“Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from speech before a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia, October 26, 1967
Following in Dr. King's message of peace and taking action, this project was developed to unite students with classrooms around the world to promote unity and peace through the creation of peaceful signs and silent demonstration marches.
World Peace March February 28th
We hope your classrooms of children will be inspired to be activists of peace and work together to create the change they wish to see in the world.
The idea for the Peace Signs Project was sparked by Dr. Melissa Collins and her 2nd grade students in Memphis, Tennessee after partnering with the National Civil Rights Museum to organize the first ever student silent demonstration march to take place on what would be Dr. King's 90th birthday.
Looking to extend the project past the walls of her classroom and beyond the borders of her community, Melissa looked to her global network of professional colleagues and partnered with Dr. Jennifer Williams and other global educators.
Today, classrooms around the world are invited to sign up, create signs of peace with their students, and organize student silent demonstration marches in their schools or communities from January - March 2019. For more information on steps to take action and on resources to help, check out the information below.
Steps to Get Involved
1. Sign up here:
2. Work with your students to create signs of peace.
- Digital signs: Create with Adobe Spark Post + love.
- Hand-made signs: Create with art supplies + love.
3. Add Adobe Spark images or photos of signs to Padlet page.
4. Lead your students in a silent demonstration march at your school or in your community on February 28th.
5. Share on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #PeaceSignsProject.
To learn more, check out the hashtag #PeaceSignsProject.
Please contact Dr. Melissa Collins at @CollinsNBCT or Dr. Jennifer Williams at @JenWilliamsEdu on Twitter.
Steps to Creating Peace Signs
- Share resources (books, websites, quotes) with students around Dr. King and other activists' messages of peace and unity.
- Discuss with students the power of a message. Consider ways to make an effective message.
- Brainstorm and research words that represent peace.
- Go through the process of drafting, editing, and finalizing peace messages.
- Create digital peace messages using Adobe Spark Post or other digital tools
- Create a handmade demonstration sign using poster board, sticks, and art supplies.
Steps to Organizing Silent Peace Demonstration March
- Discuss with students the purpose of a silent peace demonstration march.
- Research past silent demonstration marches.
- Select a place to have your silent peace march (around your own classroom, throughout your school hallways, around the school building, in the community, at a museum).
- Conduct your march on February 28th and share videos and photos online with the hashtag #PeaceSignsProject.
- Reflect with students after and discuss plans for continuing to take action on peace.
