Dover Elementary students implement plan to help classmate

Ethan Kanderski, pictured with his mother, Christine, inspired his classmates to raise money for juvenile diabetes. The Dover Elementary second-graders responded by selling 350 shoe charms, raising $168.

When Kim D’Acunzo’s second-grade class at Dover Elementary School learned about a classmate’s struggle with diabetes, they wanted to help.

Ethan Kanderski was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (also known as juvenile diabetes) in February. When he shared with his classmates that he was participating in the Walk to Cure Diabetes, his classmates developed an action plan and spent hours making beaded shoe charms and posters.

The second-grade class made daily school announcements and worked until they sold nearly 350 shoe charms, raising $168 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Ethan participated in the walk at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo on Sept. 28.

The students’ initiative demonstrated the “Action Cycle” component of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, implemented at all four of Westlake’s elementary schools. Children are encouraged to choose, act and reflect, and then make new choices, actions and reflections. In this case, the students made a choice to help their classmate, created a plan of action and carried it out. Along the way they reflected and made adjustments to their plan.

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Volume 6, Issue 21, Posted 10:02 AM, 10.14.2014