The 7th grade ELA teachers, along with Tish McKernan and Jill Williams, created a symposium of speakers for the students to help them see how their theme relates to real people with real jobs from our community. Here is our list of speakers:
Rich Vs. Poor - Nate Schlueter, Dir. Mobile Loaves and Fishes ROADS program
The Law - Grant Sparks, US Attorney - HCMS parent
Rebellion Against Authority - Leslie Beasley, Open Arms
Family Relationships - Jeffrey Swan, Cedar Creek Elementary Counselor
Observation - Special Agent US Dept of State
Perfection - Brendan Hansen, Olympic Swimmer
Violence - A member of the Infantry Bridage Combat Team - HCMS parent
Students will continue to work on the project by conducting research and then creating a public service announcements (PSA) related to their theme.
Here is what our students have to say about how the experience impacted them:
AislinnH
October 25, 2013
I thought our speaker was really great. He had a lot of great things to say and a lot of interesting stories to tell where observation had helped him. His job sounded really cool, but definitely not for me. He said mainly his job was to observe, and pick out things that might be harmful to the person or people he’s protecting. He has to know where a bomb might be hidden, who is not acting exactly like everyone else in a crowd. The hardest part is not to make an incorrect assumption, because then, the mission is jeopardized.
One thing he stressed throughout his speech was to not be a ” Thomas ” and do your own thing. Another more related thing he said, was you need to observe the world, not just see it. You have to look for things you can’t see instead of just accepting what comes straight to your eye.
We could incorporate this into our PSA, adding a few lines about seeing what you can’t see and paying more attention to the world around you.
October 25, 2013
I thought our speaker was really great. He had a lot of great things to say and a lot of interesting stories to tell where observation had helped him. His job sounded really cool, but definitely not for me. He said mainly his job was to observe, and pick out things that might be harmful to the person or people he’s protecting. He has to know where a bomb might be hidden, who is not acting exactly like everyone else in a crowd. The hardest part is not to make an incorrect assumption, because then, the mission is jeopardized.
One thing he stressed throughout his speech was to not be a ” Thomas ” and do your own thing. Another more related thing he said, was you need to observe the world, not just see it. You have to look for things you can’t see instead of just accepting what comes straight to your eye.
We could incorporate this into our PSA, adding a few lines about seeing what you can’t see and paying more attention to the world around you.
AuroraZ
October 25, 2013
Brendan Hansen was an amazing speaker for perfection. I noticed that he touched on a lot of the things we had intended to put in our video. He changed my thinking about our PSA, perfection, because he said that even though no one’s perfect, everyday they should try their best to be perfect. I just really liked that he said that because it conveys the message that no one is perfect ’cause perfection is an opinion and that you should still try your hardest each and everyday.
October 25, 2013
Brendan Hansen was an amazing speaker for perfection. I noticed that he touched on a lot of the things we had intended to put in our video. He changed my thinking about our PSA, perfection, because he said that even though no one’s perfect, everyday they should try their best to be perfect. I just really liked that he said that because it conveys the message that no one is perfect ’cause perfection is an opinion and that you should still try your hardest each and everyday.
JacquelineG.
October 25, 2013
I enjoyed listening to our speaker yesterday, and I think the message her, and her company convey is a very important message. Her cause is a great cause, worthy of a lot of respect. Her business hires women that have been relocated into Austin from third world country’s that if they go back to,t hey will be either hurt or killed. It ties into rebellion against authority because the women she hires, they are running away from a government, or group, that has decided they should die, or they should suffer bodily harm. I think she had some great points on how some places treat people differently, and its not right, etc. Also she gave us many ideas, and facts we might incorporate in our PSA.
October 25, 2013
I enjoyed listening to our speaker yesterday, and I think the message her, and her company convey is a very important message. Her cause is a great cause, worthy of a lot of respect. Her business hires women that have been relocated into Austin from third world country’s that if they go back to,t hey will be either hurt or killed. It ties into rebellion against authority because the women she hires, they are running away from a government, or group, that has decided they should die, or they should suffer bodily harm. I think she had some great points on how some places treat people differently, and its not right, etc. Also she gave us many ideas, and facts we might incorporate in our PSA.
SarahG
October 25, 2013 at 8:35 AM
I thought that this was probably the most wonderful thing ever, and I hoped that Odile finds her sons one day. I found that it showed that rules are fine when they are fair and for the safety of those who follow them- but if they are unfair and only for selfish reasons then those rules are corrupt and should be rebelled against. The PSA might now say that the rules are for our safety and thus shouldn’t be rebelled against.
October 25, 2013 at 8:35 AM
I thought that this was probably the most wonderful thing ever, and I hoped that Odile finds her sons one day. I found that it showed that rules are fine when they are fair and for the safety of those who follow them- but if they are unfair and only for selfish reasons then those rules are corrupt and should be rebelled against. The PSA might now say that the rules are for our safety and thus shouldn’t be rebelled against.
SophiaC
October 25, 2013
When Brendan Hansen first came I was really excited to hear what he was going to say. I thought that he was really funny and explained things really well. I was really surprised when he said that his mom put him in swimming lessons when he was 4 years old and the swim coach said that he was horrible at swimming. I knew that perfection isn’t real, or doesn’t exist in this world but the way that he said it made me think of perfection in a completely different way, and I think it’s really going to help with the PSA. Before, we were going to say in the PSA how perfection isn’t a good thing and it only harms you, but now that he spoke to us, I can say what we can do to be the best we can be without trying to be perfect and how we can feel good about ourselves.
MarthaM
October 25, 2013
I really enjoyed listening to the speaker. I think he was a great help and i have some really great things to add into my PSA. I noticed that my speaker might have a lot of tough problems to solve with family relationships because he had a lot to say and he had many examples to share. I wouder if he had any family relationship problems himself in his family? I think he really helped with my PSA because he got straight to the point and made sure we knew what we saw him for. I really liked how straight firward he was and I liked that he asked a lot of questions to make us go deeper into our topic. I really liked all of the questions he asked. I think I want to put some questions to make people feel sad and have people think differently and seriously about family relationships.
October 25, 2013
When Brendan Hansen first came I was really excited to hear what he was going to say. I thought that he was really funny and explained things really well. I was really surprised when he said that his mom put him in swimming lessons when he was 4 years old and the swim coach said that he was horrible at swimming. I knew that perfection isn’t real, or doesn’t exist in this world but the way that he said it made me think of perfection in a completely different way, and I think it’s really going to help with the PSA. Before, we were going to say in the PSA how perfection isn’t a good thing and it only harms you, but now that he spoke to us, I can say what we can do to be the best we can be without trying to be perfect and how we can feel good about ourselves.
MarthaM
October 25, 2013
I really enjoyed listening to the speaker. I think he was a great help and i have some really great things to add into my PSA. I noticed that my speaker might have a lot of tough problems to solve with family relationships because he had a lot to say and he had many examples to share. I wouder if he had any family relationship problems himself in his family? I think he really helped with my PSA because he got straight to the point and made sure we knew what we saw him for. I really liked how straight firward he was and I liked that he asked a lot of questions to make us go deeper into our topic. I really liked all of the questions he asked. I think I want to put some questions to make people feel sad and have people think differently and seriously about family relationships.
GraceZ
Submitted on October 25, 2013 at 10:05 AM
I had a good time listening to Ms. Leslie Beasley yesterday at the Symposium. I noticed yesterday that she’s very kind and generous, making a shop for the widows that almost got killed. She helps them everyday by giving them a living wage to live on, so they don’t have to live in poverty. I think it was very smart of her to come up with an idea to earn money out of recycled clothing. The Open Arms has shops in 27 countries, which shows that you can make the most out of anything if you don’t give up on your goal. I think it was very courageous for the women from all around the world to rebel against their tribes or government. (If they didn’t run and rebel, they would’ve gotten killed) This Symposium helped me learn that rebellion can be for a good reason, not just only for bad.
SarahC
Submitted on October 25, 2013 at 9:40 AM
The speaker I was listening to was Major. He started serving in the Army when he was only 17 years old, right out of high school. He talked to us a lot about all the different types of training. What I didn’t know was that most of the training they do in the army is at night in the dark. I think that would be really hard. All of the training they do is also very dangerous. The Major said that people have actually died during training. All that relates to the book because of all of the training that June has to do for the military. One other thing is that as a solider, you are still afraid. But you have to learn to control that fear. June and Day have to control there fear all the time.
Submitted on October 25, 2013 at 10:05 AM
I had a good time listening to Ms. Leslie Beasley yesterday at the Symposium. I noticed yesterday that she’s very kind and generous, making a shop for the widows that almost got killed. She helps them everyday by giving them a living wage to live on, so they don’t have to live in poverty. I think it was very smart of her to come up with an idea to earn money out of recycled clothing. The Open Arms has shops in 27 countries, which shows that you can make the most out of anything if you don’t give up on your goal. I think it was very courageous for the women from all around the world to rebel against their tribes or government. (If they didn’t run and rebel, they would’ve gotten killed) This Symposium helped me learn that rebellion can be for a good reason, not just only for bad.
SarahC
Submitted on October 25, 2013 at 9:40 AM
The speaker I was listening to was Major. He started serving in the Army when he was only 17 years old, right out of high school. He talked to us a lot about all the different types of training. What I didn’t know was that most of the training they do in the army is at night in the dark. I think that would be really hard. All of the training they do is also very dangerous. The Major said that people have actually died during training. All that relates to the book because of all of the training that June has to do for the military. One other thing is that as a solider, you are still afraid. But you have to learn to control that fear. June and Day have to control there fear all the time.
WynneH - I really enjoyed Brendan Hansen’s speech. It was very motivational, and it was a great pre-game pep talk (as I have volleyball on Thursday). I think the best thing about Brendan Hansen’s speech was the overall message, don’t listen to the people who tell you you can’t, because you are the only one who can decide that. I felt that Brendan was a pretty good guy, he had some great points and told us all about his Olympic Games experience. I think the Olympics are very tough. This speech helped with some major points in our PSA. I think we can incorporate many self esteem- based points in our PSA. I overall enjoyed this speaker very much!
WillJ - The best thing about our speaker was the stories he told about going to different places in Austin with many different homeless people. It is great what Nate Schlueter does on helping the poor and how he builds relationships with poor people. He will do almost everything for them he sold his cars and everything to help them. Sometimes he will spend two or three days living on the streets with them. I can tell he enjoys what he does. In the PSA we could add how some people will go to extreme lengths to help others.
VikramA - The speaker yesterday was very intriguing. She told us about how she helps women refugees here in Austin. She made me feel like I was actually there when the women had to run away. I wondered about how she came up with such a good idea. She told us that you should always do what you want to do, even if nobody else is doing it.
CatherineB- The best thing about the speaker event was hearing what Jeffrey Swan said about support from family. I thought that he really understood kids. I wonder what he does if kids have some really serious personal problems, and I felt like he is someone you could confide in. I also noticed that he can talk to kids really well. Listening to him talk changed what I thought about our PSA because now I understand more about family. I think it could change what we put in our PSA because we know more about the methods that families have with kids.
NichoA - Yesterday my groups speaker was Brendan Hansen an Olympic gold medalist. He talked about his life until the Olympics. He told us about how he started swimming his coach told him he was so bad he thought he should just do another sport. I think he encouraged me because he played a sport and went pro and that’s my dream. I wondered when he actually started getting good at swimming since he was terrible to start out. I think it shows how you don’t Start out good you grow to be better and get great at something. I think it relates to our PSA because if you get made fun of for being bad you can always get better.
CampbellG - Our speaker taught us why family is important and what they give you. The three things family gives you is metal,emotional, and physical support. He related the three things families gave to you to the book Legend he also found a way to get it to relate to our lives. Day needs physical support but, June needs emotional support.
WillJ - The best thing about our speaker was the stories he told about going to different places in Austin with many different homeless people. It is great what Nate Schlueter does on helping the poor and how he builds relationships with poor people. He will do almost everything for them he sold his cars and everything to help them. Sometimes he will spend two or three days living on the streets with them. I can tell he enjoys what he does. In the PSA we could add how some people will go to extreme lengths to help others.
VikramA - The speaker yesterday was very intriguing. She told us about how she helps women refugees here in Austin. She made me feel like I was actually there when the women had to run away. I wondered about how she came up with such a good idea. She told us that you should always do what you want to do, even if nobody else is doing it.
CatherineB- The best thing about the speaker event was hearing what Jeffrey Swan said about support from family. I thought that he really understood kids. I wonder what he does if kids have some really serious personal problems, and I felt like he is someone you could confide in. I also noticed that he can talk to kids really well. Listening to him talk changed what I thought about our PSA because now I understand more about family. I think it could change what we put in our PSA because we know more about the methods that families have with kids.
NichoA - Yesterday my groups speaker was Brendan Hansen an Olympic gold medalist. He talked about his life until the Olympics. He told us about how he started swimming his coach told him he was so bad he thought he should just do another sport. I think he encouraged me because he played a sport and went pro and that’s my dream. I wondered when he actually started getting good at swimming since he was terrible to start out. I think it shows how you don’t Start out good you grow to be better and get great at something. I think it relates to our PSA because if you get made fun of for being bad you can always get better.
CampbellG - Our speaker taught us why family is important and what they give you. The three things family gives you is metal,emotional, and physical support. He related the three things families gave to you to the book Legend he also found a way to get it to relate to our lives. Day needs physical support but, June needs emotional support.