I didn't quite have time to update on the finishing of this project, but better late then never right? Haley and I started realizing how lengthy our list was, even though it felt like we were marking a lot off the list. So with that, we picked around fifty people that had more needs than others, and started with that! Instead of doing the stamping, we made these extra personal. This was super nice, because it kind of relieved us of writing what felt like a lot of the same encouraging messages we were sending out! After we got those fifty done, we got some feedback and it was just what we needed to wrap up the project. With that being said, we are both looking for new projects to do. I want to do something to help with Riley and I think Haley is looking into art therapy.
Onto the next adventure!! :-)
0 Comments
Since our last update things have been going well! We managed to get through the first page of our list, so that makes us at about 11% through! It sounds like we're moving slow, but it really has only been a couple of weeks since we have really got rolling. After we got back from break, we created a new stamp set in order to make sure students are getting a variety of different types. We made a sun, a cloud, stars, and a dove. We haven't made the description sheets yet, but yesterday we carved the stamps and also stamped them.
Since the last update, we've taken few, but important steps!! We have really dove into actual production of making the cards. Before we started delivering them to students, we wanted to make sure we could create a way for students to respond/give feedback/ask for assistance or help. We created a remind account, which is a two way outlet for teachers and students to connect without invading privacy matters, such as directly texting. Although we are not teachers, it was perfect for us to use in order to talk to students in case they wanted to get back to us. We also decided that in order to make it feel as personal as possible, we wanted to keep our names out of the letters we were writing (although, one person in particular, seen below, knew almost right away it was us). We hope that coming from a stranger, it will mean more to them. After all of that, we began sending out notes! At the end of the period, we take what we have made that day down to Mrs. Robinson, who has them delivered to the class they are in. So far, we have sent out notes to around 11% percent of the freshman class. It's a small number, but one step at a time! We actually gained a lot of response from people joining. A lot of them had a really good response to the sudden, small act of kindness. After sifting through the list of students compared to responses, we were able to pick out the specific classrooms where you could tell that certain teachers hadn't mentioned or encouraged the survey. We hope to email those teachers and ask them to encourage it in lab again, so that we can really get a good understanding of what to put in their note. It feels really repetitive when you know nothing about them. Overall, we've really begun seeing people respond to our little way of letting them know that they are important. It's super encouraging hearing from people that are letting us know that it meant something to them. We still have crazy amounts of letters to write, but it's uplifting knowing that even if it only touches a single person, it's so worth doing!!!! Since the last update, we have made significant progress on Random Acts of Kindness. Almost immediately after our last update, we created and moved forward a google forum asking a simple set of questions: 1. What are you interested in? 2. What are your hobbies? 3. Do you participate in extra curricular activities? If so, which ones? 4. What do you struggle with? ** This question contained sixteen different options, and included a place where students could list specific things that had not been listed. 5. What can we do to help you? Is there anything else you would like to share? Considering the forum was 100% optional, we were ecstatic watching hundreds of replies come in. Not only did students share, but they were real and raw about their current situations. The replies, the honesty, it was actually jaw dropping. After our successful survey, we began to brainstorm the actual doing of the project. Because of Mr. Large's generosity, we were able to collect everything we needed to ensure personal notes that correlated with the results of each student's survey. We decided to do a "stamping" method that would make mass card producing easy, but also still allow flexibility to be real with each student's needs. On the front of the cards, we designed four different symbolic designs, that allow us to tell a story to each student that can align with their current state of line. The four include: - a lotus flower - a potter's bowl - ocean waves and, a butterfly. This last week, we have been testing and finalizing our plans for the project. We are close to getting the final "prototype" as to what we want our project to expound upon. While doing research, and reaching out to teachers about specific students we believe need additional guidance, we realized how closely our program can go hand and hand with student mentoring. Overall, we have been making strides to being able to FINALLY reach out to the underclassmen! We can't wait to start.
After many other project ideas (and fails...) Haley and I finally landed upon an idea that we are wholeheartedly passionate about and that will actually work out this time. In our lives, Haley and I have had a fair share of tragedy, more so recently in our school. During our high school careers, many students have sadly passed away. Lots, unexpectedly, and unfortunately, many to suicide. Our school has lots of preventions like anti-bullying, but never any that specifically focus on the positive impact of just the great things about life in general. Something I have struggled with recently is knowing that I am known, seen, and loved, and sadly this is very common in our school... it's time to change that. One of the greatest blessings to us is encouragement, and we would love to be able to make an uplifting impact widespread among our school. The idea initially came the day the Get Schooled Tour came to our school. The Get Schooled Tour specializes in creating awareness of how mental health is effected by bullying, stress, and mobile devices. The program included interactive polling that was optional for all students to participate in. Questions were asked about drug usage, bullying, and their struggles. We were actually speechless at the results: - 30% of students reported being abused - almost 80% of students report having struggled with anxiety in some way - over 62% of students report having felt any type of depression in the last 30 days - 27% of students choose to not talk to anyone if they are struggling - over 65% of students have thoughts of suicide And from there, the ideas were rolling. We believe that one word, one note, just one coming in contact with someone can radically transform how they choose to live their next hour, day, weeks, or years. From that, we hope to encourage and uplift as many students as possible. You never know what someone is struggling with. Our first goal after talking to guidance, is to write a letter to each freshman. We hope to intact messages of good relationship between upper and lower class man, giving them a reason to feel belonging. We also hope to create a google forum that they would answer during lab A. We would optionally ask them to answer a set of questions about their interests, hobbies, beliefs, and struggles; as this would allow us to truly gain insight as what we can encourage them with. We would hope that in the next couple of weeks we can get the survey out and answered, and between then figure out how we can gain materials and things to make our letters of encouragement with. After we know that, from there starts the making! |