cc licensed flickr photo shared by elycefeliz
Every year the Grade 8 students have found a Christmas Charity to help out. It is the start to our Citizenship Project 2 minutes to make a Difference. We are still doing that. We have chosen 1 Hope Winnipeg this year as our major charity. Half of all money raised will go to 1 Hope Winnipeg. The other money raised will be donated to charities that the students will choose. This is why it is so powerful. We are putting the power in their hands. They donated the money and they get to choose who to give it to.So how do you get students to donate 25 cents a day. I have not figured that out yet. I know that each teacher is going to have to work hard at keeping this idea going. Students will forget and decide that they do not want to participate. Teachers can keep the flame alive though and I am adding a global touch. Through my network on twitter and my readership here I hope to have other schools across Canada and around the world participate. I have created a wiki to keep track of the schools and what they have raised. The wiki will be open and each participating school will be able to do whatever they want. Seeing kids from around the globe doing this event with them could spur them on.
cc licensed flickr photo shared by Icky Pic
It is important that students do not get this money from their parents. They have to earn it or give up something to make the donation. We are sending a note home to parents so that they understand that this is supposed to be a student project not a parent project. Most of our students spend money at our canteen or local restaurants at lunch. Giving up a quarter for most of them will not be a deal breaker. THEY just have to understand the sacrifice that is needed. I hope it works. If it does the students at the school will have raised $1800 in a short 4 weeks. Powerful stuff.
Now for the important question. Who is going to join? Please email me and join the wiki.
chris (dot) harbeck (at) gmail.com
4 comments:
Chris - great idea. I only have one section, but we'll see what happens.
Congratulations to Chris Harbeck's students at Sargent Park who contributed 25 cents a day during December! Not only did they help to make a difference to charities at Christmas, they also helped motivate Karl Fisch's class, and other students world-wide, to contribute in a similar fashion. I believe that such generosity will help make the world a better place.
I feel confident that this innovative action of "donating $0.25 a day" will spread and that other teachers will use it to motivate their classes in future. Just remember that Sargent Park students, and the hard work of Mr. Harbeck (behind the scenes), were responsible for getting this amazing endeavour started.
Congratulations and all the BEST for the holiday season and the upcoming New Year!
Take care & keep smiling :-)
Brian
I love this idea! It is most defiantly something that I will strive to implement in my classrooms ...The way that I would keep students interested is by having them choose a charity within the first week, which would then allow you to regularly update them on what the charity is aiming to do and what the current issues are that the charity is trying to find solutions for. Allowing students to correspond with their chosen charity (be it through letters, emails, guest speakers etc) would also be an idea as to how to make students feel that they will be making a difference should they continue to donate.
Thanks for the comment Angela. I will put some of your changes into effect next year.
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