Week #9: Peace

Feb. 11-15

Sponsor: Sam Divita

         

Posters in front of the office

Five student members of the IA - LEAP service council met three different times to plan a peace-themed student assembly.  They made posters for the building to promote interest in the theme of peace and interest students in the assembly.  The ultimate goal is to raise funds for and buy a peace pole to be installed in the IA - LEAP courtyard garden.

The FIP team capitalized on this project

Model of the peace pole

and asked ELL teacher Sam DiVita to promote "Peace" as the word of the week for February 11-15, 2008.  Sam displayed a model of a peace pole in the school's main entryway, developed slides of peacemakers from history to be shown on the school's TV system, and worked with school librarian Pamela Schutjer to display biographies of Nobel Peace Prize winners in the library/media center.

On Thursday, Feb. 14, Sam and other teachers organized an all-school peace assembly.  The assembly included presentations from teachers, a student-produced PowerPoint presentation, and remarks from Commander Colleen Luna of the St. Paul Police Department about the role each student has as an individual peacemaker in his or her community.  Students served as interpreters to translate the content of the assembly into Hmong,

Poster prompting students to consider peacemakers’ efforts

Spanish, Somali, and KaRen.

At the assembly, students were asked to contribute to fund-raising efforts to purchase a peace pole for the courtyard and help fund a dedication ceremony in the spring (with money collected in classes in the following days).  Upon exiting the assembly, each student received a paper with a matching activity in which they were to match the word "peace" -- written in eleven different languages -- to the name of the language in which "peace" appeared (e.g., "paz" matched with "Spanish”).  After matching the word to its corresponding language, students dropped the paper in a box for a prize drawing the following day.

Display of biographies of Nobel Peace Prize winners in the school library

Of note: Within two weeks of the peace assembly, over $300 had been raised for the peace pole and dedication ceremony.