The Final Project

Finishing the school year strong can be a challenge for some students.  The weather gets warm, and they want to check out for the summer.  To help keep my students focused, I cooked up and end of the year project that was just the ticket.

Instead of asking my students to regurgitate information on a end of the year test,  I asked them to participate in an end of the year  project.  There task was to take music of their choice and use social studies information and content covered in class to incorporate into the lyrics. To grab my students attention and generate enthusiasm, I unsuspectingly performed  live for all my mods.  I wasn't great, but I was able to model what they needed to do and they gave me props for singing in front of them.  They spent around 14 days working to create their masterpieces.  They did not disappoint me.

I was blown away by the projects.  What resulted were amazing recordings, PowerPoints, videos, and live performances.  Below are just a few samples of their creative genius.  It was a great way to end our year.

Just Bones

My students have spent the past several weeks covering WWII, the Holocaust and the effects of propaganda.  As part of their studies they learned what life was like in the countries affected by those events.  We spent days covering the history, the people, the places, the names, the faces, the key events.  The numbers of individuals murdered before and during the war are astounding:

~6 million Jews

~5 million others

and hundreds to thousands more not documented.  All the facts and figures aside what really hit home with my students was that genocide still happens today.  

Some of the countries battling genocide today have lost as many to more citizens in days, weeks, or years in comparison to the Holocaust.  Any of these events are despicable, but what is even more difficult to understand is that it is STILL happening TODAY!  DRC, Sudan, South Sudan, Burma, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are just some of the places in our globe battling Genocide today.  All of these countries are covered in our 7th Grade Social Studies Curriculum.

OUR WORLD just can't seem to TOLERATE DIFFERENCES! 

As part of our studies, my students participated in a project for an organization known as ONE MILLION BONES.  In an effort to raise awareness about Genocide, One Million Bones is a group of artists who want to construct a memorial in Washington D.C. made of One Million Bones.  My seventh grade social studies students have made around 185 bones from clay, model magic, duct tape and paper mache' to ship to Washington D.C. to be added to the memorial that will be constructed on June 8th, 9th, and 10th.  Schools and organizations from around the globe have helped in the creation of bones for the memorial.  I believe the memorial will hold more than 1,018,000 bones crafted out of various materials.

                                           

One of the best class discussions I had with my students focused on this:

 "When you peel back the layers of my skin, what would you see?"  After some crazy answers my students finally got what I was aiming at.  "BONES."  "That's right, bones.  And my bones are not a different color than your bones.  My bones are white.  They contain no magic fairy dust.  They hold no great value.  They are just bones.  When we all peel back our clothes, our make-up, our hair, our ethnicity, our beliefs, we are made of just bones.  If we can all only learn to look past our differences to get to what we have in common, then maybe one day Genocide will end."

I can't wait to see our bones added to the memorial in Washington D.C. in June.  I hope all who view it will be moved to help end genocide.

For more information on this project, please visit
www.onemillionbones.org

The Middle Ages Visit Excelsior Middle School

Weaving with spinning wheels and hand spinners

Excelsior 7th graders got a taste of what it was like for people in Medieval times this week. After studying a theme of the Middle Ages in Social Studies, these students spent a day rotating through a variety of academic stations which tied into the curriculum.

This busy day full of activities began with a guest speaker on Falconry and ended with a Middle Age Music Group from the Cedar Rapids Area. In between, the kids worked at stations creating shields, churning butter, spinning wool, basket making, learning about archery, building catapults, and participating in reader's theater.

The main curriculum outlining the Medieval Festival was taught during Social Studies,  but other subjects were also included in the student experience. For instance, the catapults were created in Science. All our content teachers participated in the day.  By putting their curriculum into action,  our classroom and team teachers provided students with an interactive experience that brought learning to life!

Catapult Competitions

Falconry Speaker from the Raptor Center

Butter Making

Butter Making Station

Reader's Theater Performances of Middle Age Folktales

Archery Speakers

HOW GROSS IS IT?

Would you want to live in the middle ages?  Students in Mrs. Barry's Social Studies class had the opportunity to research and read about life in the middle ages.  They found out how gross/difficult life might have been there.  After completing research, they were assigned a paper of the top 5 Gross things that they discovered about living during the middle ages.  Below are a few samples of what my students found!  Enjoy!

How Gross Is It?
Emily Wolfe Mod2

There were many disgusting things about the Middle Ages.  Some that I thought would be the grossest things to do were: be a gong farmer, eat a blackbird pie,  be a witch hunter, be a street cleaner, or get trench mouth!  All these things sound super disgusting and gross!

    In Medieval towns there was no plumbing.  So where did the waste go? The gong farmer had to remove human waste from privies (toilets from the Middle Ages).  The waste had to be taken out of the city boundaries.  The gong farmers were only allowed to work at night and could only live in certain areas.  The gong farmers didn’t smell the best but the were paid pretty well.
    Have you ever heard of the nursery rhyme “Sing A Song Of Sixpence” (Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie...).  The song actually relates to the Middle Ages when cooks would put blackbirds in pie!  They would do this as a joke and for entertainment. The cooks wouldn't bake the birds in the pie.  Their pie crust was thick so they could bake the crust then put birds inside and put the lid over them. When they cut the pie at the feast the blackbirds would fly out.

In the Middle Ages some people were accused of being witches. Witches were supposedly worshipers of the devil.  People thought that witches caused accidents, bad luck, illness, or death. But there were other witches that could make love, health, good luck, and wealth. Witchcraft was hated mostly by the Christians and the church. The church started witch hunts; if you were accused of being a witch you were put on trial.  Almost everyone that was accused was tortured and beaten until they confessed.

The street cleaners job was to try to keep the gross streets clean.  The streets were muddy, full of animal and human waste, and everything else that fell on it.  The people would throw their garbage out onto the street.  There were never enough street cleaners.

In the Middle Ages people ate out of trenchers. Trenchers were pieces of wood shaped like a bowl. They were often made out of old, stale bread. Trenchers would soak up the juices of the meal being served and could be eaten as part of the meal.  They were never washed so sometimes they would get moldy and wormy. After eating off the wormy trenchers, they would get trench mouth.  Trench mouth was like a painful form of gingivitis.

The Middle Ages had some very gross things!  Like gong farmers, blackbird pies, witch hunters, street cleaners, trench mouth, and lots, lots more!  These are all pretty weird and disgusting.  So which one do you think is the grossest?

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Harrison Langfitt’s Mod 4:  How Gross is it?

    Life as we know it is a lot of things, one of those is how gross is our life today compared to life in middle ages? You may think that our life is more gross because of pollution and processed food and an assortment of things. Middle ages life was worse and they did not even know. Here comes the grossness.
    Those educated enough may already know a mass amount of chemicals and other things we would never consider eating go in some of the foods we love. If you examine a label on food there is a list of ingredients a lot of which aren’t household names. But you can’t be picky in the middle ages but even the rich ate some very gross food such as blackbird pie. This pie may sound good but they put live blackbirds in the pie. The problems can be found on a cellular level because avions can carry many diseases. And there is a possibility that a few birds might survive and fly out of your pie not to mention if any bird body fluids are released.

Street cleaner is a job that would sound decent today because you just sit in a large truck that cleans as you drive and people don’t put much rubbish in the street these days. In the middle ages there were no street cleaning truck and no garbage collection force. So the streets would be full and rotting leftover foods and horse feces and that would make one unbearable smell. The tools for this job were just a bucket of water and a hand brush or if you were lucky a broom. So of course this job was left for the slaves because it was so nasty.

Gong farmer is pretty self explanatory on why it was disgusting and as described with the street cleaner this job not only deals with feces but thats the main focus. Since feces human or nonhuman contain nutrients and minerals they make great fertilizer. So these sad people would actually look for this stuff even dig it out of the ground.

The Black Death is by far the worst and most gross out of this entire paper. This disease is caused by fleas from rats and is transferred to humans this disease could be simply stopped with soap and water. Back in the middle ages freshwater was scarce and people could not afford to bathe or thought that if they bathed the next day they would get dirty again. But they did not know this sadly so over one million people died, first people got bad hacking coughs and even started coughing up blood, and they would get big ugly blood and pus filled boils on their body and die. When they died they were buried, burned or thrown into a large cart full of other dead bodies being pushed down the street. But humans eventually grew immunities to this disease.

Today is a lot better than the middle ages wouldn't you agree. And someday people in the future will look back on us and think we are gross.

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How Gross Is It?
Sierra Christensen
Mod 3

    When I imagine the Medieval Era, I think of giant castles with sparkling moats, fantasy and magic, and knights in shining armor. I think how cool it would be to live in a castle! But the truth is, it wasn’t all unicorns and rainbows. In fact, it was absolutely disgusting! From their jobs to moats to hygiene, it was about as far from wonderful as you can get!
   
    Surrounding many castles was a moat. It stretched around the wall, and was crossed by a drawbridge. One of its purposes was to help keep out invaders, but the other purpose was to be a sewer. When a person needed to relieve themselves, they dumped all of their body wastes into the castle moat. If they had dirty water from anything, they also dumped it as well. The moat was very large so they couldn’t cover it or clean it out, so the stink was awful! Imagine living in a place that always smelled of human waste! That alone would drive me away!

    Not only did the castle smell, but they smelled as well. Before the Middle Ages, there were lots of opportunities to bathe. There were lots of bathhouses, and many people had personal tubs as well. But you see, they often took their baths outside. They liked to heat their water. Out of control fires spread very quickly, burning down lots of forests. Firewood became extremely expensive. The bathhouses shut down, and only the very wealthy could afford it any more. The poor people only got to take a bath every once in awhile, and when they did, the entire household had to share one tub of water. Imagine how gross it would be if you were the last person allowed to use the water! It would practically be mud by the time you got it!

    Another reason that the people smelled was because of their clothes. Back then, they didn’t have washing machines or soap. A fullers job was to clean the wool that was to be made into clothes. The “dishwasher detergent” of the Middle Ages was human urine. It contains ammonia which is a sterilizing chemical. The fuller would first beat out the wool with a club and wet it with urine. They would then walk on the wool while it was still wet to spread it through the fabric. Then they sent it off to be made into clothes. How would you like to wear a urine cleaned shirt?

    Now, during the Medieval Era, there was a lot of disease and infection, and the doctors didn’t know very much about good ways to cure it. When a person had a blood infection, the doctor would use a method called bloodletting. They would put leeches on the infected area, and let them freely drink the persons blood. They believed that this would get rid of the bad blood, but most of the time it would only make their condition worse. The imbalance of blood in the person's body would cause them to get sicker, and, in some extreme cases, die. With disease everywhere, bloodletting was a commonly used method, and they didn’t figure it out till a lot later.

    Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s Disease,  was one of the many disgusting diseases of the Middle Ages. It would deform your fingers and toes, and your skin would pretty much be falling off. Now 95 percent of people are immune to it, but back then, it was all over. Leprosy is an airborne infectious disease, which means it is spread when you breathe it in. Since it spreads so quickly, lepers were rarely allowed anywhere near the manor, and if they were, they had to walk on a certain side of the street, according to the wind direction. They carried bells and clappers to warn the people that a diseased person was coming, and to ask for charity donations. It was really sad because they didn’t have a cure for it, so if you got it, you usually stayed that way - gross and deformed - for the rest of your life.

    So you see, the Medieval Ages weren’t all that the books and movies make them to be. Their hygiene and knowledge were terrible. I now realize that if I just want to be part of the fantasy and adventures that I read about, then I should just go to a renaissance fair! I’d rather not live in such a disgusting time period.

Connecting with the Past

How Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt have Influenced Our Nation
By:  Jade Paulsen
Mod 7

Where do the columns come from that our outside some of our Nation's buildings?  Who helped come up with the great cures for some illnesses?  What civilization helps us understand how the world came to be by explaining stories through plays and poems?  I believe the civilizations that helped influence our nation a great amount would be Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt.  Thanks to them our Nation may be thriving.

Ancient Egypt contributed a great amount to our knowledge of medicine and the body.  Numerous papyrus have been found in archaeological searches that reveal many facts they knew.  Ancient Egyptians knew that the heart, pulse rates, air, and blood were important to the function of the human body.  How did this help us?  It could have been the early data that allowed our doctors to invent CPR or realize that these basic body functions are necessary for life.  Egyptians also came  up with medicine for burns, broken bones, wounds, and infections.  Thanks to their knowledge our doctors could add on to the medical knowledge and make it even more effective.  Ancient Egypt had great knowledge of embalming and how to preserve bodies which may have influenced our practices in funeral homes and morgues today.

Greek Literature has influenced our Nation a lot.  The ancient Greeks composed myths and wrote poems and play.  Many of these stories have inspired directors to create films about them.  The myths that they created were to help our understanding of their world and daily life.  For example, one of my favorite plays is Pandora.  It is about a curious woman who opens a box that lets  out the ills of the world, but also hope.  It explains why there is envy, crime, hate, and disease in the world, but thanks to that box it also gave us hope.  Without that myth we might not be able to define the bad things in the world.

Greek architecture can be seen many places around our nation.  What makes the architecture so famous are the columns.  The three styles of Greek architecture are:  Doric(plain), Ionic (scrolls), and Corinthian(carved stone leaves).  These styles can be seen all over.  The Lincoln Memorial has fifty-four Ionic columns around it.  Those are just a few examples out of many.  Greek architecture has definitely influenced the Nation and has made it more diverse in design.  Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece have made our Nation more intelligent, diverse, and astonishing.

Africa: A Different Perspective

My students study Africa.  It is in the Eastern Hemisphere.  My curriculum covers World Cultures of the Eastern Hemisphere.   It sounds  simple.... It is NOT.  Africa is a CONTINENT, not A country.  It has more than 53 countries.  It has beauty, struggle, war, and it is complicated.  From governments, to culture, to needs.... it is complex.  Today my students got a rare glimpse at Africa from another perspective:  an actual person who lives there.

There is something magical about a guest speaker.  When someone from another place opens up about their life and their story.... it is simply breathtaking.  Even more breathtaking is the look on students' faces.  When close to 600 students are hushed listening to someone other than themselves....well, it is remarkable.

Today Invisible Children visited our school.  They shared a lot of the history of atrocities happening in Central Africa, and they shared the history of how they came to be where they are today as an organization.  They gave students a glimpse at our political process.  Middle School students maybe can't vote, but they sure can talk.  They have a voice.  They have LOUD voices and they can use that voice for something other than recreation.  Today students  viewed a short video, listened to speakers, and wrote letters to their Senator encouraging the continued support of ending atrocities committed by the LRA in Central Africa the past 26 years.

Throughout the day, our guests complimented our school on having such great understanding of what was happening.  They appreciated the background knowledge students exhibited, and they were impressed with the mural project from last year.  After photo ops, autographs, lunch, snacks, and such, they packed up their van.  I'm quite sure our halls will never be the same.  At least, I'm hoping they WON'T be the same.  I know I am NOT the same.

I had the rare privilege of hosting our speakers for dinner and as overnight guests.  I sat in awe of their normalcy.  I felt as if I was having dinner with someone I had known my whole life. As the evening progressed I looked around my living room to see us all curled up on couches, watching the Presidential Debate.  It was a perfectly normal night.  The differences between our worlds seemed minimal and I was awestruck by the fact that if I can sit down at the table with my whole family and strangers, and offer them a chance to curl up in a sleeping bag on my living room floor, surely we can all work together to end a war?

Pharaohs, Mummies, and Revolution, OH MY!

My students have spent the past few weeks studying Egypt long ago and Egypt today.  When we talk about Ancient Egypt my students are thrilled by the thoughts of mummies, and pyramids, and the stories that go with the topics.  It was very interesting learning about the mummification process, the rulers of Egypt long ago and how progressive they were as a civilization.  Many of my students were shocked to find out that women of Ancient Egypt were business owners and could buy and sell property!  What happened from the fall of Egypt in 669 B.C. to 2012 is a mystery to me.  Many citizens in Egypt have found themselves fighting for a better life, and a better country since January, 2011.  My students viewed some great stories from 60 minutes about the Revolution from January, 2011, and more recent footage from the Fall of 2011.  Here we are almost two years later and Egypt is not quite where they want to be.  What an awesome thing for my students to view and realize that Changing a government and promoting Democracy takes TIME.  I fear that people want things fast, quick, easy and life is anything but, quick and easy.  Yes, Egypt began a revolution with Facebook and Twitter and it lasted 18 days.  But their dream of having  a democracy is just unfolding and that could take years to resolve. 

The Revolution in Egypt began by some ordinary people who chose to be activists and seek change.  Imagine what  our students will be accomplishing in the next 30 years?

We had some fantastic conversations about how that connects to our world, as well as what our founding fathers felt like when our nation was struggling to be a Democracy.  How did they feel writing the first Constitution?  James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin didn't tweet their proposals or location of town hall meetings, but I bet they experienced some of the same thoughts and feelings as the revolutionaries in Egypt.  I bet there was fear, struggle, and they were not where they wanted to be in two years.  In fact, I bet some of our leaders and politicians today would say we are not where we want to be, TODAY!! Democracy isn't perfect, and it does take time! How lucky we are that our founding fathers signed that Constitution 225 years ago!

As my students complete their Egypt studies and projects I hope they begin to see and connect that all countries struggle to find a government system that works and serves the people.   There are good leaders and not so good leaders.  Some people understand how to use their power in a positive way and others use it for things almost unspeakable.  I hope they see that even our own country can struggle, but thankfully, WE HAVE DEMOCRACY and WE CAN VOTE.

Below follow some Egypt Projects we have completed:

Welcome Back to Room 707!

Tonight,  my windows are open.  The air is crisp and I am actually sipping hot tea while I write this post.  Is it August or October?  After a VERY hot summer, I welcome the change in weather.  This must be mother nature's way of telling me it's time for another school year to begin.  If you have spent the past year following our class blog, we invite you to stay.   If you are new to our blog, we welcome you and promise you'll be in for some amazing things this year.
You can just check our postings monthly or you can register and become a member.  Don't be fooled by the small number of registered members on this site.  Last spring, our blog was viewed more than 3, 500 times world wide.  Pretty exciting stuff!

I can't wait to get this school year started.  A few days from now, I will have 180 students daily in my  7th grade social studies classes.  We'll cover World Cultures of the Eastern Hemisphere.  Students will be encouraged to share and make connections from our classroom to current events in the news. Don't be surprised if in a few weeks, your child begs you to let them watch 60 minutes on Sunday evenings.  ( I can dream, right?)

One of my most favorite things about this class is that we do:  Projects, Projects, Projects.  I can't wait to see what students come up with this year.  Take a look at past posts to see some of the amazing things my past classes created.

Below you'll find a brief outline of what students will be studying.  I can only say you'll want to tune in again soon.  There are some especially exciting things on the horizon.

August-
Review Hemispheres and Map Skills, latitude and longitude

Mesopotamia

September-

Ancient Egypt

Northern Africa

World Religions

*October-

1^st-11^th Central Africa

*October 16^th Invisible Children/ Uganda Speaker and Assembly(This is gonna be AWESOME!)

October 17^th-19^th Wrap up Africa

October 22^nd- Begin Ancient Greece

November-

Finish Ancient Greece

Roman Empire

December-January

Middle Ages

Middle-Late January-March

Europe

World Wars I and II

March-

Japan

SE Asia

April-

India Subcontinent

Hinduism/Buddhism

May-

Australia

At Last!

It is with great JOY I post this today.  Finally after 39 days, our project and murals are complete.  The next best thing will be hearing Joseph Kony has been captured and held accountable for his crimes.  In the meantime, we celebrate our accomplishment and are grateful to share it with the world.

This project has carved a lasting memory in my soul.  The students in Mod 5 and the hundreds of others who worked on this project have taught me the power of self-affirmation and believing in the impossible.  They have embraced the idea of turning awareness into action.  They have chosen to speak up in opposition to something, rather than turn their heads away from information that may be unpleasant to read about,  hear about, think about, or look at.  If my students remember only one thing this school year, I hope it will be everything this project has encompassed:

~SPEAK up for INJUSTICE
~PARTICPATE in your community, state, country and world- you can make a difference
~CHANGE only happens when people TAKE ACTION
~LEARN from the PAST and use that knowledge to make each day BETTER
~HELP OTHERS IN NEED no matter how near or far they live from you

Some stats on our project:

~We officially collected, washed, counted, and sorted 40, 563 caps.

~We used about 3,852 caps on our mural-We have chosen to have each cap represent 8 children of the 30,000+  abducted in Central Africa by Joseph Kony.

~We used liquid adhesive to glue on the caps, but not all of them stuck so it took almost 14 pounds of screws to secure the caps to the murals.

~We chose a wide variety of caps to go on our mural, but the color and design dictated how many and which size we chose.  We tried to take at least one cap from as many donations as possible.

~The first mural has a picture of an village in Africa with Joseph Kony's face looming in the sky. We chose to use a combination of caps and artwork on this mural.  There are close to 850 caps on this mural.  The middle mural(2nd mural) contains about 2,700 caps.  This mural says, "STOP KONY."  It also has the symbol from Invisible Children.  The third mural, is a picture of a child soldier wearing a sash of bullets under a dark and ominous sky.  This mural has nearly 300 caps on it.  The caps on this mural highlight the dark sky, and the bullets worn by the soldier.  The bullets are fastened with 19 gauge-1mm wire.  We thought this would give the mural a unique look.  There are also bullets scattered on the ground.  The intent or message of the three murals is to raise awareness of who Joseph Kony is and what he has done to central Africa.  We hope each person that views this mural will begin to have a conversation about stopping atrocities like this world wide.  No child anywhere on this earth should be forced to be a child soldier.  When you look at this mural we hope you feel the same.

We hope this mural makes you have a conversation about keeping all children from child slavery, human trafficking and being child soldiers.

~ The leftover caps will be used for future projects, others will be donated to other schools who are wanting to create a mural of any design or topic, and the caps that are not the sizes we need will be recycled appropriately.

~The murals will be placed in our school for all to see.  When mounted on the wall our mural will be 8 ft. by 12ft.

~We used a combination of interior and acrylic paints.

~The drawing on this mural was done by Maddy Genskow(Excelsior Middle School) and Samantha Carpenter(Linn-Mar High School).

~The painting was done by several students, including Samantha, Maddy, and Mrs. Barry.

Sam putting on finishing touches.

Mrs. Barry and Sam on her last day painting.

 ~We received cap donations from ten area businesses and organizations and hundreds of students, teachers, family, and friends.

~More than 5,600 people have viewed our blog world-wide.

Kyle, Jake, and Josh checking the LRA tracker on the Invisible Children Website.  Another impressive thing about this group of students..... how intrinsically motivated they have been to complete this project.

We humbly thank all of you who helped us reach our goal by collecting caps, donating plywood, or items we needed, letting us borrow screw drivers, paintbrushes, etc.   Each and every cap counted and each and everyone of you made this possible.  Thank you for being a part of something BIG!  One day I hope you will be able to say, "I helped bring Joseph Kony to justice."

Kind Regards,
Debra R. Barry
7th grade Social Studies Teacher
Excelsior Middle School

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

Propaganda Projects: Bracelets for Breast Cancer and so much More!!

 As a teacher there is nothing more exciting than watching a project become student-led and student-driven.  There can be few instances that really spark, and ignite students.  Do to demands of curriculum and testing requirements over the years I have found that there can be less time to really teach kids all things that I really wish I could.

I have often stated to my students, administrators, and peers that Social Studies is more than placing a capital city on a map.  It's more than labeling facts on a timeline, and it is more than writing an essay about life in Ancient Greece.  Social Studies can be about SOCIAL issues, current events, and things that are happening to PEOPLE ALL OVER THE GLOBE!

During February and early March my students studied World War II and how it affected European countries, Japan, and the Eastern Hemisphere.  We included a few important details related to the U.S.A. because there are just so many amazing details to not cover. We studied Propaganda and how it contributed to Nazism, the Holocaust, Tokyo Rose, and Rosie the Riveter.  We watched documentaries like Top Secret Rosies, and Paper Clips and learned how Propaganda can unite a very large community for good or for evil.  We completed a project shortly before spring break. Each student had to pick a modern day cause/need and create a poster for that cause showing his/her understanding of propaganda.  The result was breathtaking.  My students nailed this assignment and what has followed has swept me off my feet.  I had students choose tough topics to talk about and look at......AHHHH, but that is what makes SOCIAL STUDIES hard sometimes.  Sometimes we have to look at things that are tough to look at and talk about, but if we don't.........then those things NEVER change.

Students advocated for many causes:
~ Animal Cruelty, Child Abuse, Human Trafficking, Equal Rights, Gay Marriage, Gas Prices, National Debt, Cancer, Kony2012, MS, Leukemia, Poverty, World Hunger, Obesity, and the list goes on.

I had students take the project outside of the classroom.   Ellie  and Claire raised money on their own to symbolically adopt a Polar Bear.  Bailey, Makaela, and Allie began selling bracelets to family and friends to raise money for Breast Cancer Research.  My Mod 5 class is now collecting 30, 000 new and used water bottle caps, pop lids, and other plastic lids to create a mural for another project.  (Look for more postings on this project, because it is going to be amazing!)

Wow!  What started out as a small project to culminate my WWII unit has exploded into a rare opportunity to let my students take their learning where they want it to go.  When I made the decision to come to middle school, I had several friends, relatives, and colleagues say,"What are you thinking?  Middle School?  They'll eat you alive!  Those kids will be so self-centered!"

Although we all can be concerned with putting ourselves first at times in our life, I have been pleasantly surprised that my 7th graders are not the teacher-eating vultures my loved ones feared they would be.  The 7th grade students I have had the pleasure to work with are smart, capable, kind, and really DO CARE about OTHERS.  The want the world to better place and they are driven!  My propaganda project taught me that.

Below are some thoughts from a few students.  Enjoy and watch for more postings soon!
~Mrs. Barry

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After studying World War II and the negative and positive effects of propaganda, we were assigned a project in our class to evaluate our understanding of propaganda.  We were supposed to pick a current need in society that uses propaganda to promote its product.  We chose to do Breast Cancer Awareness because one of our friend's mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer at the beginning of the year.  I, Bailey, made a bracelet to support my friend and my friend Allie thought it would help if we sold bracelets for donations and gave the money to a Breast Cancer Foundation to find a cure for breast cancer.  For our project we found the facts about the deaths of the many men and women.  It was quite shocking the result we found.  We created a poster for our class assignment.
Our learning and passion did not stop there.  We took our learning beyond the classroom and decided to make a difference.  We asked our friends, and people we knew to donate if they could. Everyone who donated at least a $1 or more we gave them a pink silicone bracelet that says Faith, Hope, Strength, Courage.  We have raised $109.75 and we have gave out almost 50 bracelets. We have learned that 3 small people can make a BIG difference in the world of cancer. We have learned that propaganda can be good as well as bad. But the propaganda with Breast Cancer is good to know about, but the results are sad. The feeling of making a difference in the big world is amazing.
Sincerely,
~Bailey, Allie, and Makaela
Mod 4

Swing Kids Compare/Contrast Essays

Students recently watched Swing Kids.  This movie was about youth growing up in Germany during 1939.  After viewing the movie students wrote essays comparing and contrasting themselves to one of the characters in the film.  Below you will find a few samples of their work:

After seeing the movie Swing Kids, I decided that I am most like the character of Arvid.  Arvid would get angry over something, but would be afraid or too passive to do anything about it.  But when he would get pushed over the edge, he would blowup and stand up for himself.  The summer before 6th grade I knew a girl who I thought was my friend, but she would bully me and push me around.  I used to complain about it to my mom and then I realized that it didn't do me any good.  One day she was being extra controlling and I couldn't take it.  I got so angry that I finally stood up for myself, even though I was scared that I wouldn't have any friends.  Turns out, I ended up with just my true friends and no one treated me like a doormat anymore.
There are ways that Arvid and I are different though.  When things get hard, I don't just run away from them and give up.  Arvid gave up after he stood up for the people who weren't Nazis.  When I stood up against my friend, I didn't run away and give up.  I stood proud and strong and made new friends.  I learned that I didn't have to cling on to anyone and that I am my own person.  Plus, I didn't commit suicide when the the going got tough, like Arvid did.

Allie McDonald:  Mod 4

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After watching the movie Swing Kids I think I'm most like the character Thomas.  I don't really care about much.  Thomas took the high life and joined the HJ.  I think that I would have too.  If one of my friends had to join, I would join with them.  Thomas was crazy, but mean at times.  When I get angry, I can be a bit mean.

I am also different from Thomas.  At the end of the movie Thomas turned on his best friend Peter and beat him up.  I could never hurt one of my good friends.  Thomas changed because of the HJ.  I would never have let someone change the way I am.  Thomas didn't really care when Arvid passed away.  If one of my friends died, I would be really depressed and sad.

Gavin Gast:  Mod 3

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I would say that I am most like Arvid.  We both have glasses and are male.  Besides the physical similarities we are both strong willed.  Just as he did I think that I would stand up against the Nazi cause.  Refusing to play the German song sounds like something I would do, because I am very stubborn.  He didn't get along well with Thomas and I don't think I would either.  He got along well with Peter and I think I would too.  Peter had the best morals and Arvid and I would both like that.

Some of the ways that Arvid and I are different include, he has brown hair and mine is blonde.  Also he walks with a limp and plays guitar.  I don't do either of those things.  Also Arvid killed himself and I wouldn't ever even consider that.  he could have more more of an impact if he would have stayed alive.  He could have fought the Nazi cause while he was alive.  That is what I believe I would have done.

John Melvin:  Mod 3

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I think that I am most like Peter because I care for my family and friends a lot.  Many times, I want to do the right thing.  The problem is, sometimes I don't know what that right thing is.  It is hard for me to make decisions, as it was for Peter.  Neither of us agree with Hitler or what he did to others.  Both of us can realize easily when there is something wrong with people we are close to.  We both also need somebody to comfort us when we are hurt.

Some differences between us, is that I would never question being on the Nazis' side or not.  I don't like to add anger when I'm in a fight, but Peter does.  Obviously, I'm a girl and Peter is a boy.  Also, I would never talk to my superiors the way he talked to his mother and the Gestapo.  I would be too scared to.  I also would not go to the work camp happily.  I would have taken Thomas' advice.

Emily Smith:  Mod 4
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I think I am most like Thomas from the movie Swing Kids, because Thomas is strong willed.  When he decided to join the H.J. he took it very seriously and gave it 110%.  Thomas and I are also alike because when Thomas' friend Peter joined the H.J. he joined.  We are also alike in a way because Thomas stood up for Arvid.  I would also if one of my friends was getting bullied.  Other ways Thomas and I are alike are Thomas only though of himself, and I do that sometimes as well.  The last way Thomas and I are similar are that we can get so caught up in something that we forget that there are other people around us.

The ways that Thomas and I are different is that I would want to make my family proud in everything I do.  Where as Thomas did things to rebel against his family.  Another reason Thomas and I are different is that Thomas joined the H.J. I would not have joined the H.J.  I would have stayed back and helped the Jewish people.  Thomas also did not get along with his father, but I get along with my father very well.  Thomas also got very caught up int he H.J. lifestyle, where I would have stayed back and lived a double life like Peter.  Thomas also though the H.J. were his friends.  It can be hard to tell who your real friends are.  This has not happened to me yet.  The last way Thomas and I are different is that Thomas stood up for Arvid and fought Emil.  That would be very hard for me to do that as well.

Anna Mazzella:  Mod 3