Students+share+the+wealth

[|Think.com] Takes Off
Many teachers at Richview have started using think.com to interact with their students online. The best feature of think.com is that it is a secure space. Only students of our school can view what others in our building are doing. No communication from outside our population can happen. Think also has a filter program in place that monitors all communication and sends violation notes to student accounts as they occur. Users also have the ability to flag inappropriate content which also sends a note to the account that was flagged.

Balancing academics with attitudes.
Learning for students comes alive when it is relevant to their daily lives. [|Mr. Ernst], a 7th grade social studies teacher at [|RMS] accomplished this with his Africa unit by bringing in a guest speaker who worked in Africa helping to build a church. Students heard first hand about the problems faced by people living in Africa.

As a follow up activity, Mr. Ernst started a collection for a fund called [|"Nothing but Nets"]. This foundation provides mosquito nets for residents of Africa to help prevent the deadly Malaria disease. Students raised 4 times the amount Mr. Ernst initially set as a goal. Proving to us all, that when students care, the impact of learning is immediate and real.

Balancing options with opinions.
[|Mrs. Winters], the librarian at RMS asked the students to help her promote reading by writing a brief summary of their favorite books for her to display on the outer walls of the [|library]. Students picked up their form and began promoting their favorite books. The result is students who are talking about the books they have read to each other, and the walls outside of the library look great!