“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
For those of you who want to help your students understand that MLK Jr. Day is not just a day off, but a day of service, Scholastic has some great resources for that. I especially like this first video, which explains how MLK Jr. Day came to be a national holiday. Click the video to go to the site.
While you're there, check out the Student Art Contest. It's a great way to combine art and the message of service to others.
My sister-in-law sent me this ecard today and I thought it was hilarious! I could definitely use some Starbucks in my life this week. I feel like I've been going and going and going. I know we just had Winter Break, but I am seriously in need of another. Luckily, it's a three day weekend and I have one more day off tomorrow for MLK Jr. Day.
Speaking of which... I wanted to do something a little different to teach my 5th graders about MLK Jr. this year. Instead of talking about his life and listening to his speech (as they've done so many times already), I focused on his legacy. We started off by talking about the Civil Rights movement and different forms of peaceful protests on Day 1. We also shared with them the importance of song during the marches and I played this amazing video of the Morehouse College Glee Club performing "We Shall Overcome."
On Day 2 I had them do a quickwrite about the question: "How did MLK Jr. change America?" We talked about how life is different today than in the 60s and how their lives are directly affected by the Civil Rights movement. We then discussed what a legacy is and then I had them discuss and share what they thought was MLK Jr.'s legacy.
By discussing MLK Jr. and the fact that one man was able to create so much change, I wanted the kids to begin thinking about their own impacts and how they can influence others. Since they are going to middle school next year, I had them think about what their elementary school legacy would be when they graduated. I had them list their accomplishments, service, and characteristics on a graphic organizer. You can get it here:
My intent is to make this into a writing assignment and then have the kids create a picture board of their legacy to show to parents at Back to School night or graduation. I was thinking of using Glogster, but I haven't decided just yet. Hopefully the project will help the kids see just how accomplished and important they really are!
Here are some random outfit pics from my phone. I'm not sure of the dates.
I got it at the CTA Good Teaching Conference last weekend. I love that it matches my favorite cheetah scarf!
Here's something new that I created over Winter Break: new Hall passes!! I previously had just a normal pass that the kids carried with them to the restroom or office. However, they were really cheap and the kids broke them in half. They were also just really yucky looking. I found these cute lanyards at our local school supply store. I printed and laminated the labels, attached them to the lanyard, and that's it. I told the kids that they have to wear them around their necks (no excuses) so they don't have to set them down in the restroom (let's hope).
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