No Place for Hate and St Luke's photos

Hi everyone,

Click on the link below to see photos from the No Place for Hate Awards and our trip to St. Luke's.

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaOWLZk1YtFHdM

Enjoy!

Ms Mann

Week of May 21, First Person American Assembly and Final stuff

Hi everyone,

For next week, please correct and revise your written welcoming activity. This story (along with your Welcoming Story) will be featured in a book. Therefore, the final written welcoming activity must be absolutely perfect. No spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, format mistakes are allowed. 

Use the following criteria for evaluation:

1. Does it address all the points? (see previous blog post for a list of required points)

2. Does it have spelling errors?

3. Does it have grammar mistakes?

4. Is it formatted correctly with the following?

  - Use proper heading (students name, date)

  - Use proper title of the story

  - Use paragraph breaks

  - Use proper capitalization

  - Use an easy to read font (for example Arial, Times New Roman)

  - Double space your writing

You must use at least 2 peers and 1 adult to proofread your activity.

Email your final story (PERFECT FORMATTING, NO ERRORS, ALL POINTS INCLUDED) to irinalee@gmail.comand christidc@gmail.com. Include Ms. Mann in the cc (jmann6@schools.nyc.gov)

Part 2:

Think about how you will encourage and engage the students present at the assembly. You will be leading break-out sessions with other students. Your job will be to lead students unfamiliar with our Welcoming Stories workshop, to encourage them to share their story, and to educate them on how they can be welcoming to others. Prepare to be an inspiring leader.

Part 3 ONLY for Assembly Performers (Kanto, Christian, Renan): 

Prepare for our final Welcoming Stories school assembly presentation. On June 1, you will be presenting an abbreviated version of your welcoming story and how you were welcoming. Important: Use a timer when rehearsing. Time yourself!! Your presentation must be within 4-5 minutes. You should be practice rehearsing your story every single day, multiple times daily. Rehearse at least out-loud at home, in front of your friends, in front of your family, in the mirror, etc. Try to keep track of how many times you rehearse. Aim to rehearse a minimum of 100 times between now and June 1st (or 7-10 times daily). This will help you be successful on stage at the final school assembly. Preparation is key. 

Week of May 17, Our Welcoming Activities

Hi everyone,

Now that you've had the opportunity to reflect on your own story, you used your experience to help another newcomer by being welcoming. You understand their situation, and you know what they're going through. It was your turn to be the welcoming person. You had the ability and knowledge to make a difference in their life. 

Use last week's notes on welcoming tips to help you be welcoming. 

In Google Docs, write a 500-word reflection that includes the following points: 
1. Introduce the person you met this week
2. Briefly tell their story and how hearing their story made you feel
3. Describe how you plan on being welcoming to this person

Now post your reflection to our class blog.


Please note that tomorrow we will continue to be filmed and photographed for our First Person American Project!  You need to wear a solid color, not black!!!

Week of May 10, FPA, Radio Rookies, Finals

Hi everyone,

Today we will prepare for being filmed tomorrow, learn about Radio Rookies, and then work on our finals.


1.  First Person American: make sure your statements are ready:

My name is ___ I'm from ____(your country)

1. What I learned from the Welcoming Stories workshop is...

2. Sharing my Welcoming Story was important to me because...

3. I will be more welcoming to others by ....

Wardrobe Requirements: Please wear tops in solid colors. DO NOT wear black clothes or clothes with busy patterns (stripes, shiny, small patterns, text on your shirts, etc).  

2. Radio Rookies


Next year, there is a chance we will be involved with this incredible program.  Please visit this website and listen to This story "Half of my Family is Illegal"


Here is a website with more information about the girl who wrote this story.


I met her at an event on Tuesday afternoon. I told her we'd write her with our reactions to her piece.


In Google Docs, please answer the questions below:


1. What is your opinion of her Radio Rookie piece and why?
2. What did you learn from her story?
3. What questions do you have for her?


Then post your answers to our blog as a comment. I will email her with the link to our blog so she can read your posts.


Now listen to this piece called "Mind the Gap in Crown Heights":




Answer these questions in Google Docs:


1. What is your opinion of her Radio Rookie piece and why?
2. What did you learn from their story?
3. What does this story teach us about stereotypes and prejudice?


Post your answers to our blog as a comment.


When you finish getting this ready, please prepare your final:

Options:

• Artwork (painting, sculpture, drawing, etc.) with a typed explanation of the art and how it is promoting human rights
• Subway poster for human rights, using text, images, quotes, drawings, symbols, etc.
• A song, that you perform for the class, with a typed lyric sheet (I will copy it for everyone)
• A poem that you read to the class, with a typed sheet (I will copy it for everyone)
• A graphic story (cartoon) promoting human rights
• A slide show or short film promoting human rights
• A skit about human rights with a typed script

Guidelines:

• Follow the conventions of standard written English.  In other words, watch your grammar, spelling, punctuation, and proofread!
• Make sure your work clearly promotes human rights
• Make sure your refer to the UDHR.
• You must pick an aspect of human rights you care about.
• You must include facts/statistics about this human right.

Week of May 3, Child Soldiers

Hi everyone,

This week we will see a film on "Invisible Children".

Before we do, please check this out:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - United We Can't Stand Them
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Now for our main topic:

Please watch the film and then answer the questions below in Google Docs. Post your answers to our blog.


KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Questions:

1. How does this film make you feel and why?
2. What did you learn from it that you didn't know before?
3. Does it inspire you to take action? If yes, in what way?
4. What questions do you have?

Week of April 5, Our final, final drafts

Hi everyone,

• This week we will be finishing the final draft of our Welcoming Stories.
• Remember that this draft will be graded as a test.
• Follow Irina's instructions:
• Remember, you're telling your story about your experience of coming to America, and within your story, you are transitioning to a sub-story about someone that welcomed you. You're leading with your main story (coming to America), and then telling a sub-story (story of someone that welcomed you and helped change your life).
• Make sure your main story and sub-story meets all of the checklist criteria:
  
  1. Do you have a strong hook for introducing your main story?
  2. Does your main story of coming to America follow a strong story arc?
  3. Does your main story of coming to America address the WWWWWH?
  4. Do you use rich details and help the reader visualize your background, how you came to America, the circumstances about your last day in your country/first day in America, what you were feeling?
  5. When you transition into your sub-story about the welcoming person, do you have a strong hook?
  6. Does your sub-story about your welcoming person have a strong story arc?
  7. Does your sub-story about your welcoming person address the WWWWWH?
  8. Do you use rich details and help the reader visualize your welcoming person--their physical traits, their personality, etc? You may want to describe their voice, their personality, recall something specific they said to you. Talk about your feelings and how their actions made you feel.
• Make sure your entire story addresses all of the above criteria!
• When you have finished, print your story and email your story (file-email as attachment) to:

1. Irina (irinalee@gmail.com
2. Your Eagle Tech partner

Be sure that you email it as an attachment, not a link. If you don't know how to do this, ask! File-email as attachment.

I will count these final drafts as a test grade for the second marking period.

Week of March 29, Sharing our Stories

Hi everyone,

Today and tomorrow we will be working on our stories. First check your email to read the feed back from your partners at the Eagle Tech Academy in Columbia City, IN.

I asked their teacher, Mr. Urschel, to share the link to the story on CNN where he learned about our school, and here it is.

Here is information about the school:
Eagle Tech Academy is a small, stand-alone public high school. Any type of student can choose to come here; there are no grade requirements. Our students stay here for the first three blocks of the day, then they go to the main campus of the high school (Columbia City High School) for their electives. This is the first year we've been open. We're a STEM school (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).

Here is a note Mr. Urschel posted to our blog:

Newcomers Students,
Thanks so much for your responses. Our students in third block just finished looking at your school through Google Earth. They're impressed that your school is so large. It's a beautiful building. If you would like to look us up on Google Earth, we’re at 107 N. Walnut Street, Columbia City, IN 46725. We're located inside the Marshall Building. One of our students, Angel Sanders, wanted to know if there was a way for some of our students to become "pen pals" with you all at Newcomers. We are looking forward to reading your stories. Thanks so much for your willingness to share! We have a great deal to learn from you.
- Mr. Urschel, Teacher at Eagle Tech Academy

Today, we will use our computer time to really finish our stories for First Person American, and then email these final drafts, with answers to their questions/comments to our Eagle Tech partners.

Open your draft in Google Docs and revise it based on Irina's instructions:

• Remember, you're telling your story about your experience of coming to America, and within your story, you are transitioning to a sub-story about someone that welcomed you. You're leading with your main story (coming to America), and then telling a sub-story (story of someone that welcomed you and helped change your life).
• Make sure your main story and sub-story meets all of the checklist criteria:

1. Do you have a strong hook for introducing your main story?
2. Does your main story of coming to America follow a strong story arc?
3. Does your main story of coming to America address the WWWWWH?
4. Do you use rich details and help the reader visualize your background, how you came to America, the circumstances about your last day in your country/first day in America, what you were feeling?
5. When you transition into your sub-story about the welcoming person, do you have a strong hook?
6. Does your sub-story about your welcoming person have a strong story arc?
7. Does your sub-story about your welcoming person address the WWWWWH?
8. Do you use rich details and help the reader visualize your welcoming person--their physical traits, their personality, etc? You may want to describe their voice, their personality, recall something specific they said to you. Talk about your feelings and how their actions made you feel.

• Make sure your entire story addresses all of the above criteria!

At the end of class, email your story to your Eagle Tech partner, and print your story. We will help each other revise our stories tomorrow in class!