One Step Further

This last week our group was able to take our Public Achievement one step further. We brainstormed ideas for a possible project!!!

As Arielle and I got our group rounded up and into the classroom we were having out meeting in we could tell that it was going to be a slightly rough afternoon. The students seemed a little rowdier than normal. One of our students even told us that she was checked-out for the day. It can be kind of hard coming at the end of the day because stuff like that does often happen, and then we don't have any focus in the meeting.

This meeting, Arielle and I preassigned roles so that everyone would get a chance to be a different role. We decided that we only needed one facilitator and that we should have two recorders: a written recorder and a video recorder. It was a little harder this week for our students to focus on the role they'd been given.

We started the meeting off like any other-designation of roles, Opening Focus Activity, Remember and Review...then we went in to talking about what research they found and wrote in their journals. It was interesting what they found. One student said that her parents think vandalism is a form of art. I think they must have been thinking more specifically about graffiti. She said that she didn't agree with her parents; it takes a bold student to say that! Another student talked to their parents about vandalism in the place that they are from. Vandalism was associated with much violence there. A couple students didn't really do any research, but they still contributed to the conversation.

We then called for a consensus on what to focus on to make a project for. I feel like this conversation didn't really go anywhere because the topic of trash and vandalism seemed to be on the forefront of every one's mind anyways. The options were to either pick trash or vandalism or combine the two. Though we never ended up taking an official vote discussing it any further would have caused us to waste more time.

Next we took out our large poster board and starting going over what it means to brainstorm. Then after certain rules were inferred (ie. no details, save stories for journals, say whatever comes to mind no matter how crazy) we started to brainstorm. One of our students who doesn't speak up much was encouraged to give an idea, and at first I thought he was going to say something that someone had already said, or just pass along the spotlight without saying anything, but he blew my mind with his idea: creating a compost bin. Who would have thought a great idea like that was cooking up instead his 5th grade brain!

They all came up with some GREAT ideas! I'm very excited to see what they decide on this coming week! Now we (Arielle and I) have to look over the ideas and think about all the things we need in order to do the project, so that we can be prepared to lead these students in the right direction on whatever project they choose.

After we brainstormed Arielle discussed roughly the agenda for the rest of the year. She broke down what we had left to do and the time we had to do it in. She also introduced the project that the students have for the end of the year block party. That scared them a little I think, knowing that this isn't just for kicks and giggles, this is serious, and it means something.