Help me give my students copies of a Be a Changemaker: How to Start Something that Matters by Laurie Ann Thompson to inspire them to make changes in their own community!
Our school's mission is "to develop a community of respectful lifelong learners who use inquiry, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills to be socially responsible contributors to a changing global society." Our students embody this mission from Kindergarten through 8th grade and beyond. As an IB magnet program, our school intentionally fosters these traits in our students, which results in deep conceptual understandings of challenges our world faces and solutions to address them.
CFI 84 students develop the agency needed to advocate for themselves and others through intentional learning experiences that build confidence, creative and critical thinking, and effective communication skills.
They are empowered to put forth their own solutions and ideas, and they know that their contributions are valued in our community and beyond. They urge each other to be positive contributors to our school, and they are curious and eager learners!
My Project
Taking action is a key component of our International Baccalaureate programs at CFI 84. While 8th graders complete a capstone Community Project in their final year at our school, middle school students of every grade level are encouraged to take action both in relation to and beyond the context of what they learn in school. My Action Hour class teaches students to explore what it means to take action as an adolescent and how they can affect change in their communities.
Class discussions about what it means to take action in our community will be anchored in real-life examples and viable steps students can take to plan and execute meaningful action, and Laurie Ann Thompson's Be a Changemaker will help us do so.
The book is a good text resource for helping students understand both the ideation component of taking action - determining community needs, brainstorming possible entry points, etc. - as well as how to plan for the logistics of the action one might take. It is written for middle and high school level readers and highlights examples from real students who made a change in their community. By providing a copy of this text to all 7th graders in Action Hour, I will be able to create a common touchpoint for how we talk about action outside of school and can refer students to real-life examples of what others have done to be changemakers.
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