1st Meeting: September 19

Today was a great first Choose2Matter meeting. I am overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and drive of the students and I can tell this is going to be a wonderful group to work with! The basic idea behind Choose2Matter is to give students the TIME and RESOURCES to work on a solution to a real world problem that they are passionate about!

Here are the highlights from today's meeting:

GOOD LUCK from Wisconsin! 
Today we Skyped with Oliver Schinkten, a high school teacher from Wisconsin. He shared about the course that he and his colleagues developed called, Communities. Students who take this course are given THREE hours per day to work on Choose2Matter type work while other content (literacy, social studies, leadership, etc.) is woven into the curriculum. Mr. Schinkten calls this type of learning: "Compassion Based Learning" and I'm excited that students at Park Street are able to participate in a group that is both student and compassion driven! We look forward to hearing a student's perspective next week as one of Mr. Schinkten's students, Danielle Shea, will share with us her experience from being involved in the Communities program!

Mr. Schinkten encourages the students to persevere through challenges and keep focused on their goal!

Interesting Response! 
We received quite an interesting response to the first question we asked the students:

'Yes' responses: 35 girls, 1 boy
'No' responses:  0 girls, 5 boys

We then discussed the reasoning behind the Yes and No responses, and the students had valid arguments for each. The students who responded "No" said that it is impossible to help every person on every continent. At this point, I was able to share a few of my favorite quotes with the group:

-You may not be able to change the whole world, but you can change SOMEONE'S world! 

-The smartest person in the room - IS the room.

-We are better, together!

Although we won't be able to impact EVERY PERSON on the planet, my hope is that the students feel empowered to work together to make an impact on as many lives as possible!

Reflection and Brainstorming 
Today's session was much different than all future sessions. Today the students reflected on the following questions:

Do you think you can change the world?
What matters to you?
What do you care about?
What breaks your heart?
What upsets you that you think you can help change?

Throughout the course of the two hour session, students reflected independently, in small groups and finally as a whole group. It was great to hear all their wonderful ideas and see the excitement in the students' eyes.

Here's an example of one student's brainstorming and notes:

Here's a picture of the whole group's Brainstorming list:

Choosing2Matter
At the end of today's session, the students chose their top five topics. Next week, the students will be split into groups and begin brainstorming an action plan with their group members.

Here's an example of a student's 'Top 5" topics:

I'm looking forward to what will come from next week's meeting and the growth that will occur over the course of the year. A special thank you goes out to Mrs. Wall and Mrs. Delozier for helping plan and facilitate tonight's session and to Mr. Rardon for supporting the Choose2Matter concept!

Thanks for reading!
Ms. Kress