8th Grade's LOST Week of Field Trips and Volunteering

During LOST Week (Learning Outside School Territory) this February, the 8th graders spent a week engaging with the themes of homelessness, immigration, and care for the mentally ill, as well as learning about the history of the San Francisco waterfront. On a rainy Monday, we served at the San Francisco Food Bank, handing out vegetables and other food to people in need. On Tuesday, we returned to the city for a walking tour of the waterfront, focused on the Longshoremen and their history. On Wednesday, we all boarded a train for Sacramento where we learned about the important role journalism plays in politics, what an assemblyman does, how beautiful our state capitol is, and how well the Pistons can play. We interviewed Edie Lambert, an anchorperson, and Assemblyman Damon Connolly, focusing our questions on our themes. The highlight for many students was our stay in a beautiful Victorian youth hostel and our time at the Kings game. In addition to all of this, the students also heard from a nurse who works with the unhoused, a Dreamer, and learned how to work with graphs and statistics on homelessness with Dave. It was a wonderful week, one which we hope will lead the students to more questions, more adventures and more care for others.