Be Careful what you WISH for!

Four weeks ago I began a journey with my Mod 5 Class.  They, I mean WE decided to collect 30,000 bottle caps and plastic lids to show honor to the 30,000 children abducted in Central Africa by Joseph Kony.  We brainstormed using the caps to create a mural to hang in our school.  What has resulted is breathtaking....... 

Maddy, Matthew, Baylor, Luke and Anna painting on Mural #1

Maddy Genskow painting the sky on Mural #1

We have three four foot by eight foot pieces of plywood in our classroom that students are drawing, painting, and gluing bottle caps to.  I have students in Mod 5 and other Mods helping work on these boards.  I have an amazing former student, Samantha Carpenter, who is a Linn-Mar high school student, and talented artist.  She has graciously spent her "free" time working with Maddy Genskow, one of my Mod 3 students.  They have made our
murals look like masterpieces.  What fantastic drawing skills they have.  Every free minute is spent working on our murals: lunch, connections and after school.  This project has become SO much BIGGER than I could have ever imagined.

We now have over 40,000 lids, and caps of all colors, shapes and sizes.  This week we received a donation from Coca-Cola.  It has been so thrilling to see all the caps come in.  Little by little, cap by cap, they come to our classroom.  They show up in baggies, and tubs, and buckets, and sacks.  I have family and friends bringing them to my house, and people placing them in my mailbox at school.  I even received a box from Arkansas full of caps this week.  This project has taken on a life of it's own and I can't wait to share with you all the final product.  Keep watching for our next post, it's going to be fabulous.

Jack, Kyle and Alyssa glue caps on the Ugandan Huts on our mural.

Jordan, Riley, Liz, Lanessa, and Jake work on Mural #2 that says, "STOP KONY"

Making Progress!

Caps 2 Stop Kony Still Going.....

Here we are 20 days and counting and we have 38,606 plastic lids, caps, etc.  What a feeling to have exceeded our goal of 30,000 caps.  We are still collecting until May 1st, 2012.  We received some great donations from:

Red Robin-Cedar Rapids, Iowa 
Red Robin- Dubuque, Iowa
Starbucks-Marion Hy-Vee
University of Iowa 
Ekstrand Elementary School-DeWitt, Iowa
Linn Grove Elementary School-Marion, Iowa
City of Cedar Rapids Fire Department
Willow Gardens Nursing Home
Hundreds of students, staff, friends and family members have also collected caps for us

Our mural is in the design process.  We hope to have photos of the mural up for you soon. Meanwhile, here are some photos of Mod 2 and their campaign to "Cover the Day" to raise awareness of who Joseph Kony is, hanging posters at our school on Friday, April 20th, 2012. 

Jasmine A. explaining to Staff in our building who Kony is and why he should be stopped.

Our  school hallways now have 150 posters about the Kony 2012 Campaign.

Project update: BIG Weekend

The Easter Bunny was good to our project.  Over the past four days we have received 3,950 lids from Red Robin Restaurant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Terry Smith, Art Teacher from Ekstrand Elementary School in DeWitt, Iowa, donated 10 boxes of caps and lids leftover from a bottlecap mural she recently constructed at her school.  We have just begun counting her kind donation, but as of Tuesday, April 10th, 2012, we now have 18,833 caps for our project.  We have 6 large boxes left to count and many more people collecting for us. 

More than a Piece of Plastic

This year I let each of my Mods(classes) choose a project to complete.  You may have read in one of our earlier postings about my Mod 1 class and their ideas to reduce the national debt.  They made a video and wrote a three page letter to our President.  He responded a few weeks later with a letter and some photos.  Once my other Mods saw that, they totally got on board and stopped procrastinating and wanted to nail down a project.  Mod 3 is choosing a curriculum related item to learn about.(More to follow on this)  Mod 2 and 4 are still selecting their ideas and Mod 5 picked a rather ambitious idea.

After learning about propaganda, several of my students came across this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

Many of you may have seen it or have heard your children talking about it.  This video showcases capturing Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA in Central Africa.  His crimes have lasted more than 2 decades.  This video has taken some criticism and with everything that is put out in the media, everyone views it differently and there are lots of opinions.  My 5th Mod was extremely moved by the fact that he has abducted nearly 30,000+ children over the past 9 years and committed several crimes against humanity.  They made some serious connections between our WWII studies and propaganda used today.  Above all else, they just wanted to be a part of something and use their power for good.  It has been rather refreshing to hear in today's world.

My students decided that they would collect 30,000 plastic lids or bottle tops to use to create a mural for our school.  The 30,000 caps to honor the 30,000 abducted and the mural to spread awareness of this man's crimes and to beautify our school with recycled art. Thus doing a lot of good with one project.  We started this journey a week ago.  Not only has this been a Mod 5 thing, but I have kids from other Mods and all over our school helping.  It has been amazing.  One small idea has sparked an ARMY!


Just what can we accomplish with a bunch of pieces of plastic?  You might be surprised....

In one week we have:

~Contacted over 30 businesses, schools, and organizations to help us collect or donate caps
(people are helping and the caps are rolling in.  It is humbling to be out in public and have someone hand you a plastic bag filled with bottle caps because they heard about this project!  That is powerful.)
~Received 3 pieces of 4 by 8 ft. plywood from Morris Wood Enterprises
~Collected, washed, counted, and sorted by color 6,887 plastic caps and lids
~primed our wood to prepare it for our design(students created the design and I can't wait for you to see it)
~lined up volunteers to help us draw, and paint

I SEE plastic lids EVERYWHERE now.  I jump on them like they are GOLD.  I have all my family and friends collecting and they all probably think I am insane.   I view these caps as more than a piece of plastic.  I view them as an amazing gift.  They represent people just like you or me that didn't choose for something terrible to happen to them.  And my students cared very much to honor them.  My students felt a connection and were intrinsically motivated to make a giant statement on their behalf.  Intrinsically motivating 7th graders can be tricky, so when I say this is refreshing, I MEAN it.

I look at things differently now.  I have told many children over the course of 17 years of teaching that they can accomplish anything if they put their mind to it.  Yet, sometimes I know maybe that doesn't always happen for everyone.  We sometimes put our minds to things and they don't work out the way we hope. A week ago, when my students suggested this I found myself saying: "Let's collect some caps and make a SMALL mural.  Cool Idea!"  My student's said, "What if we collect 30,000 caps?"  I said, "What if we don't collect 30,000 caps?  Then what?"  NOW I AM SAYING--"WHAT IF WE DO???"  A week ago I had zero caps in my classroom.  Tonight, I have close to 7,000 plastic caps of all shapes, colors, and sizes sitting in buckets! What a joy.

The next time you look at a cap or plastic lid, wherever you are, I hope you think of this and smile, after you mail us the cap, of course!!:-)

EVERY CAP COUNTS, SO EVEN IF YOU DONATE JUST ONE, THAT IS SOMETHING!
If you have caps to donate we need 23,113 more by May 1st, 2012.  Thank you for helping.

Mrs. Barry's Social Studies Class

Room 707

Excelsior Middle School

3555 North 10^th Street

Marion, Iowa 52302