Teachers Develop Agents of Change

Near the end of our Modern Africa Unit in World Cultures, my students and I were learning about public health challenges and successes.  Traditionally, I assign students to groups and each pod researches a disease that has impacted many living in Africa.  Each group creates a poster to show their new found knowledge.  The activity allows students to know, understand and do several key tasks, yet the students weren't motivated to create these resources.  I will share the last minute adjustment and game changer at the end of this post.


I recently came across a quote from Dr. Nadia Lopez while reading Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a powerful new book that I shared in a previous blog post. This educator reminds us that teaching is about empowering students to ultimately become positive "agents of change" in their community, despite their circumstances.  View her seven minute TedTalk, "Why open as school? To close a prison" and/or her blog post about "Changing the world, One student at a time." From my understanding, this can happen in so many ways.  Every teacher has the ability to empower their students to be positive agents of change in their own unique way.  As I always express, building relationships is the main ingredient and a dash of technology, when used in the right way, can enhance the outcome. 

Here are just a few of the many examples from throughout MASH:

• Mrs. Weidman and her daughter model the use of Flipgrid for completing a Sociology fieldwork activity regarding advice (check out the link w/her Flipgrid lesson reflection). She experimented with the tool a few weeks before assigning the task and learned how to use the technology.  This process included the use of her daughter in the learning process, who not only helped reinforce written directions, but also complimented the intended learning goals.  There is no doubt in my mind that Pam's students learned valuable advice from her daughter about how and why to be a positive agent of change.  Pam was able to collect student advice through Flipgrid and since the settings were private ('inactive') and inaccessible to the entire class, she was able to receive honest feedback, that would be difficult to gather in a normal class setting.  

• Mrs. Jamiolkowski's Spanish students created global challenge campaigns (check out the link w/her Flipgrid lesson reflection). Every learner had their own challenge, such as malaria and overpopulation.  After careful research, they designed persuasive and informative infographics that reflected causes, effects, and possible solutions.  Also featured on these campaign resources was a QR code that linked to the student discussing their point of view and possible solutions.  These solutionary and socially conscious students posted their work in Heather's classroom and actively "read, viewed, interpreted, and listened to a variety of infographics."  Another compelling component to this assessment was that it was intentionally a cross-leveled task.  Her Spanish IV students were exposed to these campaign posters which helped reinforce critical skills and expectations for Advanced Placement. I love the idea of using authentic audiences and real challenges. Heather's students developed their change agent skills through the skills of speaking, writing, and listening Spanish.  Not only is every teacher a literacy advocate, but I believe we're also in the business of empowering the youth to improve the community. Check out some of the examples below. Students selected global challenges ranging from animal cruelty to student wellness. 

• Mr. Reardon's Health students create a variety of digital resources that showcase their essential understandings. As freshmen, his students learn about the health challenges faced by some teenagers. Their learning is not passive.  Joe helps his students become agents of positive change through their design of public health infographics. Check out some examples. 

Every teacher has the ability to empower their students to be positive agents of change in their own unique way.  As I always express, building relationships is the main ingredient and a dash of technology, when used in the right way, can enhance the outcome.  There are so many examples around us. Just visit the classroom across the hall from you or ask one of your own students about one of your own lessons.

Back to that beginning activity, I shared with students that they would be creating drafts for simple, powerful and visual reminders to be posted around latrines and drinking fountains around the Cheery Center; the learning community located in Kenya's Kibera Slum. Water borne diseases are common place in this slum.  My students deeply care for the Cheery kids and so I discovered a motivation and passion to do good among all of my students. It was a game changer. Our students genuinely want to be agents of change and improve the world around them.

Resources:

• Heather used the resources pictured on the right. 
• Mrs. Zelenky created a useful LibGuide resource for the what, why and how of infographics. 
• If you rather not print infographic out, you can have students post them to a Google Site or a Padlet page.  Here's an example. The neat part about this is that you can link this one page to Google Classroom or share the page on social media for an intended audience.  
• I personally enjoy Canva when creating digital products such as infographics or flyers. You can have students create several resources on one infographic like Katie L. does here for her AP Human Geography task to design a banana supply chain resource for inquisitive grocery store shoppers.  She developed a short Adobe Spark video that shares her message and then created a QR code that linked to the resource on her infographic. 
• Inspiration: Check out our district's Learn, Create, Connect resource where you can find many resources and classroom examples. 
• Think big but start small. At the end of the day, every great idea starts with a tiny thought. Mr. Perry Ditch, who is the Director of Bands at White Oak High School in North Carolina lives out this idea of empowering students to be positive agents of change as he helps his students teach music to the children at the Cheery Center and learn about life changing lessons in addition to Kenyan culture.  The older Cheery students then teach music to the younger kids.