“Moral, vital, vivacious, fearless, spectacular, grounded, caring—this is how some of my friends described me in one word,” I explained to my students.  “What words would you like to be defined by in twenty years,” I asked them.   They called out their answers, “Smart, successful, fun, daring, artistic, caring…”  “Well, you can take the steps now, in the sixth grade to be all of those things and more,” I implored.  

 In my first year as a special educator serving for Americorps, I was asked to create an elective to teach to every one of the 150 sixth graders on Wednesdays. I wanted students to have the opportunity to take part in service based learning and volunteerism; skills that would bode well for them in middle school, high school and beyond and would also foster growth for my special education students.  I created a “Current National Issues” class in which students could explore the important issues going on around them and the world at large.  I challenged all students to think of issues they would like to study.  Topics I had in mind included bullying, prayer in school, beauty as portrayed in the media, obesity, and school violence.  I also picked two student generated topics and those lessons were co-taught by them.  

 The class was formatted as a debate class.  This could be a wonderful opportunity to allow students to voice their opinions in a safe and accepting environment and allow special education students to build social and advocacy skills.  And it did that.  Children who were shy and introverted started to blossom with passion about the topics we were discussing.  A student with autism worked in groups and was high-fiving his classmates and running a video presentation by the end of the year.  

 For their final assignment, students were asked to create a “Pay It Forward Project.”  One of the topics we discussed in class was child world changers and I challenged them to think of ways they could change the world as well.  One group threw their own carnivals over the course of 5 weeks; making their own games, using a sibling’s cotton candy machine and letting other kids throw wet sponges at them at a booth.  They raised over $400 for the adoption organization one of them was adopted through in China.  Another student made a website to take donations for a local carcinoma walk in honor of a family friend who suffered from the disease.  She raised over $200.  Yet another group created an organization that brought dogs into a children’s hospital to cheer up patients.  The list of inventive and courageous ideas goes on and on.  I promised to help any group over the summer that couldn’t see their idea come to fruition during the school year.  Because of the amazing integrity of my students, I will spend a good portion of my summer helping them to be world changers.

 What word can I use to define these amazing kids?  Humbling.