Grade 7/8 students at Russell High School (RHS) are focusing on sustainability and expressing their creative sides through a real-world learning initiative students have named "Thrifty T's." The activity is giving students entrepreneurial experience while making a positive impact on their community and bringing awareness to the impact of consumer trends on the environment.
Thrifty T's ("T" coming from the schools' Timberwolves moniker) sees students create, upcycle, and repurpose old clothing and materials in a variety of creative ways. Thrifty T's is made up of five sub-groups that focus on areas the students are interested in.
One group of students is collecting paper waste from the school, repurposing the scraps to create their very own high end, cardstock paper. This group, called Paper Cutters, cut and shred the collected paper, add water to make a pulp, then press the pulp into sheets of the craft paper. The paper works great for gift tags, greeting cards, book covers, and other crafts and the group plans to sell it at the RHS Store. Profit from paper sales will go towards tree planting around the school and community.
"When I think of how much paper I've seen just being wasted, I've seen kids just throw out blank pieces of paper, I wanted to help with that," explains Paper Cutters group member and Grade 8 student Jacob Lopes.
FINCH Clothing is another sub-group that gives used t-shirts new life by recycling them using trendy, custom designs. Students in this group collect shirts, come up with edgy graphics using Canva, then print and transfer the design to the piece of clothing. They turn around and sell these shirts to fellow students with the plan to reinvest 50 per cent of their profit into the business and donate the remaining 50 per cent to homeless shelters and food banks.
Other branches of Thrifty T's include Sustainable Styles and The Quilting Project that allows students to get creative with scissors, sewing machines and donated clothing to create new fashion items and quilts. This not only helps shed light on the negative aspects of fast fashion but also gives students valuable experience in textile design and manufacturing.
"Sustainable Styles helps with fast fashion and cheap, low-quality clothing," said Grade 8 student Zoe Coutlee. "I love fashion, so being able to create clothing is great, and we're giving some away so people have clothes to wear that are comfortable and will last. It's just really nice to see."
A rack of upcycled clothing sits in the schools' foyer for students to access for free, with reversable bucket hats quickly becoming a popular item. Completed quilts and sensory blankets will be distributed to seniors and Alzheimer's/dementia patients in the community.
The idea for Thrifty T's came from the successful Student Specialist Program at RHS, an initiative that offers students skills development and insights into potential curriculum options through various extra-curricular, high-interest topics and activities.
At the start of the year, teachers offer up a wide-ranging list of activities that students can choose from, including robotics, athletics, cooking, drama, hair and makeup, writing, and more. Students pick activities that interest them and as the year progresses, they are encouraged to provide feedback and take a more active role in topic selection, choosing the types of activities the school offers.
After a few rounds of programs, several students began to gravitate towards activities that promoted sustainability and community connections, while fostering creativity and entrepreneurship. Students then created Thrifty T's and it has quickly become a popular choice for many of the Grade 7 and 8s.
The impact of the Thrifty T's initiative has also reached other grades and courses in the school, with Grade 11 Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) Business students coming on board to act as mentors and oversee the financial and organizational aspects of the projects.
"It's been a lot of fun working with the Grade 7 and 8s and seeing their ideas actually become something," said Grade 11 SHSM student Samantha Berube. "It's been a great experience because we've been mentoring but we've been learning stuff too."
"Knowing that you're playing a part in helping people make a difference and helping them achieve what they want to do," added Grade 11 SHSM student Serenity Prieur.
Thrifty T's fits nicely with the UCDSB's focus on Real-World Learning (RWL), an approach that connects classroom knowledge to real-world situations and experiences. Earlier in the year, students presented to the UCDSB RWL Team and were approved for funding to help purchase new sewing machines, paper shredders, and other needed items.
"The biggest goal of the Student Specialist Program here at RHS is to increase student engagement in their learning," said Grade 7/8 Resource and Special Education Teacher Jennifer Dobbin. "It's very much student-led and based on interest so they are creating these groups where they get to focus on something that they're actually passionate about."
Going forward, the Thrifty T's students are hoping to recruit feeder schools and get future RHS students excited about the initiative, and to expand the activities and build new community partnerships for future projects.
For more information
225 Central Avenue West
Brockville Ontario
Canada K6V 5X1
www.ucdsb.on.ca
