Thursday, October 24, 2013

Metro Community Project Meeting #1

We had a perfect day -- cold but sunny and clear. Meeting with dozens of former and current Kelvyn Park students in Lincoln Square was a blast. Check out these select photos below then view the agenda for the day.


Created with flickr slideshow.


  • 10am-11am Welcome & Scavenger Hunt 
  • 11am-12:00pm Safe space: What are the barriers to honesty about school differences? What are we scared of? How can we be honest and curious? Creating guidelines for communication. (Juliet) Teacher modeling of direct conversation about educational disparity (Spiro & Sean) Student letters (NT and KP volunteers) 
  • 12:00pm-12:30pm Lunch Small groups: What’s happening in your school this year? What’s happening in your district? What is one thing you love about your school? What is one thing that is challenging about your school? 
  • 12:30-12:45 Report out & Teacher updates: CPS (Sean), New Trier (Spiro) 
  • 12:45-1:00 Energizer (Kelly, Gerardo, and Amy)
  • 1:00-1:50 Advocacy training Overview of conversations with legislators (Cynthia) Summer 2013 conversations with legislators: panelists share their memories of what happened and how legislators responded; panelists offer tips on how to engage legislators in discussion. (Spiro, Sean, Cynthia, Juliet, and NT/KP students) Role-play of legislative conversations (Spiro or Sean as the “legislator,” NT/KP students as students) 
  • 1:50-2:00 Reflection activity: one thing I got out of today was…(Juliet)

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Crop Walk featuring Charles Tony-Jones

We were thrilled to have Charles Tony-Jones visit us 9th period to talk to us about the North Shore Crop Walk on October 20th, 2013 in Evanston, IL. We have already raised hundreds of dollars from various low-denomination collections, but now it's time to secure sponsors for larger donations. Here's Mr. Jones speaking with the Social Service Board: