Community Building
In the closing days of 2015, some of the highest flood waters ever recorded hit the Mississippi River valley. This activity encourages students to empathize with flood victims, and to consider how we as individuals and as a community can best respond to floods and other climate change-related...
This classroom activity helps build community in your classroom at the start of the school year, and encourages students to reflect on some of the big issues in the news over the summer. It can be a stand-alone circle, or it can be used to jumpstart a longer term project in advisory, social studies...
Students read and reflect on a poem and on their experiences over the past year, and consider things they've learned or goals they want to set for the coming year.
Students consider a wide range of statements in response to the killing of NYC police officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. In guided discussion, students consider the statements, what the speaker intended to achieve, and whether they feel the statement was helpful.
After a siege in a Sydney, Australia cafe by a self-described Islamic cleric, Australian Muslims feared a backlash. But Australians of all backgrounds responded instead with an act of solidarity through Twitter. Students learn about the news and the response, and consider how they might stand up...
This circle activity invites students to share their feelings about gratitude and to express gratitude for things large and small.
Scientists are getting more specific about the pace of climate change, warning that we have very little time left to stop it. Activists are pursuing divestment movements and boycotts. In this activity, students read about these efforts and plan their own climate-saving action.
For the 100 days following April 7, people around the globe will be marking the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, which killed as many as one million people. Through a project called Kwibuka20 (Remember20), Rwandans have asked "the world to come together to support the survivors of the...
In small and large group discussion, students explore recent developments in Ukraine and the people power movement EuroMaidan as well as other people power movements.
This lesson focuses on a less well-known part of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, but one that is extremely relevant today: the Poor People’s Campaign that Dr. King led over 40 years ago. The lesson links this campaign to current struggles to combat poverty in the US, including efforts by workers at...