Middle School students and faculty concluded the first week of classes by participating in “Community Day,” a project organized by Middle School Head, Sarah Burdett, and English teacher Kate Duennebier.
After watching the trailer to Pay It Forward, as well as a pair of news clips depicting the selfless acts of two individuals, the collective group of students and faculty was asked to reflect on what it had just seen.
“And so here we are, in our middle school auditorium at Brunswick,” Burdett said, “considering how the actions of individuals can affect the lives of others and wondering if we as individuals can use our power and our own beliefs to affect a change in a world that seems increasingly distrustful.”
From there, students returned to their advisories and worked on an exercise called “This I Believe, This We Believe.”
Students first identified three values that they stand for as individuals, and then all came together as a group to determine which of each advisee’s three beliefs the entire advisory shared.
That belief was added to an advisory poster board — put on display for all to see.
“It was an opportunity for everyone to learn about each other and to think about individual and collective strengths,” Burdett concluded.