.us? Any other suggestions?