20% Update - Week 6 (Say goodbye to Career Day)

3/19/2013

There are certain projects and lessons that mean more than others. This whole idea of giving students back 1/5 of their time has been a decision that could have gone in a number of directions. Students could be completely waisting their time, messing around and taking advantage of their time. This is about as far from the truth as we could possibly get. Week 6 brought out some true gems and supported the belief that school and community can work well together.

In Week 6 of the 20% project in our class, we had a total of 4 mentors come in and enrich the projects of quite a few students. The highlights were:

The high school basketball coach from the neighboring high school took time out of his day to come down and talk with a group of student-athletes about perfecting their jump shot. He brought his own hoop and a wealth of knowledge with him and worked with the students for the entire period on what they could do to perfect their jump shot. While it was humbling to have the head coach come out and break down their movements, it was rewarding to show their future coach that they are interested and motivated to get better. From here, we will be working on creating a shooting video with tips and details that can help others become successful.
My lovely wife is nothing short of amazing. A day after working with the most precious lives on the planet in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, she came in to speak with a great group of young ladies about the ups and downs of a night NICU nurse. The girls came prepared with questions and were on the edge of their seats as Erin walked them through the daily routines, struggles, successes and heartbreaks that go along with dealing with babies entering the most intense battle of their young lives. She even gave the a quick presentation using Haiku Deck and left them with some homework!
Health and nutrition is something that I really get excited about, so it was easy to bring in a nutritionist to discuss eating right and exercising with a group of students looking to bring that awareness to the rest of their peers. From the conversation, the gym has opened up a Girls Class to educate young ladies about the dangers of not eating and the benefits of eating and exercising correctly. It may start slow, but I have a feeling that this group will be hosting a school wide presentation with their findings at the end of the year.
Treating animals with respect is a concept that seems obvious but is easy to ignore. Since it isn't human, we often disregard the mistreatment of household pets. A small group of girls made the decision to tackle this problem in our culture with a professional from Animal Samaritans group. She came with materials to educate the group about some of the dangers of animal abuse and what we can do about it. The results are that the girls are going to work with their contact from Animal Samaritans to put on assemblies during PE classes to help educate their peers about preventing animal abuse. I can't wait!