This November was a busy month! We spent a good deal of time talking about the election and analyzing the results state by state. We have taken time to get to know the newest members of President Trump's cabinet as they were announced during November and December. We watched video footage of Severn Suzuki's speech (The Girl Who Silenced the World) from the 1992 Earth Summit. This led to discussions about how some of the worlds problems have changed, some have not, and the new problems that our world faces today. Kindness Rocks (literally) were on our agenda for the month. We each brought in a rock, painted them, then wrote positive messages. We took the rocks out into our own communities to help spread kindness. We debated the issue that involves athletes protesting during the national anthem at sporting events, weighing in on whether or not we agree with Colin Kaepernick's protest. In addition to all of this we also explored issues such as the current chocolate crisis, as well as extensively researched and learned about other local and global issues such as hunger, education, youth violence, poverty, homelessness, health, and water. We are continuing our I AM MALALA novel study, reading parts III (Finding My Voice) and part IV (Targeted) this month. Thursday TAG students were given a unique opportunity to develop questions to ask to Malala during a conference she was attending in Denver, Colorado. Over 1,500 questions were submitted but only about 30 were actually asked to Malala during the Q&A session. We submitted three of those 1,500 and TWO of our THREE were picked and Malala answered those questions directly! I am soooo proud of my students and so thankful to Dr. and Mrs. Lance Savoie for this opportunity! We're not done! We also studied Milton Glaser's work (graphic designer I heart NY) as well as analyzed several professional campaign designs for several causes in order to prepare ourselves to design our own! The study of graphic designs and designers along with our previous research project involving local/global issues led to our "Campaign for a Cause" project. The students are in the middle of designs as I'm writing this message to all of you now. Final "Campaign for a Cause" posters should be available in the December portfolio. Last, but not least, our Imaginary World creative writing books are still in progress and our worlds are expanding with new ideas. I just might have the next big idea for the next big book or movie brewing in my classroom!!!!!