Homeland Park Primary School, Anderson, South Carolina
“If the community isn’t coming into our school, why don’t we take the school into the community? Let’s have a parade!” This was the brainstorm of Christie Payne, Principal of Homeland Park Primary School in Anderson, SC. Christie had learned about Choose2Matter and...
Sunshine Heights Primary School, Sunshine West VIC 3020, Australia
“We are one, though we are many. And from all the lands on earth we come.” This refrain was heard throughout Melbourne, Australia on a beautiful April morning. It was sung by a flash mob of students from Sunshine Heights Primary School, who had descended on Federation...
McAllen High School McAllen, Texas, USA
This is a Tweet that changed an entire community, for good. Albert Canales, Principal of McAllen HS in Texas, listened to a conference speaker discuss how #Choose2Matter transformed his school, and was moved to send this Tweet. Teacher Jennifer Rodriguez then...
Carlton Comprehensive Public Highschool, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada
Carlton made “You Matter” the school theme, initially just for the 2013-2014 year – but it has remained at the heart of the school ever since. The school painted the You Matter Manifesto on its main staircase and painted giant depictions of each of the tenets of the...
Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria
Oluwakemi Olurinola is an educational technologist and the driving force behind the Nigerian Microsoft Innovative Educators Group, whose goal is to inspire and empower these educators to become innovative solution providers and change agents. We have Skyped with this...
RM Bacon Elementary School, Millville, New Jersey
One summer, Dr. Spike Cook watched the You Matter TEDx Talk and knew he had found his theme for the upcoming school year. He played the talk for faculty and shared You Matter cards and some other ideas. Staff member Leigh Simpson upped the stakes, suggesting an...
- “Choose2Matter – It’s a Coming Together” – reflections from Art Campbell, headmaster of Downingtown STEM Academy
- “What Value Do You Put on Changing Somebody’s Life?” – reflections from the leaders of East Greenwich High School
- “Choose2Matter Should Be an Every Day Event” – editorial from Estherville Daily News.
- “A Nice Day for a Revolution” – reflections from East Greenwich High School sophomore Grace Miner.
- A collection of the brightest moments from these events.
- Bold Leadership From Young Leaders – a reflection on the Choose2Matter LIVE event with 5,200 students from the Hutto, TX school district.
- Downingtown’s Justin Staub on the virtues of “Saying Yes,” after we brought some of his students to the Business Innovation Factory Summit in Providence, RI.
- A post about what we are doing to highlight the work of deserving students and to connect them to information and mentors to help them create change effectively.
- A Storify collection of Tweets from teachers and students at East Greenwich HS.
- A Storify of some of the highlights of the Bettendorf event.
- A Storify of the highlights from Estherville.
Tammy Dunbar is a fifth grade teacher in California.
She and her “Room Nine Kids” worked through many aspects of this course this past school year.
Below are just a few wonderful things that resulted from presenting the lessons to the Room Nine Kids.
“While grieving over a KinderTechBuddy killed in an accident, my students created “Compassion Portraits,” drawing their Buddy on their device and inviting their Buddy to draw themselves. My students added “You Matter,” printed the drawings and gave them to their buddies. The buddies snuggled close, put their heads on the shoulders of my students and smiled. My students came away touched, and changed. One said, “I think they know how important they are to us.”
“One reason they are so ready to tackle projects is the lesson “Finding Mentors.” Students connected with experts. When you meet people from fields you’re interested in, you invite them to an amazing conversation that provides students with resources, confidence and excitement.”
“I was shocked to see the growth of the average class score. In Math, the class average increased from 12.7 out of 20 to 16.6 out of 20. Our students now approach standardized district testing with more confidence and more creativity. That can be directly traced to these lessons.”
