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District News and Special Events

Ms. Colleen Cassity, Executive Director of Oracle Education Foundation gives Amy encouragement just before her speech.

(L to R front) Tania (Brazil), Angela, Annette, Jesslyn, Danielle (Brazil), Rebekah, Amy, Joanna,  Brian, Ilze (Interpreter/California),

(L to R Back) Daniel (Brazil), Viviane, Rose (Brazil), Pang (Interpreter/Oracle Brazil).

Students from West Blocton, Alabama  and Ubatuba, Brazil met for the very first time on Saturday, September 20, 2008. They worked together from a distance using the ThinkQuest project environment to create a website that they entered in the 2008 ThinkQuest International competition. The students collaborated to create the award winning website, “Color Our World with Kindness” which placed 2nd in the worldwide competition. It didn’t take long for the team members to connect as they spent the week together and continued  the friendship that began in November of 2008.

Their hard work paid off. The prize? Laptop computers for the team members and an all-expense paid trip to San Francisco. The students were treated to fun, food, excursions, and various learning activities. The Kindness Kids participated in the Team Challenge Workshop which included three days of exploring and discovering effective team building principles. They participated in many team activities and worked together to overcome difficult challenges.  Each student in the Kindness Kids group took on leadership roles during the workshop. In one activity, the fifteen group members had to get their teammates through a giant spider web without touching the web. They crawled; lifted, climbed, and even swapped clothing  to get the entire team to the other side in the time limit they were given. Then, “Team Awesome” shared the activity with other ThinkQuest winners on Wednesday. Students in other workshops built models of sustainable buildings and created a movie in just two days.

The Award’s Ceremony was the highlight of the week when the teams walked the red carpet into a fabulous banquet hall. As a string quarter played, the guests enjoyed h'douvres and visited the winning teams’ website kiosks. Students explained their topics and answered questions about their projects. The featured speaker was Amy Lowe , daughter of Brian and Joanna Lowe, who stirred the crowd with her emotional and encouraging speech about kindness. The Kindness Kids, Bekah, Tia, Jesslyn, Danielle, and Viviane joined Amy in the Kindness Kids’ Rap. The global audience, Oracle Executives, and VIP’s from San Francisco were all smiles as they listened to the modern day rap about kindness. Amy’s poignant speech concluded as the entire audience joined in saying the Kindness Kids’ Creed.  

The students from the United States and Brazil said an emotional  “Goodbye”, but promised to stay in touch with each other. The language barrier disappeared as the students learned words during the week in both English and Portuguese.  The experience will leave a lasting impression on the students from both countries.  They represented Bibb County and Ubatuba well as they took on leadership roles during the ThinkQuest Live Event. The Oracle Education Foundation and staff were hospitable and caring, putting on an event that will leave a lasting impression on Amy , Bekah, Tia, Jesslyn, Danielle, and Viviane.  At the end of the week, Bekah stated, “I want to work for Oracle one day.” The Kindness Kids would like to thank Dr. Elam, Dr. Judd, and the Bibb County Board of Education for their support of the team.

 

 

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