Room 755: August 2011

The first two days are always getting to know about procedures. Important but not much fun (for me anyway).

The first PowerPoint is the one for all 600+ 7th graders.

The second PowerPoint is "This is Social Studies...Welcome to MY class." It is the one I consider more important of the two.

To summarize: Social Studies is not just a class - it is everything that is important in life. It is a matter of life, death, and survival.

All of the pictures are of students I had in last year's classes. I did not encourage or discourage their participation in any of the things they chose to do. This is what happens when people beging to understand Social Studies and it becomes personal.

The first picture is one showing that we collected $275 to provide over 25,000 meals for children in Jamaican schools.
The second picture is one showing one of my students protesting the idea of changing a local K-5 school into a 6th grade academy. She later spoke directly to the School Board.
The third picture is one showing a couple of my students protesting HB 87 (Georgia's Immigration Law). As the high school students stood int he background, the middle school students vocalized their opinions.
The fourth picture is one showing the march on Atlanta on July 1, where several of my former students chose to be a part of the 12,000-15,1000 people who protested HB 87.
The video is of one of my students who was featured in newspapers in Chattanooga, Dalton, and Atlanta. She was on TV and a national organization's website asking for her mother to be returned to her family after being arrested for having expired papers, and is an undocumented immigrant "captured" by police at a roadblock while taking her children to their soccer games. My student spoke directly to the mayor 2 times and to the Chief of Police. At the age of 13, she made her case. She is still waiting to see her mother again - since the middle of April.

My class is very real. It's not book learning, and memorization of facts. It is about seeing patterns of history, and recognizing when they reappear in society.

The final thoughts are at the end of the 2nd PowerPoint in the Expectations for class. I want more than anything for my students to believe and act on the idea that they are not the hope of the future - they are the power of today.