For Angela Feezor and Diane Bach, two dedicated fourth-grade teachers at Morgan Elementary in Paducah, Kentucky, getting students excited about learning is an integral part of their instructional approach. From year to year, they make sure no two projects are ever the same -- even homework assignments have new twists to keep the kids on their toes. Angela and Diane work as a committed team to encourage the same kind of creative, out-of-the-box thinking from their young students.
The two teachers, who each instruct a class of about fifteen students, jointly subscribe to Time for Kids, Time magazine's periodical written and designed specifically for a young readership. They have found that use of this publication sparks students' interest in world events, and fosters reading and writing skills. Each Friday, the teachers and their classes settle in for a few hours to read the latest issue of the magazine and engage in a follow-up discussion on interesting topics.
On one Friday in November 2001, Angela Feezor remembers telling her students to take a few minutes to flip through the latest issue of the magazine and choose an article they wanted to review. When the children select one article to focus on, each child takes a turn reading a paragraph until the end of the article is reached. In the November issue, Time for Kids had featured a story about how children living in the poorest areas of the world face difficult challenges that prevent them from going to school. A focal point of the article was NetAid's work to ensure that more children, despite complex circumstances, are able to obtain a complete primary education. Almost unanimously, the students chose "The Joy of Learning" article to read.
When the class had finished reading the article, Angela says the reaction was tangible. "The students were very concerned about how kids in Ghana and other places in the world are not able to go to school," remembers the teacher. "I told them that they should feel privileged to live in a place where there are buses to take them to school, and where going to school is free."
The impassioned young students were spurred to action by what they had read. Both classes were already gearing up for the holiday season, preparing to compile recipes for a cookbook to be given as presents to each child's family. During the class discussion about the article, students in Angela's class came up with the idea to charge a dollar for each cookbook, instead of giving them away for free, and donate the proceeds to the NetAid World Schoolhouse project in Ghana. "I asked them, 'Does everyone agree?' and they all raised their hands," says Angela. "It was totally their idea. I was really impressed."
The happily surprised teacher immediately informed her colleague Diane Bach about what had transpired; Diane agreed that both classes should be involved in making the idea a reality. "We had done a cookbook in the previous year that involved each student writing a letter to someone famous and asking them to send us their favorite recipe," says Diane. That cookbook even included President Clinton's recipe for chicken enchiladas. But this time, something even more special was brewing. "This cookbook came from the students' hearts; they really just wanted to help others," says Angela.
The fourth-graders and their two teachers had less than a month before holiday vacation, and set to work compiling the cookbooks. Each child brought in a family recipe, which included such tasty treats as "Million-dollar Cake" and "Sugar Plum" sweets. Angela typed them up and compiled the recipes into books topped with cover-art drawn by two students. After all was said and done, the two classes had raised $97 to give to the Ghana project. "The parents were so enthusiastic and supportive of the project that some of them bought five cookbooks to give out as presents," says Angela.
Both Angela and Diane continue to think of innovative ways to engage students in activism with each new class of students. Inspired by the success of the cookbook fundraiser and the generosity of her students, Diane is planning an "Acts of Kindness" project to get kids thinking about how they can do more to help others. Sometimes, it's an ordinary idea that produces something extraordinary, says Diane. "It's really about getting kids to think about what they want to do for someone else--not for themselves."
