By Katie Durkin
For many years in December, I used to teach A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens to my 7th graders. This was always a hard text to tackle – many students came to my class with preconceived notions because of the many movie versions they watched over the years.
Students were often excited that we were going to read a book about Christmas, not realizing until we got to the end of the novella that A Christmas Carol is about so much more.
Charles Dickens’s story focuses on charity, benevolence, and kindness, and while I may not teach A Christmas Carol anymore, it has been a guiding beacon in various service projects I’ve completed with my students as a way to build community through charity.
Throughout the past couple of years, my school team, consisting of students and teachers, have participated in activities meant to give back to diverse communities, both locally, nationally, and globally. Here are three of the service projects that I believe have helped to support our efforts to build team camaraderie while also teaching students about giving back.
Getting Visible with Toys for Tots
The first charitable effort – Toys for Tots – has been a staple in our school for many years. While I understand that this is not a novel idea, and many organizations collect toys around the holidays, we try to make our efforts visible and involve the students in the process so they can understand the impact they will have.
First, we have students set a goal for how many toys they would like to bring in. In years past, we have set the goal of 100 toys. We then spend two weeks checking in on the goal through a temperature meter and countdown clock that’s displayed in our team’s common area.
As toys are brought in, students help keep track of the gifts we’re donating by filling in the temperature meter to show progress. They’ve enjoyed setting a goal and seeing all the toys that will be donated to families in need as they pile up. In the past, we’ve always exceeded our goal – some years bringing in close to double. This year, we’re continuing this tradition and currently have close to 100 toys and counting!
Blankets for Premies
The inspiration for the second service project we participate in comes from a colleague in our school. One year, I noticed she was having her students making tied-fleece blankets and asked what the kids where up to.
She told me about a program called Blankets for Premies, a grassroots movement she started with her middle schoolers many years ago to create blankets for babies who need to stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Blankets for Premies eventually partnered with The Tiny Miracles Foundation, a local nonprofit organization that helps support parents whose children are born premature and need to stay in the NICU. Tiny Miracles now offers resources to schools and other local organizations to make the tied-fleece blankets.
The blankets I saw her students making would be draped over a baby’s incubator in the NICU. I asked my colleague if my team could also make blankets for this organization, and she immediately helped me plan a day for my students to participate. We began with a talk by my colleague, who showed them how to make blankets and shared her own story of being the mother of premature twins.
A hand-tied fleece blanket displayed by the Tiny Miracles Foundation. The blankets are “cherished by families long after their NICU stay.” Source
Tiny Miracles helped by giving us the necessary tools to make the blankets. Students set the goal of making 150 blankets on a half day. Similar to our work with Toys for Tots, we kept a running tally of how many blankets were made. In one day, my team was able to make 180 blankets, and we would have made more but we ran out of material.
This year, the initiative is to have the whole school participate in this activity. On a day in January, all of the students in the school will be making Blankets for Premies. We are hoping to make over 900 blankets! I’m hoping this becomes an annual tradition because it was a great opportunity to team-build with our students and donate our time to an excellent cause.
Our One-Time Projects
The third and final service project is different every year. Usually, we try to raise money for a specific foundation, either related to local, national, or global events. Last year, we decided to raise money to help alleviate the suffering caused by wildfires in California.
We asked the students to compile a list of reputable charities that were addressing the devastation resulting from this disaster. They presented their findings in a whole-team meeting where we discussed each charity. After we narrowed the choices to three, students voted for which organization they wanted to donate our collected money to.
Last year, we chose Veterinarians Without Borders, who were working with local animal shelters to help animals affected by the wildfires. We had the students participate in a little friendly competition to see which homeroom could raise the most money. After we spent two weeks fundraising, we’d raised over seven hundred dollars to donate to VWB.
When I submitted the money to the organization, I enclosed a letter letting them know who we were and why we were donating the money. After a few weeks, we received a lovely thank you note that included information about how our donation went directly to helping animals and families affected by the wildfires.
Rebeckah, from the organization, shared that our support directly helped Tommie, an adorable blind cat, and Esperanza, a loveable pregnant pit bull. The thank you note also included a calendar filled with pictures of animals the organization had helped in the past. We displayed the calendar in our shared team space so students could be reminded of their amazing efforts.
The Secret of Our Success
I believe our many activities have been so successful because while some of the ideas may come from the teachers, the execution always comes from the students.
They are the ones who are setting the goals for how many toys to bring in or how many blankets to make or how much money to raise. They are the ones who recommend local, national, or global charities to donate to.
I believe that when we involve our students in this work we are showing them that there is more to learning than academics. We are learning how to be members of diverse communities who help, support, and give back to one another.
I also believe our efforts have been successful because we have support from parents, guardians, and administration. We live in a community that is dedicated to caring for others, and I’m thankful that year after year we can rely on multiple stakeholders who contribute their time and money to help students recognize the importance of giving back.
Giving Throughout the Year
Think about the ways in which you could infuse service projects and charity work into your school community. All of these activities have been great opportunities to teach our students lessons that exist outside of academia, but I believe are equally important.
My hope is these newly minted traditions will continue, not just during the holiday season, but throughout the year and for many years to come. I have seen my students grow as individuals as we continue to build our own caring community through giving back. I hope they carry forward what they’ve learned from these experiences and continue to find ways to help others whenever they can.
Dr. Katie Durkin has been teaching middle school students for over a decade, and currently teaches English Language Arts at public Middlebrook School (6-8) in Wilton, Connecticut, where she is a 7th Grade Team Leader.
Katie is a zealous reader of middle grade and young adult books and enjoys sharing her love and passion for reading with her students. In 2022 she earned her doctorate from Northeastern University, where her dissertation research examined the impact of classroom libraries on middle school students’ reading engagement.
Katie was the 2020 recipient of the Edwyna Wheadon Postgraduate Training Scholarship from the NCTE. She writes regularly for MiddleWeb and in early 2023 launched a two-teacher podcast, That’s Novel Reading, “the journey of two middle school teachers who are embarking on a quest to find the best books for kids.”
