Week Twelve: Midterm Review

We have made it past the half way mark! That can be a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. This past week we tied up some lose ends and also prepared for the the busy weeks that lie ahead.

On Tuesday, students learned how to right a proper Thank You Letter and created letters for two of our sponsors: Target and Caribou Coffee (both at Edgewood). Students also learned how to write a project proposal. They put their skills into action by writing their proposal for Global Youth Service Day! The students organized a meeting with Principal Underwood for Thursday to present their project idea. Students we nervous the day of the proposal, but they did very well answering Mr. Underwood's questions--he even provided very helpful feedback and suggestions. In the end, their project was approved! I will reveal the details by retyping their proposal:

"Everyday Leaders is creating a project for Global Youth Service Day. The reason for this project is to help Genesis; a small community based family homeless shelter. We as a group decided on this project. Our project is a dodge ball tournament and a fundraiser for Genesis. Kids will have a fun time, at the same time contribute to the community, and learn about homelessness and how it affects the city.

The day of the dodge ball tournament will be April 24 after school, in the gym, from 4-6 pm. We as Everyday Leaders will be working with Genesis to inform students and do letter writing to congress about homelessness. We will also be asking parents to help us with the tournament.

For this event, we will be asking in-kind donations for the winning prizes. Although the tournament will not need any funding, there will be a small entry fee that will go to Genesis either a small amount of money or an item that Genesis has request."

For more information on Genesis, check out: http://www.genesisshelter.com/

As this week's blog title suggests, we did complete a midterm review. Students had a chance to provide me with incredible and insightful feedback through an anonymous survey as well as a journal entry. Thank you, Everyday Leaders.

Note: I have only collected T-shirt money from one student. Until we receive forms from all of the students, I will order the t-shirts. The cost is $12; however, pay what you can. We want everyone to have a t-shirt so we only need the forms in to start the process.

Finally, students also connected with Chris Appleton, Co-Executive Director at WonderRoot, a non-profit arts organization committed to uniting artists and community to inspire positive social change (http://www.wonderroot.org/). Russell did a great job calling and setting an appointment with Chris. The students are going to organize with WonderRoot for their project for Youth Art Month during the four Thursdays in March that we will meet. This is really a chance for the students to not only make decisions, but really take the reigns in project planning. I am very excited to see what they come up with!

Whew! That's a lot of stuff! Keep up the great work!