2/19/2027

Morning Announcements

Morning Meeting Agenda

Mon · Social Studies Tue · Literacy Wed · Science Thu · Math Fri · ROAR + Houses
Last day of KINDNESS WEEK — let’s carry it forward, Lions!
ROAR Friday · Kindness Week Finale

Somebody should fix that

Today’s ROAR value is RESPONSIBLE, and our house is Isibindi, the House of Courage. Today’s feature was sixteen years old when she stopped waiting for somebody else to fix a problem.

Today’s ROAR letter is R — Responsible! Our house is Isibindi, the green House of Courage.

The Isibindi house crest

Isibindi — the House of Courage!

Portrait of Barbara Rose Johns Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Meet Barbara Johns! Her school was falling apart — some classrooms were just shacks with wood stoves and no indoor plumbing. She was only 16, but she decided to do something about it.

Being responsible means noticing a problem and helping fix it — instead of waiting for somebody else.

Let’s talk
  • Barbara was in high school — not a grown-up. Can kids help fix problems too?
  • What’s one problem YOU could help fix here at our school?
  • It’s the last day of Kindness Week. What was your favorite kind thing you did?
Lion Trivia

Barbara got 450 students to walk out together. About how many students go to Orchard Knob — more or fewer than that?

Reveal the answerHide the answer
[Teacher: fill in your current enrollment!] Imagine convincing every single student in our school to do something together — and you’re only 16. That took real courage.

[STAFF TRIVIA: add a question about a staff member — e.g., “Which teacher is in the Isibindi house?”]

Today’s ROAR value is Responsible, and our house is Isibindi, the green House of Courage.

The Isibindi house crest

Isibindi, the House of Courage.

Mystery student: In 1951 her Virginia high school was so overcrowded that classes met in tar-paper shacks heated by wood stoves, with no indoor plumbing. Adults told students to be patient. She was 16. She spent months quietly organizing instead.

Who is she?Hide
Portrait of Barbara Rose Johns Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Barbara Rose Johns — on April 23, 1951, she led all 450 students at Moton High School out on a two-week strike. Their lawsuit became Davis v. Prince Edward County — the only student-initiated case among the five consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education. In 2020 she was chosen to represent Virginia in the U.S. Capitol.

The moment that started it: she missed her bus, waited over an hour, and watched a half-empty bus for white students drive past without stopping. In her journal she wrote that right then she decided something had to be done.

Two responses to the same problem: somebody should versus I will
Let’s talk
  • Johns planned quietly for months before acting. Why does responsibility usually require patience and courage, not just one?
  • Two weeks ago we met Ruby Bridges, age six. Today, Barbara Johns, age sixteen. What does it mean that children were often at the front of this movement?
  • Kindness Week is ending. Is taking responsibility for a problem a form of kindness? Explain your thinking.
Reveal the answersHide the answers
Acting impulsively would have failed — Johns needed a plan good enough to work, which took months of quiet organizing. Courage without preparation is just risk. Children were often at the front because they had less to lose than adults with jobs, mortgages, and families that could be targeted — and because young people are frequently the first to find an unfair situation genuinely intolerable. And yes: her strike was kindness aimed at people she’d never meet, including every student who came after her. Kindness Week asked you to help the person in front of you. Johns helped generations she’d never see.
Try it

Kindness Week finale! Name one thing at Orchard Knob that could genuinely be better. Now the harder part: write down one specific step you could take about it. Johns started with a plan on a piece of paper too.

[STAFF TRIVIA: add a question about a staff member — e.g., “Which staff member fixed a problem nobody asked them to?”]

Additional Notes/Activities

If additional activities are needed for the Morning Meeting, they will be added here.