Student Work
Below is a link to the American Planning Association's Website with an explanation of the assingment and a list of the national winners.
The following are essays created by students in Ms. Murphy's 2007-08 Contemporary Voices class, and were influenced by GREEN ideas to change their own communities. They won honorable mention awards from the APA. (click on names to view essays)
One Pagers in Contemporary Voices 2007-08
One pagers is an assingment done in Contemporary Voices class about lyrics, book quotes, etc.......
"Green" Powerpoints
What was the task at hand? well....
- For this project, you will be creating your own advertisement that is geared towards other teens. The objective is to create an ad using a single photograph with text or a 30 second video clip with sound that demonstrates the importance of caring for our environment. The formatting of your advertisement (for example: placement, balance, and color scheme) will be equally as important as the content or message.
- The driving question should be…How can I get teens interested in actually caring for the environment???
You will be creating a step by step, or ‘slide by slide’ storyboard of how you created your advertisement using PowerPoint…your first slide will be your outline/web, next will be your gathered research and sources, and…
Your last slide will be your actual advertisement!
You will be able to analyze the techniques used in other media messages geared towards teens and evaluate their effectiveness so that you can create your own.
- Edgar Hernandez Green Advertisement Powerpoint (click to view)
- Global Warming Awareness Powerpoint (click to view)
- Miguel Sepulveda Green Advertisement Powerpoint (click to view)
- Christopher Britton Green Advertisement Powerpoint (click to view)
Socratic Seminars
One of the most noticeable events of Ms. Murphy’s Contemporary Voices was the Socratic Seminar which allowed for individual opinion and direction on the topic of Global Warming and related issues. Not a single student in that class has done a Socratic Seminar and many were afraid and shy on releasing their input on the subject. The class would arrange in a circle and give out thoughts and debate the issues with each other and with our teacher Ms. Murphy. There were always those students that would always raise their hand to input their thought, however as we did more of these seminars more students were able to talk about their Global Warming essays, green videos, and individual experiences with Global Warming. The Socratic Seminars was a time where everyone was respected and all was taken seriously, though it taken some discipline in the beginning to reach this level.
Description of socratic seminars here!!!!!
"Dragonfly" Lyrics by Ziggy Marley
For our Contemporary Voices class, the students had to annotate and explain lyrics from the song “DragonFly” by Ziggy Marley. The summary of the song is that man keeps putting off the inevitable destruction from our waste and yet keeps asking the surrounding wildlife how they will survive alongside man. The lyrics “Everybody’s worried about time but I just keep it off my mind” shows the ineptitude of the common man to think of the future. The lyrics “You must be wondering, what kind of creature am I?” after the man sees the butterfly looking at him tells that we feel guilty but at the end we won’t follow-up and make necessary lifestyle corrections. In the lyrics there are references on animals like the dog asking about the mistrust between man and animal the Butterfly looking into the man’s soul, and the tree asking why man is destroying the very environment that created us in the first place. By the end of the song, the man asks “what type of creature am I?” and “what type of creature is man?” asking how the individual can’t see the destruction they’re causing to the environment and how our whole species won’t get it through their thick heads to change.
(Actual lyrics by Ziggy Marley song titled "Dragonfly")
Everybody's worried about time
But i just keep that shit off my mind
People living on twenty-four hour clocks
But we're on a ride that never stops
Hey Mr. Bee, the world change, but you remain the same
And I wonder how you'll survive with the environment going down the drain
Hey Miss Dragonfly, I see you look at me with your beautiful eyes
You must be wondering, what type of creature am I?
A dog looked at me and said, "Ziggy, why can't we trust man?"
Puss and me get together [so] why can't you all just understand
An old tree stood there silently listening to every word we said
As a tear fell, he cried, "What type of creature is man?"
I said, "Hey Mr. Tree, the world change but you remain the same
and I wonder how you survive with the environment going down the drain?"
Hey Miss Butterfly, I see you look at me with your beautiful eyes
You must be wondering what type of creature am I?
You must be wondering what type of creature am I?
Everybody's worried about time
But I just keep that shit off my mind
People living on twenty-four hour clocks
But we're on a ride
Yes we're on a ride
We're on a ride that never stops
Hey Mr. Bee, the world change, but you remain the same
And I hope you'll survive with the environment going down the drain
Hey Miss Dragonfly, I see you look at me with your beautiful eyes
You must be wondering, what type of creature am I?
You must be wondering, what type of creature is man?
Our world of today is filled with toxins that ruin our daily lifestyles. Also they cause possible natural disasters such as global warming. If changes begin to occur, the benefits are sure to follow right behind. The benefits include improvement of air quality, less comtamination in oceans, etc. Not only will it help the present conditions but also leave a message for future generations to have a cleaner and more efficient world.
