The rest of our school is going to be taking the PSAT and ASVAB tests. The freshmen don't take those tests. We are going to be using just about every classroom in the school to give those tests. So the freshmen are going to the competition gym, practice gym, auditorium, and the dance room for sessions on service learning.
Half of the freshmen will sit and watch a movie in the auditorium for an hour and a half. The movie is called Paper Clips.
PAPER CLIPS is the moving and inspiring documentary film that captures how these students responded to lessons about the Holocaust-with a promise to honor every lost soul by collecting one paper clip for each individual exterminated by the Nazis. Despite the fact that they had previously been unaware of and unfamiliar with the Holocaust, their dedication was absolute. Their plan was simple but profound. The amazing result, a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paper clips (representing 6 million Jews and 5 million gypsies, homosexuals and other victims of the Holocaust) which stands permanently in their schoolyard, is an unforgettable lesson of how a committed group of children and educators can change the world one classroom at a time.
Then students will move from the movie to one of 5 stations. One of the stations is in the dance room and our coaches will be in there. The coaches are going to be walking the students through an exercise to re-enact the horror of the Nazi Holocaust. They will split the students up and have them stand in large rectangles that represent railcars.
One of the other five stations will be with me in the small gym. I will have a laptop and projector setup. We'll step through a power point lesson I have created about Genocides. I concentrated on "What is a Genocide?", "The History of Genocide" and "What can you do to prevent Genocide?". I am hoping that I can give the students some concrete things that they can actually start doing to make a difference.
You can check out the power point here:
Genocide Power Point
I am hoping this goes well. It could be very powerful. But, we are a new school with a new faculty and we have not been very organized so far this year. I am quite a bit nervous about it. We shall see.
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