Greendale Public School - District School Board of Niagara - Social Justice

Turning a Nobody into a somebody resulted in Reptile Kingdom paying a visit to the Greendale Gators.

Recently, students in Katie Lagerwerf’s Grade 4 class at Greendale Public School launched a Who is Nobody project.

The unique program is designed to fuel a student’s passion to help others and to support positive character traits.

The classroom receive a blue “Nobody” doll. The doll has no gender, age, ethnicity or values.

The goal is to turn Nobody into a somebody by giving it positive life experiences.

Each student took Nobody home for a week and they had decide on a living thing – such as a person or animal – that they want to help change or make a positive influence on.

Students then organized a social justice project in support of their Nobody.

This program has helped these nine and ten year olds become global citizens— Katie Lagerwerf, teacher

“This program has helped these nine and ten year olds become global citizens,” Lagerwerf said.

Their attitudes, she said, shifted from ‘How can I make my life better’, to ‘How can I make the lives of others better?’

Jamie Huggins, for example, focussed her Nobody on animal welfare.

She set up a table in the school hallway and sold necklaces as well as ballots for students to guess how much candy was in a jar.

She also invited Thorold’s Reptile Kingdom to do a presentation for the school and students donated $1 to get up close and personal with snakes and lizards as well as scorpions and tarantulas.

They have become change agents, and I am hopeful that the differences they have made and have observed, will ripple out and that they will hold on to the lessons they have learned this year through this program— Katie Lagerwerf, teacher

All told, Jamie raised over $600 in support of Reptile Kingdom.

Lagerwerf is proud of her students’ accomplishments.

“They have become change agents, and I am hopeful that the differences they have made and have observed, will ripple out and that they will hold on to the lessons they have learned this year through this program, even if it means forgetting some of the math I taught,” she joked.

 
This article was published in the Niagara Falls Review Newspaper on April 13th 2011