Every Monday and Wednesday, students from grades 6-8 at Normandin have chosen to
take part in the 21st Century programs “Community Service Group.” The purpose of
the 21st Century program is to establish or expand community learning centers
that operate during out-of-school hours and provide students with academic
enrichment opportunities along with other activities designed to complement the
students' regular academic program. Two seventh grade teachers from Normandin
Middle School Lisa Simmons and Ashley Barry facilitate the group each week. The
teachers are so proud of how enthusiastic and eager the students are to
creatively work towards finding ways to reach out and help their community. The
students decided they wanted to find a way to give back to the city of New
Bedford during the holiday season. After brainstorming, they decided to run a
drive called, “Every Child Deserves a Good Nights Sleep.” They advertised around
the school in an attempt to collect new and gently used pajamas, new underwear
ad socks, tooth paste and tooth brushes, books, and stuffed animals. The
students all agreed that they were fortunate to not have to worry about simple
things such as pajamas and tooth paste. But they all strongly believed that they
wanted to work towards ensuring that every child in their community has the same
comfortable good nights sleep as they do. They decided the best way to
distribute these items to children was to donate them to the Gifts to Give
organization. They created posters, newsletters, emails, blog posts, donation
boxes, and posters for the school bulletin board in an effort to get teachers,
students, and parents to donate to their drive. The drive turned out to be a
huge success! The students even went through their stuffed animals, books, and
pajamas and felt the joy of giving someone something they no longer used. The
teachers at our school also made many donations and helped support our kids. The
families of Normandin were extremely supportive as well. On Saturday, December
14th the students had the opportunity to go on field trip to the mill and hand
deliver all of the donations. They also spent four hours at the mill helping to
sort clothes and clean toys. The students were so proud and happy to be a part
of helping their community. They kept asking “when they could come back again”
or stating that “they had to bring their parents to see this place.” The
Normandin teachers are so proud of the empathetic and hard working students at
our school that truly understand how amazing it feels to give back! It was
amazing to see the joy they got out of organizing the drive, working hard to
pursue it, and then getting to see the result of their donations going to
directly to Gifts to Give! What a rewarding way to spend a Saturday!
Thank you to Ms. Simmons, Ms. Barry and Mr. Martins for your dedication on this project! Thank you to Mr. Stevens and our friends at GiftsToGive for allowing our students this wonderful opportunity! Our 21st Century Learning Program is hitting on all cylinders!
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment