What's a "Local Anonymous Extraordinary?"

A few weeks ago we began our study of Social Action in English 9. This is the third time I've been blessed enough to do this unit with students, and each time I've added a new component to tighten the unit making it more relevant to kids. This year I wanted to connect the unit more with the community. If kids are going to be working to try and make the community a better or place, I figured they need to know the good work already being done by locals. After doing some of my own reading and research, I stumbled across this amazing TED Talks lecture.



Speaker Natalie Warne shares about her journey of actvisim and touches on the concept of Anonymous Extraordinaries--"people who work selflessly and vigorously for what they believe in; people who are motivated by conviction and not recognition" (Warne). This automatically made me think of all the good people right here in Keith County who are working hard to make a difference. Using this video, I created an assignment for my students: think of a Local Anonymous Extraordinary you know, interview this person, and then write a short blog post featuring this person.

Last week students watched and discussed the video above in class. We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr day (yesterday) by hearing from various community members* who were gracious enough to visit our class to share about the importance of serving our community. Currently, students are collecting stories from Local Anonymous Extraordinaries and will be sharing them on this blog to enlighten others. My hope is that students will use this unit to become more connected with the community and to become inspired to make activism a regular part of their life. I'm excited about the collection of stories we will be featuring on this blog. Stories are due January 31st, so check back soon!

*Thanks to Karl Elmshaeuser, Bob Josjor, Jonnie Peterson, Shelby Jones-Schellpeper, Kathleen Bauer, Drew Krab, Gail Knott, Stara Chandler-Smith, Mary Lou Crofutt-O'Brien, Mary Dickinson, Carl Dietz, Brenda Ketcham, Stephanie Most, and April Thraen for speaking to students. Thanks also to Mary Pierce from the Keith County News for teaching students about the basics of interviewing and news reporting!