ACTion (Arts, Culture, and Technology inspiring action)

I have recently completed a TLLP with other art teachers, exploring the use of the arts and technology to engage students in learning about and participating in cultural experiences. This included drumming, using steel pans, story telling, and First Nations dance. Using these experiences as a basis, we will move into exploring social issues, and how to empower ourselves to provide a helping hand, and empower our recipients, through fundraising and sharing activities. Our students' understanding will be shared through "infomercials" created on Spark Video or similar app.

Update (July 10, 2017)

Mrs. Nancy Mortimer and I, Ms. Lisa Diessel, decided to put together a social justice club. Our call for junior-intermediate students gave us a handful of eager grade 4-6 students. We decided to extend our numbers by including 2 students from each of the grade 2 and 3 classes. We gathered for our first meeting, to decide on what projects we were planning to focus on, including fundraising events.
Our first project wasn't really on our agenda, but came via invitation. Two non-classroom teachers were organizing our school's Christmas food drive, and they asked if we would like to help them get the word out by decorating the foyer display cabinet. This display was especially important, as it would be seen by parents attending our whole-school Christmas concert on December 13th. We got right to work. Using canned food already donated, and supplemented by some of our own, we covered the cans with white paper, and hot glued beads and little hats/scarves made from socks, to create a gathering of canned snowmen. Ms. Diessel's coop students painted a beautiful starry night backdrop, and we borrowed a cheap plastic tablecloth from the cupboard which, when turned upside down, made an awesome snowy ground. The finished display was seen by guests, but also by those who follow our school's twitter feed. We got lots of food. And to help the foodbank workers, we used our last meeting date of 2016 to sort the foods before putting it out for pickup.
As mentioned, this wasn't an initiative we had planned, but it was an excellent step in getting our group to understand using media to promote events, to understand food collections as a community support but not a solution to food affordability, and how working and learning together as a team allows a project to come together really well.

Update (July 10, 2017)

We reconvened in January, where Ms. Diessel announced that we had received $300 in funding from Imagine-Action. We decided to use some of the funding to support us in our next venture: a Popcorn and Movie lunch event. The students decided that their initial fundraising would go to support one, or maybe more than one, organization that works to protect threatened animal species. The students wrote a letter to the principal, Mr. Murphy, asking his permission to have such an event. With his approval, we decided on a movie that would be fun, but also teach kids about a threatened species, the Little Blue Penguin (or Fairy Penguin). Our EA, Mrs. Fernandes, told us that Kernel's has large bags of popcorn that are used for fundraisers, and which come with bags. But before we could get the popcorn, we needed to know our numbers.
We created popcorn/movie posters that were posted around the school. We also wrote announcements, read over the P.A. each morning, and a couple of end-of-day reminder announcements. We sold just under 100 spots, a little disappointing, but we would still make over $150 after popcorn costs. Ms. Diessel ordered the popcorn, picked it up, and we had a popcorn bagging meeting the day before. After packing, some teachers came in with last-minute sales. Ms. Diessel headed back to Kernels, and using her own class as helpers, packed a whole bunch more. After allowing some at-the-door sales, we ended up making about $280 after popcorn costs. We think the fact that it was bitterly cold out that day made the idea of staying in to watch a movie extra appealing, thus the last minute sales.

Update (July 10, 2017)

After March break, Dancing for the People came into our school for the whole week, working with all grades to teach about the importance of dance to FNMI people, and to share some of the dance techniques with the students. We were also provided with leather and beading by Linda McGregor, our board's FNMI consultant, which we used to create talking sticks. We are discussing further projects that can support an exchange of peace and understanding. Because our group is young, it is important that we teach about aboriginal cultures, but the heavier problems are best shared in much older grades. We are investigating resources from A Different Booklist, and are planning to purchase story books that share the legends of the people who inhabited our lands long before the Europeans arrived. We are looking into the potential of using beading as a fundraising project. Ms. Diessel took part in a beading workshop at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, and is looking for beading looms to purchase for the group.

Update (July 10, 2017)

One of our ideas for a project was to create sleeping mats for people in disaster or impoverished areas of the world, working with milkbagsunlimited.ca. We found the guideline to making the frame, and have been collecting milk bags since early last year. Mr. Mortimer agreed to make the frame for us, and then refused to be reimbursed for the materials. Then came the problem... the frame was too big for Mrs. Mortimer to transport it to school in her vehicle. After some thought, and some persuasion, the principal agreed to pick up the frame and bring it to school. (Note to anyone doing this... build the version that can fold in half, for significantly easier transportation and storage.)
This project took a lot longer than anticipated. Because we had younger students, cutting the bags turned out to be a challenge, not so much for safety, but for control of the cutting so that the milk bags were cut in straight lines. A few of the older students took on the job of weaving, but it was pretty easy to miss a line, and have to unwind rows of threading. As the year crept closer to the end, we managed to get a few grade 8's to give us a bit of time. It was still incomplete by year end, but Ms. Diessel's daughter, Victoria, came in after school was finished, and we were able to complete, and bundle our single mattress. Will we do this again? Absolutely, but as a year-long part-time project, done as an aside to our other ventures.
Mrs. Mortimer retired this year, but Ms. Diessel will continue with the group (and hopefully with another teacher partner) in September. Beading looms are being ordered, as are the aboriginal story books. We will continue with our project plan, including fundraising, and making videos of our progress and social justice promoters.