These activities will help you get the year off to a good start by engaging you and your students in getting to know each other, practicing listening skills, and discussing the values that will shape your classroom community. There are separate sets of activities for grades Pre-K to 2, grades 3 to 5, and grades 6 to 12. They are adapted from exercises in our Resolving Conflict Creatively Program and our 4Rs Program (Reading, Writing, Respect & Resolution).

This lesson is divided into two student readings. The first reading compares the scope of the present student debt crisis with the past and discusses what has changed. The second reading explores some proposals for dealing with the student debt crisis. Discussion questions aimed at getting students to think critically about the student debt problem and its possible solutions follow each reading.

In small groups and in a fishbowl discussion, students consider how race affected the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin.