On April 7th, the 7th and 8th graders completed their third day of Service Learning in the community. During the year teachers worked with Erik Gearhart, MS Service Learning Coordinator, to integrate the service learning activities with the curriculum. Offsite work was supplemented with projects and readings in History and English classes, advisory groups, watching related documentaries, and listening to and talking with guest speakers who came to Lakeside, and examinations of and action on current policy developments.

7th Grade - March 2006
On Friday, March 3, three groups of 7th graders went down to the International District.  The students served lunch and entertained an elderly, Asian audience at the SCIDPDA center off Maynard.  Photos at the link below courtesy of Winky Hussey.

7th Grade at SCIDPDA photos

7th and 8th Grades - January 2006
On Friday, January 27, as part of their Service Learning activities, the 7th and 8th graders went with their advisory groups to different agencies in the greater Seattle area. The students assisted in activities at 14 different sites, including helping at several food banks and at the NW Harvest Warehouse, serving lunch to seniors, helping elementary immigrant and refugee students in language classes, working with preschool refugee children and assisting at a family resource center.  The 8th grade service activities are connected to the grade level theme of "Class in America." 

Susie Mortensen's 7th grade advisory went to the Vietnamese Presbyterian Church in Columbia City where they serve lunch to Hmong, Mien (two hill tribe peoples) and Cambodian elderly refugees twice a week. This program also teaches nutrition and has exercise classes for the elderly refugees. It seemed quite apparent that the people very much enjoyed these programs and lunches and time to socialize. They were VERY warm and friendly to us.

7th Grade Serving Elderly Refugees

Margery Ziff's 8th grade advisory went to the Immanuel Lutheran Church on Friday morning to help with the food bank.  This food bank is open during the last two Fridays of each month, and serves a wide variety of Seattle residents, including many Eastern Europeans.  The Lakeside students helped to bag rice, organize the available goods, and distribute food to the long line of people in need.  A debriefing with the food bank coordinator showed that the student's preconceived notions about who might need food and why had been changed by the hands-on experience.

8th Grade Helping at Food Bank

Lakeside Parent Volunteers said, "What I noticed most about our kids is that they were so gracious and well-mannered with the older men and women. I was curious about how our kids would interact with people of such different cultures, with no common language; but the kids smiled, used appropriate body language and respect, and the older people seemed to really like having them there."

7th Grade - December 2005
On December 1st and 2nd, the 7th graders immersed themselves in the refugee experience as they began the first part of their service learning for the year. The central activity was participating in a refugee simulation in Seattle's International District. During the simulation, organized by World Relief, students began by trying to complete a form with confusing directions in a foreign language. They then had to find their way to a simulated refugee camp feeding station and medical clinic, and face interrogation by an unfriendly U.N. representative who determined whether or not the student "family" would be allowed to leave their refugee camp and come to the United States.

Students dressed up in refugee clothing and, based on information provided about their family characters, responded to difficult questions at each of the stops. The student families were from Sudan, Ukraine, Iraq, Somalia, or Burma. Most had limited English skills and faced hard choices like choosing between necessary medical supplies and food. After the half day simulation, students' one word comments about the experience included: "eye-opening," "frustrating," "scary," "confusing."

The remainder of the day in the ID included a visit to the Wing Luke Museum to view the award-winning permanent exhibition, "One Song, Many Voices: The Asian Pacific American Experience." Students also learned about the 200-year story of the immigration and settlement of Asians and Pacific Islanders in Washington State. They also took a self-guided tour of the ID to see important cultural sites. The day at school included watching, discussing, and creating questions for two movies that address the refugee experience: "Lost Boys of Sudan," and "Well-Founded Fear". These two learning days serve as the foundation for service projects and activities that will occur later in the school year. The work continues now in advisory groups. Each advisory chose a country and is focusing on the refugee experience faced there. Students will study the country, the conditions which are driving the refugees to leave, and research their needs in the United States. The service projects will focus on assisting agencies and organizations that support these groups over a series of three off-campus days in late winter/spring 2006.

7th Grade Refugee Simulation photos