Tuesday, March 18, 2014

OHS Tech Committee Update: March 2014

The following presentation was shared with the Board of Education meeting for March 2014 as an update of the Technology Committee's work over the past year at O'Neill Public Schools.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Student CBL Solutions Underway...

Student solutions for our English 8 "Write to Change the World" Challenge Based Learning project are being noticed around our school, community, and beyond.
Two groups of students visited O'Neill Elementary's 6th grade classes to impress upon them two different topics: 1) the benefits of good hygiene and 2) the dangers of underage drinking.  
Both groups spoke persuasively, impressing upon their younger peers solid suggestions for how they could make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others.  The following image shows signatures of students who committed to avoiding alcohol in high school as a result of the presentation.
Another group of 8th graders created a week-long campaign to promote adoption as a powerful choice for life.  They visited KBRX, the local radio station, and created a public service announcement that has been airing each day.  
Along with it, they worked with the radio station's website to create daily polls about adoption and will be publishing the results on their blog: http://adoptionstories22.blogspot.com. Already they have seen a success in the number of people who have taken their polls, commented on their blog, or shared their positive stories about adoption.  

Other groups of 8th graders are busy implementing their solutions as well. One group has been selling wristbands to raise awareness (and money) towards the cause of building a new gym at OHS. They will be presenting to the Board of Education next Monday night. 

Many OHS students and staff have begun to use recycling boxes provided and maintained by another group of concerned 8th graders. 
Still others are working on a campaign to protest the Keystone XL Pipeline after being educated about the potential effects to our community. 


These are just a few of the many examples of ways concerned students are using the power of their writing to make an impact in their world. Much more to come!

The Power of Writing: Letters to the Editor

As a guiding resource for our English 8 "Write to Change the World" Challenge Based Learning project, we were lucky enough to learn along with the Editor of the Norfolk Daily News, Kent Warneke, as spoke with our classes via Skype.  
We appreciated this real-world expertise on how to write persuasively and get your point across, specifically in newspaper journalism.

We followed this up with, of course, more writing. Students wrote blog posts over what they took away from the experience, thank-you letters to Kent Warneke, and persuasive "Letters to the Editor" to the newspaper of their choosing, to try and convince others to take action on their CBL topics.  
Tune in to see if any O'Neill 8th graders get published, and more importantly, if they convince you to take action and make a difference in the world!