Everyday Leaders FAQs

What is Everyday Leaders?
An after-school club at Atlanta Charter Middle School for youth who want to make a difference in their school, their community, and the world.

When does Everyday Leaders meet?
Mondays starting October 19th from 4 - 6 pm in the library.

What is Service-Learning?
Senator John Glenn said, “Service-learning is education in action.” Service-learning allows students to take classroom concepts and apply them to real life community needs. It creates socially responsible students who, through preparation, action, and reflection, demonstrate leadership in their own communities.

What will we do?
Throughout the year, students will learn about civic engagement and community service by taking action. Students will participant in service projects throughout the year and learn the skills necessary to lead their own projects. As a team, students will create, plan, and do their own community service project for Global Youth Service Day in April. They will not only be a part of this youth movement, they will be in charge of it. Students will be able to go above and beyond their required community service hours as well as take on leadership roles.

Who is facilitating the club?
Laura Byard - 8th grade Spanish teacher and 6th grade Associate Humanities teacher here are ACMS.

Why the blog?
This is a way for parents, students, and others in the ACMS community can check in and see what we are up to! Everyone is welcome to make comments. Happy reading!

Week Twenty-One: In Closing

To close out the year, the students of Everyday Leaders participated in one final service project at Genesis. They were able to hand delver what they were able to collect for Global Youth Service Day as well as the $55 dollars they raise. The students worked with children at the shelter during play group. Play group gives parents a chance to attend Empowerment Classes. Everyday Leaders divided into two groups, one conducting art projects inside and the other playing with the children outside on the playground. They had a fun time and Russell was proud to celebrate his birthday with service!

On our final night, students and parents met at Six Feet Under on Memorial Drive to relax and celebrate the work that their Everyday Leaders have done. It was nice to take a step back and honor our great youth leaders who serve their community with sure a natural ability. I am so proud of the Everyday Leaders and am excited to continue on next year. Good luck to our graduating 8th graders and see you 6th graders next year!

Week Twenty: Reflection & What Next?

With the final week of club wrapping up, there was still much to do. First, we had to complete thank you letters, inform our sponsors of the impact, and complete our letter writing campaign to Representative John Lewis. Students then spent the rest of the time reflection upon their GYSD project, their experience in the club, and evaluating the club and their facilitator. Students also took these closing days this reflect upon how they have changed because of the time spent with their fellow Everyday Leaders and how they have emerged as a leader. The students were very insightful and seem excited about using their skills next year -- especially those heading off to high school.

Note from the faciliator: Thank you so much, Everyday Leaders, for such a great year! I had a blast and learned so much about my new community. It gives me great hope that the world has such wonderful youth leaders like you -- our future is in good hands!

Global Youth Service Day!

Great work, everyone! It was a success! First of all, thank you parent and community volunteers who came out to help referee the games. We had a great time, played a TON of dodgeball and even found a winner for our tournament. Definitely a highlight for the afternoon was when Principal Mr. Underwood joined in a game!

Everyday Leaders will now be sending 25 letters to Representative John Lewis about funding for transitional housing for those with mental illness so that they do not end up homeless. Students also collect donations for Genesis: diapers, baby formula, food, baby clothes, and $55 cash for the organization!

Great work students! Way to do something good and have a great time while doing it!

Week Nineteen: Gearing up for GYSD!

Right after spring break, we have come back with much to do and lots of energy to do it! With only a few days to go until the Fight To End Homelessness Dodgeball Tournament, we have been working hard to put all of the pieces together. The students have really worked hard on advertising their project, even make temporary chalk posters on the sidewalks of the school. Students also took the lead to identify and assign student leadership roles, create a day of timeline and checklist, and make a resource list. The Everyday Leaders are well organized and are very excited for next Friday!

We also used our $50 Target gift card to purchase diapers and baby formula for Genesis to add to our donation box. Thank you Target - Edgewood!

Another exciting note: our Everyday Leaders tshirts are in! Thank you to student David Carlock for creating the Everyday Leaders logo for our shirts and a BIG thank you to Frank Kocsisszucs with Crash and Burn who made the tshirts for a very nice discount! We will be wearing our kelly green shirts for Global Youth Service Day - yea!

Great work, Everyday Leaders!

Week Eighteen: Reflection and Moving Forward

It's hard to wind down from such an exciting weekend! We have received much praise from the mural project. Still, after some reflection and discussion, we realized that there is much work to be done for our last project -- Global Youth Service Day and the work we will do with Genesis. The students hung up their posters, completed the entry forms, and went over logistics. They are starting to recruit parent and teacher volunteers to assist in the dodgeball tournament.

Here are the details on fundraiser:

The Fight to End Homelessness Dodgeball Tournament

Fight Homelessness, Play Dodgeball

Friday, April 24th
4 pm – 6 pm
Benefits Genesis, a local transitional family shelter
Only those who enter by Monday, April 20th can participate!!!

+Parent Signature Required!
+Entry forms will be passed out after Spring Break
+Turn items / forms into Ms. Larson
+Due on Monday, April 20th!!!
+Entry fee:
$5 -or-
3 Items of non-perishable food
See the form for more ideas!
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On Friday, we presented the project to the school in two groups as well as showed the school pictures of the mural project. Reggie & Noah did a great job presenting as a team to the sixth grade and the eighth grade group Russell, Camille, Regan, Ronald, and David even got applause for their mural project picture!

Fight Homelessness, Play Dodgeball!

Mural Project for Youth Art Month

I will let the pictures speak for themselves, please check out this album of our hardwork. I do want to say that I am extremely proud to be a part of such an energized community and to work with such passionate students. Everyone worked so hard, despite the cold and the wind, to finish the project. It looks beautiful! Great job, Everyday Leaders!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=laura.cleare&target=ALBUM&id=5319067017216915457&authkey=Gv1sRgCKP53YaP5f34dQ&feat=email