Newsletters (NWSISD) NWSISD newsletter - February 2018 | Page 2

Learning While Having Fun!
Coon Rapids High School Educators Rising Students sponsor Sock Drive!
Educators Rising is an extracurricular program designed to
introduce high school students to careers in education. Students
participate in several hands-on activities each year including a
commitment to give back to the community in some way. In past
years, the focus was on helping to improve literacy in the home.
Students collected and distributed over 20,000 books. This year,
students wanted to give back in a different way and held a sock
drive. Socks are among the most needed items in homeless
shelters, yet the least donated. Educators Rising wanted to help
change that. Although the sock drive only lasted a few weeks, students were able to collect 3119 pairs of socks
and hats... and that was only at three schools. Some schools collected monetary donations to buy socks that will
be donated to a shelter of their choice. Pictured are the socks collected at Coon Rapids High School. Close to
1000 pairs of socks have already been donated and the remaining socks will go to four local shelters.
NWSISD Field Trip to see “Wedding Band” Set around a Charleston, South Carolinian apartment
building in 1918, near the end of WWI with the Spanish Flu looming
and race riots flourishing, “Wedding Band” by Alice Childress and
directed by Lou Bellamy at the Penumbra Theater, proved to be a play
to be remembered long after the final curtain call. “Wedding Band”
tells the story of the young lovers,
Julia, a black woman, and
Herman, a white man, who had
to hide their partnership of over
10 years because it was illegal to be married. Amidst nosy neighbors and
Herman’s resentful mother, emotions explode on-stage as the audience is
held captive hearing, seeing, and feeling the actors rage, resentment,
and love. Attendees were privileged to a post-play discussion that took
on a passionate tone. Penumbra is …”a theater that practices art for
social justice.” A powerful play - a powerful message! (This event was an Inter-District Partnership Opportunity.)
Passport to the Future "Today is Inclusion Day at 3M!" stated Tesha Alston, Senior Biochemist at 3M.
"What's the point of going to the party if no one asks you to dance? Inclusion Day means asking you to
contribute, asking you to speak." So on October 30, 2017, forty-five students from Brooklyn Center, Blaine,
Coon Rapids, Andover, and Anoka high schools helped mark the first Inclusion Day at 3M. A panel of 3M
staff told the students who they were, what they do, how long they have been at 3M, and their "accidental
career paths." Students were given a Passport
and "speed interviewed" 3Mers from all different
departments, engaging industry leaders and
learning some of their secrets to success. The
career field trip also included a visit to the 3M
Design Center where they had the opportunity to
see innovative designs and meeting spaces. A
highlight was the Porsche covered in a special film
that lit up when a picture was taken with a flash.