Final Project Progress, Part 1

 

Saturday morning, July 2

Here's what I've got so far:

Know me! Know us.

Identity and the Learning for Justice Social Justice Standards

Focused on Identity Standards:

SJS1. Students will develop positive social identities based on their membership in multiple groups

in society

SJS4. Students will express pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value

and dignity of other people.

The WHY:

I believe that in order for students to learn best, they need to be SEEN and KNOWN and RESPECTED. They need to feel that their individuality is a gift to our community and the world beyond.

I believe that in order to collectively change the world, we need to be SEEN and KNOWN and RESPECTED so that our ideas are valued and we can collaborate productively to innovate, create, and dream beyond our current situations. 

We need "all hands on deck" to make the world a better place!

The HOW:

I believe that students need TIME, AUTONOMY, TRUST, and FREEDOM to learn. My plan is to be the "Granny" as Sugatra Mitra (2013) suggests, to ask the question and give students space, time, and freedom to explore. 

I think that the question will be: What should everyone know about you? But I'm not yet sure. I might need to explore the Learning for Justice resources more and think about how the question might be adapted, and maybe there are multiple questions. I've also thought about the question of "What's your favorite family tradition?" Tamera helped me think about how helpful it might be to have some questions ready in advance so students could have more freedom to work with the tools. 

My plan right now is to use Soundtrap to have students record themselves answering the question and to create a podcast. I'm also toying with the idea of an interview, where perhaps my 4th grade classes first learn how to use Soundtrap, and then interview younger students (like our 3s class) and / or teachers who might like to collaborate with Soundtrap.

In my multiple roles in my school I also need to think about how I will work with teachers, so when I use the term "student" here please know that I am thinking not only about my 4th grade class, but also about my Community and Identity curriculum that I am developing for our faculty and staff around the Social Justice Standards. I want to first explore using Soundtrap to create "Know me" podcasts with my students, and then do this work with my colleagues. And yes I will try it out with students first because I know that they have much more willingness than adults to take more time to figure out the program and grow from their mistakes!

This may be both a WHY and a HOW, but it's more granular: I really want to help those teachers who are reluctant about using technology to feel excited about it here. Soundtrap is a means to an end, and the end is to be SEEN and KNOWN and RESPECTED. Soundtrap is just the medium I chose. But I think about how extraordinary it would be for our Hebrew teachers to be able to tell us about themselves in their native Hebrew and record it, and then have a student do a voice-over translation, or maybe even simply an interview. I feel that the excitement that they have around this project will help them learn Soundtrap and hopefully consider using that and other recording technology in their language classes. It's so much more interesting and engaging than me "teaching" them through a slideshow. Remember (telling myself here), I'm the Granny! I don't do the work. I just stand back and encourage. (And I've been doing the work for our teachers who are afraid of technology for too long.)

The WHAT:

The end product will be a podcast recording that I am tentatively naming "Know Me, Know Us." Thank you Roberto for helping me think of this project as a shared community resource to post on our school's website! Ideally every member of the JCDSRI community will have a recording about themself posted on this page (and in some cases there may be 2 people on one recording). 

Pride, confidence, self-esteem expressed through the diversity of our community.

SJS4. Students will express pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value

and dignity of other people.