Let’s Go M.A.D Together!

I started the first day of school in 2016 with the following question for my students:

This was the result of the question:

Recently my students completed M.A.D (Make a Difference) Projects with an aim to make their world an even better place. The project was one of the most rewarding things that I have ever done in my twenty+ years of teaching! Together we developed a M.A.D inquiry model and used the 6 steps to guide us. I also had my students keep journals of their M.A.D journey, which included their successes, struggles and triumphs. A highlight of the whole project was when our member of parliment spoke in our Canadian House of Commons about our project, pledged to join it and challenged others to do the same. Recently, we shared our projects at our first annual M.A.D Fair.

What transpired, that I didn’t expect was when my student teacher initiated her own M.A.D project and held a bake sale with my students. They raised $646.10 and decided to put it in a bank account so they could make a difference throughout the rest of the year. Collectively, they decided to donate &120.00 to help fund a Syrian refugee family to come to our city and $100.00 to Fort McMurray, the northern Canadian community ravaged by forest fires. Now, students are working together to figure out how to leave a legacy at St. Elizabeth, using the rest of their funds ($16.64/student). Some are planning to buy new books for our library, another group is  will be purchasing perennials to establish a flower garden at the front of our school, another is planning a surprise “Free Freezie Day” for our school community, three girls are organizing a pizza party for the class that donates the most items for a local charity and another group will be buying art supplies to use when they volunteer to teach an art lesson to a younger grade! Read how an incredible math lesson evolved from this: “Teaching Math Shouldn’t Feel Like Pulling Teeth.”

My students are now motivated to share their MA.D idea with the world in hopes to have 100+ classes from around the globe join our make a difference team for the 2016/17 school year (to date we have 20!) I am sharing all our resources to get you started! Feel free to use and or modify them as you wish. The goal is simple: challenge your school, class, clubs and individual or groups of students to make a difference and see where it takes them! Be sure to let us know that your school/class will be participating and fill in the form to add your class to our M.A.D map!

This link https://mrcshareseaseblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/09/my-class-has-gone-m-a-d/ will take you to all the information and resources to get you started.

We look forward to hearing from you!