Empowering Solutionary and Socially Conscious Students
Almost three years ago at the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo & Conference, I participated in a one-hour professional development session that forever changed my teaching career. This riveting session was about Empowering Students and Teachers To Change the World and was delivered by Michael Soskil, an elementary science teacher from Wallenpaupack Area School District. Among many accolades, Mike was awarded the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, the 2016 Top 10 Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize, and the 2017 PA Teacher of the Year award. The message that day was simple, yet powerful. His mode of delivery was the global collaboration tool known as Skype. We played Mystery Skype with a classroom in the Midwest and then heard inspiring stories about global collaboration projects between Mike's classroom and an oasis like learning community located in the Kibera Slum, just outside of Nairobi, Kenya called the Cheery Children Education Center. As Mike was teaching his students about ecosystems, sustainability and the importance of clean water, he reached out to Jairus Makambi, the headmaster of Cheery school through Skype in the Classroom. After Mike's students Skyped with their new friends from Kenya several times and debriefed the many challenges that plague the community, such as Cholera and other waterborne diseases, something profound happened. Mr. Soskil's learners felt empowered to help the Cheery kids. The global collaboration continued. Each classroom learned something new from the other such as lessons on how to speak or sing in Swahili in exchange for lessons about science. Meanwhile, Mike's students worked on solving the poor water quality issue at the Cheery Center through an additional partnership with other schools. This small rural learning community in northeastern Pennsylvania along with other schools around the globe were able to help the Cheery Center obtain water filters from Life Straw. The spark I received that day from Mike was that as teachers, we have amazing opportunities to empower our learners to be positive change agents in their communities. Students need to do something with their learning and learn how to solve real problems in the world! Additionally, I continue to employ Mike's mantra into my daily teaching and that is "every problem that our world faces has a solution locked inside the passions of our students." It is our job as teachers, to help students discover this life change and practice essential skills in preparation for life in the "Fourth Industrial Revolution."
Since that initial seminar with Mike, I weaved Skype into my instruction and helped my Social Studies students connect with all different places on Earth. This risk taking paid off. Never before have I seen students so engaged and productive. Global collaboration tools such as Skype, Facetime, Hangouts or Zoom allow authentic learning to thrive. We connected with the Cheery Center in the Kibera Slum to learn about the importance of overcoming poverty through education, schools in India about population challenges, a former student in Jordan about the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis, and the list goes on. On occasion, we will Skype with our partner schools for about ten minutes to simply sing songs to one another. During the 2016-2017 school year, our students partnered with several classrooms throughout the district, including our kindergarten students, to help solve a major problem at the Cheery Center. Students developed empathy through collaborating with the students at Cheery and integrated design thinking to launch their solution. Watch their campaign story, nicknamed #RaiseTheCheeryRoof. The goal to help rebuild the Cheery Center was $4000. Our learning community helped raise more than $8000! These funds also contributed to the construction of latrines and a water tank.
MASH Student team Skyping with Cheery Student team
2/20/18
This year, the opportunity to be change agents through global collaboration has once again captured the hearts of my students. Students at our high school and middle school are working alongside an international student partnership to help the Cheery Center extend to grades 7 and 8. Our students titled this movement, #1MoreStepAhead. Please watch one of their newest social media campaign videos created by MASH students. This is the Cheery Children Center Foundation site. Every learner has a part to play. Our student public relations team is coordinating fundraising events with their international partners. The art team is developing blue prints for poverty simulations. The video team is creating commercials. Students are eager to help their friends in the Kibera. They wish for these dedicated Kenyan children to attend grade seven and eight. Our learners, from all levels, are relentless in this pursuit. They are compassionate and desire to help find a solution, more than I've ever seen. This generation of students we educate are hungry for projects meant for good.
I keep in touch with Mike on Twitter. He is a global collaboration mentor, but also someone that is an agent of change and who demonstrates everyday leadership (thank you for the video, Mrs. Reeder).
I was honored to read an early copy of Mike's work, along with five other Global Teacher Prize recipients. Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Standing at the Precipice.As an educator in the trenches, I found this book to be inspirational, yet extremely practical. Using the context of the "Fourth Industrial Revolution," as mentioned above, several major questions are addressed:
Are we really preparing our students for the challenges they will face?
Will technology ever replace teachers?
The authors each have their own spin on these questions, but essentially, they all support the urgency for education to be rooted in human relationships and empathy. We must empower our students to solve problems with "solutionary and socially conscious" mindsets way before they graduate.
This book fuels my purpose to help students become citizens, actively involved in bringing positive change to their world community. Best of all, the authors provide dozens of tried and true examples of how to put their ideas into practice. Learn from the best teachers from around the globe. Their book is available on Amazon. All proceeds go towards global teacher projects. Let me know if you order a copy! I highly recommend reading this book. It is a game changer.
Follow the authors on Twitter (even if do not have Twitter):
Thank you to Mike and the five amazing co-authors of Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Standing at the Precipice for your dedication, patience and leadership in helping teachers like me take steps in empowering our students.
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