Dream It! Do It!

Dream It! Do It!

1. It looks like an informational blog about how to discuss the issues of violence in society with middle school students
2. This project should help to solve some misconceptions about talking to middle school students about violence in society, and maybe give educators some additional techniques on how to address questions as they arise
3. Ideally, if there were no time constraints, the blog is good place to start, but if the program ended up expanding, such as a series of different classes or techniques, Google Classroom would be a great platform to utilize and house that information. Many educators are utilizing Classroom, and I think it could be a good tool to use (but first we would have to figure out how to use it - getting there!)
4. This topic is very prevalent right now - there was another incident earlier this week of another shooting near a school. I think that if the techniques and materials are presented in a way that is sensitive to emotional needs of the group you are working with it would be well accepted. And as more issues arise, refreshers to educators about how to deal with the emotions and questions that may come up
5. To make this idea a reality, more work would need to be done to gather more information about the best techniques on working with students and dealing with societal violence. For this project, we are simply gathering information from websites or other scholarly sources, however, consulting with school counselors, psychologists, and administrators would be a good place to start. However, when you want to know which questions are coming up classroom teachers would be an excellent resource to find out which questions seem to come up the most frequently.
6. Some risks in creating this project is becoming desensitized to the material. When you are presented with image after image of violence and casualties, you can stop seeing the suffering of the people involved and only look at a body count. Also, there could very possibly be pushback from some parents who don’t believe that this should be discussed in the schools. Some parents may not want their students involved in any kind of dialogue of this nature, so you also need to be sensitive to your community. It is also possible that if there is too much pushback from parents you could lose the support of administration, which could shelve your idea or program.
7. Some positives that could come out of creating this is having a central repository for different ideas and techniques that could be utilized in the classroom when discussing societal violence with students of all ages. As new ideas come about, information could be updated and re-distributed as needed.
8. Some unintended consequences of this project could be exposing students to situations that they were either unaware of or unfamiliar with. Some parents do shelter their children, and the students may not have an understanding of how to process the information that you are providing to them

Create A Scope of Work Plan

Create a Scope of Work Plan

1. Work Title
1. Communicating Social Violence to Middle School Students
2. Executive summary - paragraph
1. Social violence is an occurrence that affects everyone, not just adults. We are bombarded in the media with data, articles and visuals of violences and the impact that it has on society as a whole. Children and adolescents do not yet have the capacity to process these events by themselves and will bring questions and concerns into the classrooms in different ways.  In our blog, we plan to briefly review different occurrences of social violence that has an impact in our world. We also be considering different age-appropriate tactics to have discussions with students in the classroom regarding social violence.  
3. Creative Brief
1. https://mariaandmichellegroupproject.blogspot.com/2017/11/building-creative-brief.html
4. Project Objectives
1. Inform and guide educators, school officials, and parents on how to communicate mass violence with students in middle school.
2. Emphasize the need to make the topic age appropriate.
3. Provide examples of ways to approach the topic of mass violence with middle school students that can be implemented in the classroom.
5. Deliverables
1. Understanding of how social violence impacts your students
2. Age appropriate tactics on how to discuss social violence with middle school students
3. Ideas of how to employ those tactics in the classroom
6. Treatment
1. We will be using Blogger as our main source and platform for our project.
2. We are also researching some outside tools for photo and video slideshows in order to create some visuals that have an impact on the presentation
3. There may also be some YouTube videos regarding techniques on talking about violence to middle school students, but this is also part of the research that should take place over the next week
7. Timetable/schedule
1. By the end of week one: Blog layout will be edited and finalized so that it is visually pleasing, post an introduction blog post to inform the audience of the blog’s goals, incorporate a visual aid into a blog post for the audience with a thought provoking question to encourage participation in commenting.  
2. By the end of week two: Have a blog post regarding how to approach a conversation on mass violence with middle school students, a post on why we need to have this approach and discuss the topic in a certain way with students, and a post containing different approaches on how to discuss mass violence with middle school students.
3. By the end of week three: Have a number of posts, videos, photos, and resources on the blog that will help support the presentation on communicating mass violence to middle school students.
8. Resources Needed
1. Articles based on topic of mass violence and how to communicate it to students.
2. Videos and pictures to be visual aids for the audience.
3. Articles that can be used as hyperlinks for extra support if the audience needs it.
9. Constraint or Challenges
1. One challenge we may face is not sounding overly repetitive in our blog posts.
2. Finding resources with different examples on how to approach discussions of mass violence with students. (Many of our articles give the same advice.)
3. Finding visuals that will have an impact on the audience without being overly graphic of be considered triggers for the audience members.

Critically Analyze a Mentor Text

Critically Analyze a Mentor Text

1. The article is written by Cindy Long and is published by neaToday. The article discusses how to approach topics of mass violence (such as the Vegas shooting) with children of different ages and how to make the discussion age appropriate.
2. The article uses creative techniques such as bullets and sections to separate different subtopics with the text, pictures at the beginning of the article, and hyperlinks to different articles for extra support and guidance for those who are seeking the extra assistance.
3. The message from this article can be taken different ways depending on why you are reading it. If you are a parent looking for how to approach the topic to an elementary child, your message and lesson will be different from a teacher looking to communicate with a middle school student. Each person will use the information in the article differently to approach discussions about violence with children of different ages.
4. The points of view in this article are from an educator or psychological standpoint on how to deal with the emotional and social aspects of dealing with social violence in society and creating that environment for them that is reassuring and comforting in an unstable world. It also suggests to apply these tactics to yourselves because you need care so you can be there for your students. This particular topic is not as much about lifestyles and values but about social and emotional needs of students
5. The article doesn’t dig deep into the strategies that can be employed when discussing mass violence with students. As an educator it would be useful to have examples of activities, writing prompts, or other means of discussion of such a sensitive topic.

Building a Creative Brief

Building a Creative Brief

1. The project is how to approach and discuss the issues of violence in the world around students - can include school violence as well as world issues. We don’t know what form this will take, possibly a photograph slideshow and blog or vlog option. The task is how to approach and deliver information to students of different ages. The form we will be using for or topic is a blog. In the blog we will use different forms of visual aids to assist our blog entries such as photos, videos, and animations.
2. We will discuss how to talk about sensitive topics such as mass shootings and violence with young children in an age appropriate way in the classroom. The problem is identifying what is and isn’t appropriate for certain ages when it comes to these sensitive topics.
3. This platform would be for educators to help them to figure out the best way to approach these types of sensitive situations with their students.
4. We would envision this being used maybe in informational professional development sessions where data and strategies on how to deal with violence and bullying among middle school students is discussed.
5. Directly our other teacher candidates or active teachers and administrators in the public/private school systems would be the ones would would be directly engaged in this. Indirectly we possibly could be looking at parents and general community so they are aware of what is being discussed in in the schools and how it is being approached.
6. Our topic will be remembered and retold due to its relevance to today's society and events happening across the world. Mass shootings and violence are events that happen on a regular basis today and through history. It is important to learn how to communicate these events and explain them to students.
7. During the the next three weeks, both partners will be doing equal research as to how to communicate mas violence to students. Maria will set up the blog and formatting the content for each post. Michelle will be looking for different visual aids and content for each blog post. We will post a on the blog on topics such as how to approach the topics with students, why it is important to use that approach for that age group, and examples of ways to approach the topic of violence with students.