On Friday, November 18, 2011, the students in the Gifted and Talented program at SJHS learned about The Dog Poop Initiative. The Dog Poop Initiative is a children’s book written by Kirk Weisler. “It’s a wonderful story to point out,” said Mr. Hatfield, Gifted and Talented advisor. This activity was held in Mr. Hatfield’s classroom.
The Dog Poop Initiative starts out with a small dog and his owner. The dog pooped on in the park and the owner decided to ignore it. Later on two soccer teams come to play a game. All they do is point out the poop. Several pages later, after lots of pointing, a dad comes and sees the poop, and picks it up. After the story was read to the class, Mr. David Hansen, also a Gifted and Talented advisor, explained how there were three kinds of people in the story, the pooper, the pointers, and the scooper. According to Mr. Hatfield, a pooper is someone who creates a mess; a pointer is someone who shows everyone the mess; but a scooper is someone who sees a problem and is willing to do what’s necessary to fix it.
After the book was read and explained, the students were divided into six groups and given a poster, a ball of clay, and small red triangles. On the triangles, the students wrote goals, and placed them on one side of the poster. Then they made little clumps with the clay and placed them all over the poster. They then labeled the “poop” as challenges they need to overcome. Mrs. Kelly Anderson, another Gifted and Talented adviser, asked the students to share their goals and challenges to the rest of the group. Then the whole class found ways they could overcome their challenges to reach their goals. At the end of day, students learned to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. “It was a good lesson to learn,” said Cassidy Buhler, an eight grader in the Gifted and Talented program.