Celebrating Everyday Heroes

Welcome to Celebrating Everyday Heroes! With tools provided by MY HERO, students create a story, artwork, or short film about their heroes to share with their global partners. The result is authentic student work and true international collaboration.

Before you begin, make sure you have completed the MY HERO First Steps from the Learning Circles landing page. If you need any help at all completing those steps, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].

iEARN participants: You can also post your introductions in the “Introductions” discussion board in the iEARN collaboration centre. 

Students will choose the hero that they want to focus their project on. We have several resources to help students with this!

For students with a higher reading ability, I would recommend How to Choose Your Hero by Charles Harper, modified by Coleen Bondy. For younger students, or those whom English is not their first language, I have adapted the essay to make it a little easier to understand. 

Once students have read the essay, they can explore examples of heroes that are featured on the MY HERO website. Each hero listed has a story for early readers (always featured first) and more experienced readers (featured second), so you can find the content relevant to your class! Click the banner below to explore. 

Now students have had some inspiration, they can discuss heroes, heroism, and who inspires them, both in the classroom and on the forum. Students, we want to learn about YOUR heroes in your countries, communities, and families! 

iEARN Participants: Once you’ve made your choice, you can share your selection on the "Choosing your hero" discussion board in the collaborate center.

Now that students have chosen their hero, it’s time to choose what type of project they would like to create! Will students work individually or in groups? Students can submit either a short film, story, or artwork for publication. 

Explore examples of films, stories, and art on MY HERO by clicking on the banner below.

Students that choose to make a short film may use the MY HERO Journalism & Filmmaking Workbook for advice on how to create their film. To download the workbook for free, click here. Enter the code 2025WORKBOOK! in the discount code field and download your free copy!

When researching your hero, these questions are a great place to start!

• Who is your hero?
• What makes them A hero?
• What are they doing or being that makes them your hero?
• Where is this happening?
• Why are they your hero?

One strategy that will save you a lot of time and energy is to begin your research from a reliable starting point. Using a search engine like Google can be useful, but it’s not necessarily where you should start. Here are some places to begin:

Your Public and School Libraries:

Public libraries aren’t just places where old people sit and read newspapers. They are an excellent place to conduct research. Going to a physical library and asking a librarian for help is like getting a free, experienced research partner to assist you. You also likely have access to an online library, with many databases paid for by the library so that you can access reliable sources. Most libraries allow you to get a library card online or very easily in-person at your local branch. Your school library likely provides similar resources. Use the library — you won’t regret it!

Free databases:

Schools and local libraries often provide some of the best research databases around, with free access to academic studies and news and magazine articles. In addition to library databases, you also might consider these free research tools.

Free student subscriptions:

If you hit a paywall when trying to read a newspaper or magazine article, do a search for “[publication name]” and “student subscription.” Very often, these publications offer free subscriptions to students if you use your school email address.

The MY HERO Journalism and Filmmaking Workbook has a great chapter on how to conduct research (Chapter Three). To download the workbook for free, click here. Enter the code 2025WORKBOOK! in the discount code field and download your free copy!

Students, now that you’ve completed your research it’s time to put together a plan! Everyone will have their own method of planning, but below are some useful steps to follow based on the medium you have chosen.

Films:

• Organize your research and map out how the information can fit into a beginning, middle, and end.
• Create a story board to show which footage/pictures will go where in the film. If you are using pictures/footage that are not yours, make sure that you adhere to copyright laws – see the MY HERO Journalism & Filmmaking Workbook for more information about this. Wikimedia Commonsis a great place to find copyright free images. You can also use Seneca Polytechnic or Journo Resources.
• Write a script if you are planning to record audio.

Stories:

• Organize your research and map out how the information can fit into different paragraphs. See below for an example structure:
• Introduction – Who is your hero?
• Early life – Where were they born and where did they grow up? What hap***d in their life to inspire them to become a hero?
• Becoming a hero – Why are they a hero? What did they do/what are they doing to better our world?
• Impact – How have they changed the lives of others?
• Conclusion – A closing paragraph about what makes them a hero and why they are your hero.

Art:

• Choose a medium. Will you create a drawing, painting, collage, 3D model, etc?
• Collect inspiration – photos, cuttings, create sketches if needed.

Students now spend time creating their project and uploading to the MY HERO site. Like with planning, everyone will have their own way of working… However, to try and ensure students are on the right track during the process, I have put together a rough guideline for students to follow.

Films:

• Step 1 – Record any footage/audio of your own that you would like to include.
• Step 2 – Edit your footage and images together.
• Step 3 – Add sound/audio files. Remember to check copyright laws if using music that you haven’t created. Upload your work so far to the forum to receive feedback from other students. Don’t forget to continue working though; there is only one week left to finish your project!
• Step 4 – Watch through and polish up your film! Upload your finished film to the MY HERO website.

Stories:

• Step 1– Put together a first draft of your story.
• Step 2 – Upload your work so far to the forum to receive feedback from other students. Don’t forget to continue working though; there is only one week left to finish your project! If you receive feedback, make any necessary edits.
• Step 3 – Make any necessary edits and find images to include in your story. Remember to check copyright laws if using images that you haven’t created/taken. Wikimedia Commonsis a great place to find copyright free images. You can also use Seneca Polytechnic or Journo Resources. Upload your finished story to the MY HERO website.

Art:

• Step 1 – Create your artwork and come up with a title that supports the work!
• Step 2 – Write a paragraph (around 500 words) about your hero, why you decided to choose them, and a little bit about your art. Upload your work so far to the forum to receive feedback from other students.
• Step 3 – Complete your paragraph to accompany your artwork. Upload your finished art to the MY HERO website.

Students, this is an opportunity for you to create a meaningful piece of work that you can be proud of. Enjoy the process, and don’t be afraid to reach out to others for feedback throughout the process!

iEARN participants: You can post questions or sections of your work in the “Feedback” folder in the collaborate center.

Congratulations to all the students on completing your hero projects! You should be extremely proud of yourselves.

The links below include useful tutorials on how to use the MY HERO Create program to upload students’ work for review. Should you or your students run into any difficulty with this process, please reach out to me at [email protected], and I’ll be more than happy to help you!

Educators, you can now create a showcase organizer full of all your students' approved work. For a tutorial on how to create your organizer, click the image below. Once you have created your organizer, you can share the link!

iEARN Participants: You can post the link to the “Organizers” discussion board in the collaborate center, where students and educators can post comments on each other’s work.

If appropriate, students could submit their projects to one of the MY HERO contests. For more information about the various contests at MY HERO and how to enter, click the banner below.

We have reached the end of the MY HERO Learning Circle: Celebrating Everyday Heroes! A huge congratulations again to you all for having completed the program. MY HERO loves to see work created by students – it’s at the very core of what we do. In creating and sharing your hero projects, you have shared a little bit of hope and joy with the world.

iEARN participants: I would like to invite everyone to post their final goodbyes to the iEARN forums, which will remain active for another week, as the MY HERO Learning Circle closes. Thank you all again, and we hope to see you in the next session!