by Melissa Magallanes, ISB Parent

On April 28, 2017, for ISB Day of Service, 3rd Graders participated in “Postcard Writing for a Cause of Interest” in the Learning Commons. 3rd Grade French and Spanish Teachers Molida and Karuna prepped the students for this activity beforehand, by having the students look up their representatives and practice the mechanics of writing postcards in class.

Daniel Murphy, who leads the Committee Board 7 in Brooklyn, was our visiting speaker, and 5th Grade Spanish student Joaquin M. was our student speaker. These speakers inspired the students to write to their local legislators on causes they care about. In writing their postcards, students thought about Daniel Murphy’s message that “politics is about people working together” and that “there is power in numbers.” They also considered Joaquin’s dedication to the issue he is passionate about when he told them, “the issue that is important to me is protecting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and keeping landfills safe.” Joaquin has been researching landfills for his PYP Exhibition project.

The students took this exercise very seriously, asking parent volunteers, librarians, and teachers to assist them in expressing their ideas and making sure they had good penmanship and correct spelling.

Some examples of student postcards:

“It bothers me that immigrants are trying to be banned from the USA and that it is very hard for immigrants to get jobs because they are from a different country.”

“Women should have equal pay as men if they do the same thing.”

“Global warming is real. There are many species going extinct because of global warming. If this continues, many ecosystems will be destroyed.”

Students felt empowered by having their voice heard. All students wrote at least one post card. At the end of the day, 3rd Grade Spanish class representative, Samirah H. sent the postcards off in the mail.
Thank you to Maria Falgoust, ISB Librarian, for organizing this event as a new addition to the ISB Day of Service activities and to local screenprinter Kayrock Screenprinting for generously donating the postcards and stamps. This was a successful, collaborative ISB community effort!