Our Student of the Month Empathy Presentation

Remember this? I don't know if our friends at Hillsdale can watch this at school (it's a Youtube clip which we cannot watch at school), or if they'll have to wait until they're home. Many of you wanted this to be accessible online.

It Gets Better

I am so proud of all of you today. We had a wonderful, thoughtful discussion at the end of the day before our long weekend. I am proud of you for listening to one another, supporting one another and showing maturity.

There was a lot of heavy stuff that we talked about and you are all probably processing the discussion in different ways. In fact, I heard one of you educating a student in another class about the importance of the words we use.

I wanted to make some videos available to you if you are interested in watching them. These are some of the things I was referring to in class today. I have embedded youtube clips, which you will not be able to watch at school, but you can at home.

For a bonus, write a post on your own blog (link back to this post and leave me a comment to let me know you've done it) reflecting on what we talked about today and/or relating the issues to your own experiences. Not everyone got to share their stories today, but now you have a chance to share them online. Start a post, write a poem, a story or your thoughts.

Remember:
When things get rough, you'll get through it. It gets better.
Words are extremely powerful. Be cautious about how you use them and how you respond to the ways others use them.
There are people out there who love you and care about you more than you'll ever know. When you need help, turn to them. (One of those people is me, by the way.)



On Glee, Kurt's dad, Burt, responds to Finn's hurtful words about his son.



My favourite actor, Neil Patrick Harris tells you it gets better.



The wonderful Ellen Degeneres talks about teenage bullying and the crisis that we have been hearing about this month.



Chris Colfer (Glee's Kurt) tells you it gets better.

For more information and support, you can check out The Trevor Project.

UPDATE: Please take some time to visit Hannah's blog and read her response to our talk. She has written beautifully and honestly.

Thank you for your tolerance, empathy and support of one another. I am a proud teacher.

Be safe and happy this Thanksgiving weekend!

Student of the Month Reflection due Friday, October 8th

Date: _________________ Name:____________________

Class:______

Empathy Student of the Month Presentation

Reflection

Please answer these questions with detail. You can submit your answers by email, on your blog or on paper. This is due tomorrow (Friday, October 8^th, 2010).

After watching the video of our Empathy presentation, reflect on what you saw and how it felt creating the performance, practising and performing.

Please answer in full sentences with lots of detail and juicy words.

3 Things that I think would have helped to improve our presentation

2 Things that I think went really well

1 Piece of advice I have for students who will be performing in the future

Student of the Month Empathy Presentation

Hello R8A,

You did a great job on your Empathy presentation today. M. d'Entremont, Mrs. Leafloor and Mrs. Seabrook all extended their compliments and the other classes are really excited to get to do their presentations.

Tomorrow during period 2, we'll be watching Connor's video of your skits and evaluating them.

Assignment #2 - Empathy

This assignment is due Tuesday, October 12th (thank you, Melissa for the date correction!)

You are to write a post of at least 10 lines in length about empathy. Please use your own words and write creatively about the word "empathy". You may use your notes from your Free Write book to help you out. You can write a rap, a poem, a journal entry, a creative story or a reflection. Please be creative and use lots of detail in your writing.

For a bonus, try to identify the symbol above. Leave a comment below if you have a guess (or even better, proof!).