Monday 10 January 2011

Assignment #19 - If I Had $100

Hello friends,

This assignment is inspired by this post on Ms. Crosbie's blog and the work her students have done in the new year.

This will be due Tuesday, January 31st, 2011.

A lot of the text in this post is borrowed directly from Ms. Crosbie:

Now that the holidays are over and we're back to school, I thought it would be a good idea to take a little time to think about other people. As many of you know, there are millions and millions of people in the world who are not nearly as fortunate as we are here in Canada. There are thousands of children who didn't receive a holiday present, thousands of parents who couldn't afford to provide their families with delicious turkey dinners, and millions of people who didn't get to spend their mornings sleeping in in a warm, cushy bed. For these people, life is a lot more difficult, and I think it's important to remember them, especially at this time of year.

We've all heard the song "If I had 1,000,000 Dollars" by the Barenaked Ladies, and you can search for it on youtube at home or watch it right here. It's a really fun and funny (and Canadian) song!


Barenaked Ladies - If I had a million dollars from ddeubel on Vimeo.


In this song, the Barenaked Ladies talk about all the different things they'd do with a million dollars. They could buy a house and furniture to put in it. They would by a fur coat, an exotic pet, a green dress, and a monkey. They'd even take a limousine to get to the store. In our society, a million dollars can go a really long way.


On the other hand, in some countries, it doesn't take a million dollars to make a difference. In some countries, even one hundred dollars can go a really long way.

Step 1: For this assignment, you will be researching the following organizations:
Oxfam, Plan, Salvation Army and World Vision. You can also look up other organizations such as CHEO, Children's Wish Foundation, Help Lesotho, One Laptop per Child, Happy Factory, Kiva and others that interest you.

Step Two: You will also learn about Ethical Gifts. What are they? How does Ethical Gift giving work? What ethical gift options are available from each organization?

You will need to fill out your Ethical Gift Tracking form that you will receive in class. You must record the number of gift options available at each organization, as well as the least and most expensive items. Once you've done this, you will use the remaining space to record the potential gifts that you're interested in, their cost, and their purpose. This form must be completed and handed in toMiss Pollock on January 30th.

Step Three: Once you've done your research and learned all about these organizations and the gifts they offer, you will have to make a decision. You've been given $100 to spend on ethical gifts. You must decide which organization you will purchase your gifts from, and what gifts you will purchase.

Step 4: You will then create a new blog post under the heading "Assignment #9: If I had $100." In this blog post, you will :

a) Identify which organization(s) you've chosen for your purchase (don't forget to explain why you chose that specific organization)
b) Which gifts you will purchase (don't forget to explain the purpose of these gifts and why you chose them)
c) How you will distribute your funds (i.e. will you spend $100 buying a whole whack of mosquito nets? Or, will you spend $20 on mosquito nets, $50 on a goat, and $30 on medical supplies?)

Step 5: After you've published your post, don't forget to come back to THIS post and leave a comment to let me know you've finished! I can't wait to see what some of you choose to do with your money!

Note: You may spend your money at more than one organization.

Also, take a look at some of Ms. Crosbie's students blogs to see what they wrote for assignment #9, their version of this task.

Good luck and have fun giving imaginary ethical gifts!




24 comments:

Ms. Crosbie said...

Hi Miss Pollock & class,

I love that you're doing this assignment, too. I can't wait to see what you come up with. I think my students are finding it more difficult than they expected...there are some tough decisions to be made.

Just a quick FYI: Some of the sites for finding and purchasing the ethical gifts are a little tricky to navigate to with a few of the organizations we have selected. To give a helping hand, I posted direct links to the the ethical gifting portion of these websites on my blog under the "Useful Links" list.

Happy Blogging!

Qavi said...

Miss pollock my buddies did not do the golden rule assigment

iksha said...

miss p i don't get this assignment

Taraaaaa said...

Hi miss P. i finished my bullying poem but i dont have any ink in my printer so, i just posted it on my blog hope thats iokay :)

Taraaaa said...

http://tarahardcore.blogspot.com/2010/10/khaleefas-preformance.html heres one of my english assignments i decided to do on my blog :) enjoy :)

iksha said...

miss p, in this assignment do we have to buy a gifts.after than they just gives us a form to fill it ,what do we do?

charzie:) said...

hi miss. p! this assighnment is really hard ansd frusterating i thaught this would bbe about what we would buy for our selves its nice that were doing it for other ppl, buit it was very surprising.... but honestly this is one of the most hardest assighnment ... btw the amanda that is my partner on blogging, i cant link on heer blog so it makes it hard to write on it :P and ryley never writes anything on my blog so its hard to connect with him

Haneen said...

Hi miss p,
I am done! Come check it out.

-Haneen

jeffrey.v said...

i am finsh come see

Mateen said...

sigh

im done finally!!!! :)

Sara K. said...

Hey Miss P! Just wanted to let you know that I have completed this assignment.
(:

Hannah said...

Hey Miss P, I'm done this assignment :)

jumanh said...

Hello there plock im done :)

Amy said...

hey miss pollock! I'm finally finished assignment # 19...come check it out!

Zak Kulane said...

Hello miss.pollock i am done my ethical gift post :)

Claire said...

Hello Ms.Pollock!

Once again, I finished this post yesterday, but I forgot to make a comment on your blog.
Sorry!

-Claire

Walid said...

Miss p im done

willeme said...

i just finishes please come check it out

noah said...

i finished my 100$ assignment.

charzie:) said...

i fished this a while ago but forgot to announce, IM DONE !!! :)

iksha said...

done

Zuhair.A said...

Done!!! before 12 ;)

shahad said...

My assignment !!!!! :) http://shahadrocks-shahad.blogspot.com/2011/02/assignment19-if-i-had-100.html

Reshad said...

i am done http://reshadloftcore.blogspot.com/2011/02/assignment-19-if-i-had-100.html