Look What I Did!!! (week 13)
1220 words by mdeloach7
A Few of the Girls!!! :)
Improving the world, in my opinion, takes a great deal of time and effort. I think that ultimately all of the projects that our Theology 1120 class came up with as a whole made the biggest world change. We each focused on various issues within our world and hopefully by carrying out these projects we were able to change little things that will make a big difference at some point. More specifically I think that my project was a great contribution to this world change because I was combating an issue that is often over looked. As many are already aware of the world problem that I attempted to change was media exaggeration and the negative effects it has on women and more specifically children in their teen years. I did a lot of research and realized how severe the problem really was. Being that this period of human development is such a vulnerable time I found that it was crucial to focus the project on this population. This semester I have taken many strides towards bettering this issue, starting with beginning my own girls group at a local elementary school. I had been working closely with Fischer Elementary School, located in the Westbank, and I went to them I found out that I need to change the world. I began doing the group and we met once a week for about an hour. We talked about issues that they were facing in school, from unreasonable teachers to standardized tests. In addition to that we encouraged them to express themselves through writing journals and so every week we would have a journal question that was to be answer by the students. At the start of each session we can up with a emotion for the day and we would pick a color that represented that particular emotion. For instance, when we used anger as the emotion many people picked red as that the color that represented that emotion. Another activity we did that was related to one’s emotions was writing what emotion (in one word) we felt at the start of the session and then at the end. We did this to make them realize that often times our type of emotion improves when we do relaxing activities. We would also incorporate a theme within the meeting. For example, one session we set up scenarios and practiced positive ways in which they could handle situation and still maintain a level of respectful interaction with the person or people. These were often the main components of group and often times we would base group on how responsive the girls were on that particular day. So that was the first component of my improving the world endeavors. The second part was putting on a self-esteem workshop. This was done at Fischer Elementary as well and occurred once. The workshop was done with about 15 to 20 girls and we started off by having them introduce themselves and tell how they were beautiful. We went over various ways that media has the potential to portray negative images of various groups and more specifically women! We asked them what television shows were bad for women and young girls to watch in their opinions. Following that we conducted surveys of who has friends that tell them they are beautiful. I was sad to see that not many people raised their hands. A crucial part of a good friendship is encouraging your friends and telling them they are beautiful is part of this. Next they went to lunch and when they returned they were able to look at magazines containing positive images of women. They commented on these pictures and we read them some ways that they could boost their self- esteem. The last activity for the day was something that had a surprising message and outcome. We had each of the girls write their names in the center of a blank sheet of paper. The girls were then given directions to pass their papers to the right of them and each person was to write one or two nice things about the person. For example, ‘you are awesome” or “smart”. This activity seemed to be going well though there were a few giggles here and there. This greatness of the activity came to a halt when I noticed a student taking a long period of time to pass the paper to a girl. She was laughing with the student next to her and occasionally would stare at the girl who’s paper she had. I asked her to give me the paper and on the paper I read “you are pretty…SIKE” and in addition someone has written “fat” as their not so positive comment. I brought this to the attention of the girls and said that by doing this they are bringing one another down. At that point I was really upset and that is why I felt it was necessary to tell the group about the issue. After the incident was resolved as well as possible we concluded the presentation by giving them a sheet that they could fill out on their own time that dealt with their short terms goals as well as their long terms ones. Afterwards we talked to the people who helped us to bring the group together and she commended me for handling the situation that had occurred very well. I am hoping that they received a good message from what we presented to them. Basically this is what I have done to implement my project over the course of the semester. It ended up turning out very well. It took much work and persistence, but at the end of it all it was rewarding. The coordinators of the Communities in Schools of New Orleans were happy about all the time I spent at the school as well as the presentation that Dannielle and I put on!
Jesus, our Lord and Savior, was crucified because people found it hard to believe that he was the son of God. His messages of love and forgiveness (to name a few) were not taken very seriously by the people during this time. He was being referred to as the Messiah and many leaders during this time found it hard to bear the idea that someone was being put on a higher throne that themselves. Yet ultimately Jesus died so that we can all LIVE!!!!