A group of 38 8th grade WEB (Welcome Every Body) leaders from Shaw Heights Middle School were ready to make some changes in their school.
The group began with a photo hunt and distributing surveys to teachers, students and parents to inventory the perspectives of their school community. They discovered that one of the most important issues in their school community was the new school schedule. The students came together with specific criteria for their issue and voted. It was very important to the students that they worked on an issue that would make a positive change and would allow them to present their knowledge to others (ideally the school board). The students researched other schools' schedules, talked to parents and invited their school district's Assistant Superintendent (Adams 50) to come talk to them about district decisions are made about scheduling.
Students decided to tackle the issue by writing a letter to the editor of their local paper about their work, creating a Power Point presentation to demonstrate their knowledge and their plan, and to create a display for the summit. Their presentation was shown to students throughout Shaw Heights Middle School and WEB students spread their voices about their schedule all year long.
-- Ms. Benisch's class, Shaw Heights Middle School