SSB Day 1: laying a foundation

September 7, 2010

First day of school and first day of SSB:

On our first day  of class we began to learn everyone's names by going around the room and saying our names and our favorite TV show as a kid.

 'Hey Arnold' was well liked, but "Gullah Gullah Island" was a clear favorite, with some brave folks volunteering to sing the theme song.

Our first activity was to brainstorm questions, definitions, and examples on big pieces of poster paper around the room. Students walked around to the different posters and wrote down any ideas they had about that topic.

The topics were:

• Self-Knowledge
• College Access
• College Admissions Process
• Oral Histories
• Mural Arts

After writing up our ideas we discussed what these terms meant and how they related to this class. We discussed some of the differences between "college access" and the "college admissions process."

This debrief was followed by a review of the 'Objectives & Expectations' form for students in the SSB, which contained these terms and concepts.

As a group students generated a list of what they wanted to get out of the class.

SSB students want to....

-Be able to create their own mural

-Be active & hands on

-Have creative relief (draw, express yourself)

-Self-expression

-Learn the steps to creating a mural

-Help with Senior Project

-Figure out how to convert the ideas in your head to something you can articulate/express

-Understand the meaning of a picture

-Education

-Community service hours

-Go on trips

-Learn to draw

-Creativity

-Support

-A Helping hand to achieve their goals

We then transitioned to thinking about who we are as individuals and as a group. Students did a 5 minute free-write on the question:

What does it mean to be from a place? How does where we are from influence our identity and who we are?

Thinking about this question we read an example of a "Where I'm From" poem, and then students wrote their own. The basic structure of the poem is to use the phrase "I am from.." in whatever way you like to convey parts of your identity, past, future, etc....

For more on the "I am from" poems see Day 2!