Free Hugs

I'm still on the seven day assignment.

Two of the classes (two economics classes) are being taught by a student teacher.  I like student teachers.  They make my day so much easier.

Generally, I get to find a nice place to sit while the student teacher takes care of the class.  This student teacher has been with the classes all semester, so basically they're his classes.  My job is to be the certificated body in the room.

It is almost the end of the year.  The student teacher wanted to do something different with his seniors.  He told them about Free Hugs.  He thought it would be a good thing to try at the school.  He introduced the idea early in the week and asked for their reaction.  The students were open to the idea.

Today they made signs.

The room was in controlled chaos mode.  I helped out by finding scissors (well, one of the students knew where the teacher kept the scissors) and offering advice.  By advice, I mean I said, "Yeah, that looks good".  Although, I wasn't lying--those that asked did have nice looking signs.

One student brought his sign to another student to protect while he went away to do something else.  The sign was only started.  It said, "Free Hugs...I'm Black," and that was it.  There was some blank space underneath, so something else was going to be added.

The student protecting the sign was not black, but held it up and posed for a picture.

The first student eventually retrieved his sign.  When he finished it, I had to find out what the rest of the message was.  "Free Hugs...I'm Black...I Really Need It."  Um, okay.

At the end of the period the class got together to take a group picture with all the signs.  As I was the odd-man out, I got to snap the picture.  I took three--just to make sure that one came out looking okay.

It'll be interesting to see how the campaign goes over.