Thriving with Water

Today was the second day at the middle school with the sixth graders. Of course I was nervous this time, but not as much as before. I was actually really excited because last night when Matt and I were planning, I thought of a great idea to do comparisons of Nicaragua and Ethiopia without having to do a Venn diagram. I thought of making everything a game! It was called: NAME THAT COUNTRY. There would be a question or statement on the screen and then each team of students would need to decide which country it reflected. We would then keep track of how many points each time got for the number of right answers that they gave. It went wonderfully. The teams would debate over which country it could possibly be. For me though, I wanted to make sure that the students would want to know the material rather than just do something to humor us.

Photo from Water to Thrive

Today was the day that Ed (I forget his last name) came to Waverly-Shell Rock to speak about Water to Thrive. Water to Thrive is an organization that he helped create that builds wells mainly in Ethiopia in areas that don't have access to clean water. He showed a video that shared information about the organization and told stories about difficulties in obtaining water for the Ethiopians and how adding a well changed their lives. No longer do kids have to walk 6 miles round-trip twice a day in order to get water for them and their families. Even though we didn't get to do a service project, the kids were getting really excited about the  potential to do a penny drive at their school to raise money for Water to Thrive. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this, but I love getting people excited about service. Therefore, watching these students get excited about helping in a monetary way warmed my heart!

Our CB time went really fast this week because of the presentation, so there isn't as much to reflect on. We forgot to give out nametags and draw pictures on each of the nametags. Also, I remember I told Laura to make sure to include her group members when she wasn't, and reflecting on that, I think I should have reminded the students as a whole to work as a group, not just talk directly to her. She might have felt outed and insecure which I don't want! Overall though, I am pretty satisfied with everything that went on today!