The Present

Showed this to every grade level - great video - http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=The+Present+video%27&view=detail&mid=385698AE34D70B33BE70385698AE34D70B33BE70&FORM=VIRE

Travel the World

Crafting the Driving Question - Circle up and hand each student a sticky note. Ask them, “If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?” Students write down the specific location on their sticky note. Have a projector set and ready to go with a laptop or tablet connected and Google Earth available. Each student gets a turn at coming to the computer and punching in where they want to go. When students are done presenting, they receive another sticky note, and write down, “I want to go to this location because ______.” Following this activity, circle up and facilitate a discussion about having students plan a trip to their location. See if students are able to take their second sticky note and then develop a driving question for why they want to go where they want to go.

Growing In Character - Seedfolks by Paul Fleishman

Uses the book Seedfolks by Paul Fleishman
A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who sees a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Maricela, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead.

Thirteen very different voices and perspectives—old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful—tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.

Chosen as a state and citywide read in communities across the country, including in Vermont; Racine, WI; Tampa, FL; Newburgh, NY; and Boca Raton, FL.

http://www.paulfleischman.net/newsletter.htm

https://character.org/lessons/lesson-plans/middle/valley-park-middle-school/