Human Rights Awareness and Dropping Bombs...or Eggs....

Today was an eventful day in D9. Students were all excited that today is the last day before Thanksgiving holidays, and we as teachers were excited, too, but for other reasons. Today students tested their Egg Drop Designs that they had been building with Mrs. Soblo this week. Teams had to drop eggs from a second story classroom and build a device that would (hopefully) keep the egg from breaking. Most groups were successful and employed all sorts of wild ideas to keep their precious eggs from scrambling, including but not limited to bubble wrap, popsicle sticks, cotton, peanut butter, and tissues. We're still searching for media on that so if you have any pictures or videos email them to Coach K!

In other news, with our OLS challenge coming to a close in the Go stage, Mrs. A, Coach West, and myself have been planning our next humanities design challenge. Students have been researching the basics of human rights in class with me the past few weeks, Coach West has been teaching a unit on culture and world geography, and Mrs. A has been reading The Book Thief all with students in preparation for this design challenge.

Yesterday students completed a survey on what human right they would be most interested in learning more about. After much deliberation and careful place on the part of Mrs. A and myself, students were placed in 14 different groups, with each group focusing on a different human right.

We wanted to do something a little different this challenge. Normally, throughout the course of a challenge a group leader will emerge organically and do things like delegate tasks, report to the teachers, and generally make sure work gets done. This time, instead of letting that occur organically, we chose project managers for each team to make sure these things get done. Project managers were selected for a variety of reasons including consistency in the first challenge, a strong work ethic, desire for group success, ability to delegate responsibility, knowledge of when to lead and when to follow, humility, good listening skills, and leadership doesn't go to their heads.

Human Rights Awareness Campaign Project Managers

Left to Right: (Top Row) Alaina Smith, Tyresha Boyd, Tavarous Gillespie, Chelsea Blackett-Medina, Jaida Carter, Kiana Valles, Kayshon Mitchell, Xavier Vereen, Dominitrius Stribling (Bottom Row) Chelsey Martin, Marbel Lopez

Project managers were given a small, gold charm to wear on their Studio D lanyards to distinguish them. We made the comparison that boy scouts earn badges and military personnel earn insignia, so our project managers earn these charms. We will have a new charm for every challenge and all students will have the opportunity to earn the right to be project manager at some point, but not every student will rise to the challenge. We wanted to recognize these students for all of their work thus far and award them with the responsibility of leading their teams. Congratulate your project manager, and get excited about the new challenge, which is.......

"How might we promote and educate our peers about Human Rights both globally and locally?"

I've put the Design Challenge Check List on the File Cabinet page, but a copy is also found in each group's binder.

On behalf of all your teachers, have a fabulous Thanksgiving. We are so truly thankful for each and every one of you, and know that Studio D would not be the same without you all. All of our love and safe travels, kiddos!