Endorsing Student Voice Through Virtual/Hybrid Activism

Speaker 1 Hello, and welcome to a recording of our PD summit at Human Restoration Project on endorsing student voice through virtual and hybrid activism. This episode features Inspire Citizens, out of the blocks, and Evan Whitehead. And I'm Chris McNett with Human Restoration Project. Before we get started, I wanted to let you know this content is brought to you by our Patreon supporters, three of whom are Mary Becker, Brandon Peters, and Dylan Wentz. Thank you for your ongoing support. You can learn more about the Human Restoration Project on our website, humanrestorationproject.org, or find us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. We've attempted to edit this summit as an audio version, but you may find references to content that's on the screen. Please see our show notes for resources or a link to access the video version of this conference. Thank you. Alright. Well, as we continue to admit people, I'll go ahead and get started, and we can do some introductions and kinda go from there. So welcome, everyone. My name is Chris. I work for Human Restoration Project. I'm also a teacher. I teach digital media to ninth graders. And today, we're hosting a pretty cool professional development event surrounding virtual and hybrid activism. Activism. So talk about how getting students getting involved in activism in our new virtual professional and hybrid based spaces. And if you're not there, you'll probably be there very soon. So we have a pretty interesting format here. We're gonna start off with some introductions in a second. And then from there, we're gonna go into some breakout rooms. In your email that we sent out, there should be one of three different links to a slightly different video platform based off of your last name. We can kinda sort that out as needed depending on our numbers. But make sure you just refer back to that here when we transfer that you know where you're going or else you're gonna be left behind. Other than that, there will be a spot for some asynchronous conversations. If you have, like, any outstanding questions or if you wanna connect with people, there's a link at the bottom of that email that will help you out, to to ask those questions. So without further ado, we can just kinda, like, go around our different presenters here to introduce yourselves. We'll do, like, inspire citizens, then pass it over to Evan, then over to out of the blocks maybe, and just kinda go through from there. So, Steve, I don't know if you wanna start us off and then just kinda pass the handle over. Sounds good. Yeah, guys. My name is Steve Stostak.

Speaker 2 I'm cofounder and codirector of Inspire Citizens. Although, now there's three of us. I don't know. Is that TriDirector? I'm actually in Chicago right now. I was a classroom teacher for sixteen years. Taught grade four, six, and eight. Taught some journalism. Taught global citizenship. Chicago. And then I went international to Peru, to Malaysia, and to Beijing where Inspire Citizens started. So today's gonna be a great opportunity. You'll get to know a little bit about the why of Inspire Citizens, and then we're gonna kind of transfer that why with Donna, who's our codirector of global youth media, and we're gonna look at how we can answer those questions through ethical journalism and,

Speaker 3 really, like, radio activism. So thank you for having me. Okay. I guess it's, out of the block's turn. You know? My name is Aaron Henken. I'm here in Baltimore with, my coproducer, Wendell Patrick, who's on the call as well. And we do a I work at the local public radio station, the affiliate here, national public radio affiliate in Baltimore, WYPR. And, several years ago, Wendell and I co created a documentary series called Out of the Blocks, which, has got a kind of an unusual premise. And we ended up actually kind of dovetailing with Steve and Inspire Citizens and turning what we do into, an educational tool, which we're gonna tell you about in the breakout sessions. But I'll turn it over to Wendell to talk a little bit more about what Out of the Blocks is, what it sounds like, and what it's all about.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Good morning. So I'm Wendell Patrick, and I work with Aaron on Out of the Blocks. And, when you listen to the, the program, it's it's really an audio documentary soundscape, where we make it our mission to meet and interview every single person on a particular block, and then to tell their stories. And, I'm a musician and a photographer, and so we also document, each individual on the block with a portrait. And then I write an original musical score for each episode, often using sounds from the blocks themselves as a narrative tool. And so we've done about two dozen blocks in Baltimore, and we've had the pleasure to travel to other cities as well with this particular model. And it's been great to bring it to the youth and introduce it to them as a as a tool to both meet additional people and also expand their own knowledge of oftentimes their their own cities.

Speaker 5 I'm my name is Anna, and I am the deputy director of Inspired Citizens. And, I guess, I would say if my focus is on anything, it's on personal and collective well-being. But I'm totally driven by the why of inspired citizens that Steve referred to earlier. And so, you know, with him and Donna working together on the global youth media element, I'll be speaking to you with Evan Whitehead more about what does student activism and, student voice look like when we're thinking about the embedding of social emotional well-being. Evan, do you wanna go ahead?

Speaker 6 Sure. Good morning, everyone. My name is Evan Whitehead. Just started my twenty third year in education, my eleventh year into office administration. I'm also a national presenter consultant and speaker. My focus for the majority of my educational career has been in special education and working with diverse student learners as well. And, you know, for for me, my my why and my mission now has really been to focus on social emotional learning and well-being, not just for students, but for adults as well, especially given the time that we're living in. We know that that it's a huge it's huge, you know, idea, and it's a thought that we need to focus on. And also my work, I'm I'm I'm a mental health advocate as well and pushing for the, you know, educator well-being and self care as well. So we'll be talking a little bit about that during during the sessions.

Speaker 2 Let's get Donna in there. Donna?

Speaker 7 Some of you know me. I'm Donna Garen. I'm entering my twenty first year of as in education. I recently joined Steve with, becoming codirector of Global Youth Media, And I am really excited to join this group because it does speak to my why, which is all about student voice and, amplifying student voice. And so I'm just excited to be here, and I'm ready to learn along with you all.

Speaker 2 Guys, I also wanna thank Chris and Nick and and Linda just for putting this all together. What you guys are all doing is fantastic. So if you haven't checked out, you know, human restoration's work, it's it's really, really empowering stuff that really gets into the real pedagogy and the shift in where education needs to go. And, also, I see, you know, there are a lot of familiar faces here, so I would challenge us as we walk away from this session is to say, what are some next steps that, you know, we can use to pull out of the blocks and inspire citizens work and the work of Kavita and Evan immediately into what we're doing this fall. So let's while it is informal, let's also think about that idea of, like, let's do something with this. Most of you, I think, you know, have a good feel for what Inspire Citizens does in essence of our why, but I do wanna just kind of bring it back to that mission because everything we do hopefully is mission driven, and then we'll start to expand into where global youth media fits to that. And then we'll just kinda maybe we can get a q and a slash, you know, impossible dreams protocol going on how we can start to launch that type of work in our classrooms because I know a lot of you guys are diving in in a couple weeks. So we wanna do everything we can to support you guys. Okay? So let me see if this works. Alright. Click on that. Can everybody yep. There we go. You guys see all yourselves now? So I'm gonna flip over back to here for a second. So this is just a frame where we're going. These were, in essence, the three questions that we're gonna try to walk out of here with some answers for so that, again, we can, you know, be ready to roll after walking out of here, and we can experiment for the next couple weeks so that you can work on this with your kids after you guys get your class set up and get everybody feeling well. So, you know, introducing activism, promoting voice like Donna mentioned, and that idea of a virtual environment because a lot of us will be starting virtually, but also in a hybrid environment. Platforms and organizations. So we'll talk about some of those as we unpack some things, including in the out of the box work, obviously. And then that idea of coaching students through process of change. Right? So just so you can see, I this is some a visual that you could take from something like that Simon Sinek, that really famous Golden Circle podcast, right, the TED talk, where if you're gonna look at inspire citizens, our what is we took target 4.7 from the SDGs. You know, we're looking to educate students to become civically conscious and then do something with that, but also linking it to their learning. Right? So we're applied learning for active global citizenship and sustainable development. How? That's hopefully what we do, help you guys to do that. And then in the middle, we've identified sort of a bullet point list of whys. And schools we work with, they'll go sometimes different directions, but really all of these things are interdependent. Developmental development, social justice, wellness, social emotional learning, and ethics. Right? Everybody can still hear me? We're good? Thumbs up if that's good. Fantastic. This is what we call our student impact profile. Right? So, again, a lot of you have seen this, but if you haven't, just taking that why and asking kids to really apply their learning to impact change in sort of their personal community, local community, domestic community, or global community. Right? And what we're really gonna focus today, even though all of these things are important in terms of the how, that idea of media makers or design thinking, that idea of compassion and empathy, which is so key if you're gonna be immersing yourselves in community and using media to amplify voices. Right? But is this concept of how do we do that in a media environment or in a journalism environment in particular? Because that's really a fantastic way to make anything you're teaching, an applied learning outcome. Alright? And lastly, those of you that again, if you take what we had in the center and, again, we'll send you guys all of this stuff in the chat afterwards. This is our empathy to impact cycle. Right? So the elevator pitch on this is what you saw in the middle is ideally what we want kids to start to care more about. Right? Again, personally, locally, domestically, nationally, or globally. Right? And could be sustainability, ethical discernment. I wanna be build my character and my intelligence in that realm, social justice, and wellness. Where the media component, especially in the virtual component, especially comes in is this piece of going more deeply into the awareness of our world, our civic world, our civic consciousness. Right? And the idea being is that we wanna take some of our standards, especially language development, which is happening in any class that we do, and start filtering it through how are we becoming more aware of the things we care about, including our communities, And then what are we gonna do with it, that action component? So, again, this we're gonna share with you. Every single one of these that has an underline actually takes you to a hyperlink that is sort of our go to first resource to help kids and teachers unpack those particular elements. Right? So that's that should be very helpful for you guys. K? Donna, I'm wondering if we just this is something that we'll probably talk about within our, discussion of global youth media. But, Donna, do you wanna kinda give the elevator pitch on global youth media, and then we can just sort of have a roundtable talk?

Speaker 7 Sure. So I'm not as good as Steve at the presenting portion, so I'm gonna try to do my best here and just speak from the heart. But, basically, global youth media is amplifying student voice through a media lens. It is it is all that is inspire citizens, but using that media lens as as a focus. And so we are doing things like photography and videography, podcasting. This this particular slide is actually a really good overview. It kind of puts it all into one one central location. But on the left hand side, you'll see in over there are the different labs that we're gonna be offering. And so out of the blocks is getting students, out into their neighborhood, to interview people on the street, and, that storytelling component, just getting to know your local community and, being able to craft those follow-up questions, which are so important. Photobomb is our street photography. We've already been in touch with several experts in the area that do this for a living, and so I'm really excited about this just to get that into the classroom and use photography as storytelling. Debate for impact is really awesome. I actually had a chance to do this, and Julia actually joined us this past spring virtually. And it was really amazing just to have the students be able to not just debate on a topic and just, you know, who who won the debate and who gets the blue ribbon per se, but it was more about getting students involved and really engaging them in active listening.

Speaker 2 And I think really quick, I wanna jump in on this one, guys, because we know right now, especially in The States, that we're so polarized with the way that we are, you know, divided into, you know, politically, but also in the way that we interact with each other online. And the adults don't model very good behavior for this for the kids. Right? So getting them to move from this concept of understanding two sides of an argument or two sides of an issue and then actually giving some tools to move forward in action, that compromise mediation, etcetera, so that they actually again, the the goal with anything with Inspire Citizens is to move the needle, to do something with the learning that is going to be a positive piece, you know, towards your community or towards yourself. Right? So I think this is a really powerful one. We've done this in China with really great success.

Speaker 7 Donnie, you wanna talk about this one? Oh, sure. So this one is we're calling it sound waves. It's basically taking a walk outside with your microphone and just the importance of sound. So, you know, a few things that we've talked about is just, you know, listening to nature, and we've talked about using sound in and out of context. I know I've done that myself with my own students where you have them record sounds, then they come back. And when it's out of context, just they're not able to

Speaker 2 ascertain what the actual sound is. So just using those sounds on the street and the importance of that. And when you're podcasting that idea, there is a tech component to it. Right? Even ideally, we could you know, we do a lot of this work with people that just have a phone. Right? So how are we utilizing and getting to know the tools that we have in ways that we could still capture those sounds so that they're audible and that they they're telling them and setting the tone that we'd like? And it's just a great way also. I think it's a great way for wellness and that idea of reconnecting with nature and space and even silence, which I'd like to even add to the slide is this idea of, like, how do we record silence and allowing for those breaks for certain moments, you know, in our recordings to, you know, bring that heaviness or that chance to breathe, which I think is also really important. Donna?

Speaker 7 This is one of my favorites. We're calling it culture shock, but, we are really looking to have a platform so that students from around the globe can all have a place where they can discuss things. And so we've talked about doing roundtable discussions with students from around the globe on just things that they're passionate about. So, for example, maybe let's just take basketball, for example. So, you know, they're just gonna have a group of students from all around the globe, they're just gonna talk about hoops and what it looks like in their country and just have a place where they could share share their more about their country and their culture and developing that compassion.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And, guys, this picture is actually we use we actually bring out of the block sometimes to schools that we work with internationally. So this is them in Seoul, South Korea. But the picture says a lot. You've got Wendell, you know, a black American, and you've got Erin, you know, and and and this idea of their bringing their unique culture and their unique experiences from their past and and and their diverse, you know, voices and the things that they do to Seoul, which is a really shocking place. Right? So, the fact that Out of the Blocks who goes into all of these fantastic city blocks in The States coming to Seoul and then utilizing their experiences to teach kids and to, you know, provide these immersive experiences. So the keyword there is an idea of immersive. Right? And, I think it's just a really, fantastic way that you can still do it virtually, whether it's through photography or just doing something like we're connecting classroom to classroom experiences. Oh, I just lost that. I'm sorry, guys. Last couple. Donna?

Speaker 7 This one, of course, for those of you who know me, is near and dear to my heart as music is everything for me. But this one, we're talking about doing tiny classroom concerts. So allowing students a way that they can share their music and writing their music or sharing their music. Also, the importance of keeping the arts and music in the curriculum. So learning about different genres of music and also unpacking lyrics of different music and also using it as a way to amplify voice for activism. So I know I did with my own students where we unpacked Sun City, which was a little Steven, and how he used that, album and to create awareness for Sun City and just the power of music.

Speaker 2 And here you can see this is, Robbie from Bali. So, again, this idea of you bringing a Balinese musician and activist, he's very much into environmental justice. This was my actually, my classroom that I had turned a corner of it into an actual live studio. And then the students could bring in musicians or artists to share their stories. They would interview them, and then we would actually publish that. Again, that's something you can still do virtually if we can connect your students to artists and or musicians, which we can help you do. Last two.

Speaker 7 This one is called word splash. And so this one, we're talking about the spoken word and how important that is and also the elements of poetry. So we're talking about slam poetry. Again, just the importance of the spoken word and integrating that into media.

Speaker 2 And here you also see radio drama where we have kids. I know, like, my daughter is a huge theater fan, so she's been really pretty down about not being able to do a live play this or coming into the fall necessarily. So how do we teach screenwriting and the idea of voice and radio drama is such a powerful medium as well? And we really took the idea of impossible ideas from TED Talks. We know that a lot of schools are using TED Talks, but then the question is, are we using them well, and are we really teaching the arts of the creating the visual to support, you know, that deep thinking and the expression needed in a in a persuasive TED Talk? Lastly?

Speaker 7 The last one is play by play, which is documentary filmmaking. So, myself, I've actually had a connection with gentleman named David Fidel, and he he does documentaries. And so we're looking to, possibly let students, unpack documentaries and then, be able to interview experts and find out a little bit more about what goes into documentary filmmaking. And, personally, I'd like to see this one actually cross over with the music one and perhaps do, like, hometown documentaries where you can talk about music and the importance of music in your own hometown.

Speaker 2 Awesome. So that, guys, that just gives you a little bit of an overview. One last component, and we'll send you this too, is as you're teaching your kids, just like you would in a readers or writers workshop, you wanna make sure that we have those ideas of mentor examples. Right? So if we're going that's one of the reasons that we partnered with Out of the Blocks was if we're gonna take kids into the neighborhood, let's get the expert in the room. Let's get Out of the Blocks to help us unpack their fantastic podcast. And then it allows the students to see where they could, in theory, go with this and be creative. Obviously, kids want to innovate from things. But remember that innovation is also taking something that already exists and finding your own way to utilize that in your context. Right? So this is just something of when we deconstruct, you know, like if we were using a mentor text, we're gonna go through these five components. This is actually from the Center for Media Literacy. Just put it into a pretty poster. And then as we're constructing, we're thinking about those same things so that again, this ties back to formative assessment. If kids are creating a piece of media, they should be able to intentionally discuss what they were trying to do as authors. What is their format in terms of why they chose the format they did? Who is their audience? What do you want your audience to get out of that, the content and the themes and the tone, etcetera? And then that purpose piece of really realizing that for us in global youth media, lot of our purpose is advocacy and awareness and really moving the needle on sustainable development. But also there's purpose in media that's driven by power structures and profit profit motives. So, again, getting kids into that type of thinking can be really, really critical. So I think that's sort of the fast pitched. Let me stop sharing my screen for a second and get everybody's faces back here. Can everybody see are we back to normal faces? Alright. So I'm just gonna throw out the first question really quickly, and maybe you guys can talk a little bit about whether it's questions you have, but, you know, how are we going to promote, you know, this idea of virtual activism coming back in the fall? Because I think, you know, part of that activism piece I'm gonna throw at you guys is also we're in the middle of a pandemic still. Right? We're in the middle of a reckoning with, you know, systemic racism. How is it that we wanna transition back to the classroom for that healing piece and then really empowering change because we are definitely at a crossroads. Right? Anybody wanna start? Julia, you're always so good to get us started. What are you thinking?

Speaker 8 Right on. So many things. I'm so inspired. So let me let me ground one of them. I know my vision includes looking at, like, radical self care as the foundation of activism that we must take care of ourselves, that oxygen mask, that we have to take care of our own vision of the world, what we need in the world in order to truly activate ourselves in the world. So I'm looking to help my kids kind of make some sense of where they are, get a vision of where they wanna go, kind of identify those places inside themselves that they want to activate. So they get to create, like, that personal activism point too. So not just personal passion with projects, but, like, personalized action plan. But what part of you do you wanna activate to become an active member of our what's happening right now? So radical self care, radical self awareness. And then I am looking to everything out of the blocks, everything you're working with, Donna, to really become not just the platform and the framework for that activism, but I wanna collaborate. I wanna collaborate with classrooms around the world. That's, I think, the magic part for of of what you're doing here with Inspire Citizens. You're creating a launch point so that we can activate our kids in a way that we're able to create that that grid, that connecting the dots of not just classrooms around the world, but activists around the world. Like, who are we? What do we stand for? It doesn't matter how old you are. What do you wanna activate and use so that you can make a difference in what's happening right now, and so you can understand what's happening right now. Just Yeah. Wanna Let's

Speaker 2 get Abby, and then I wanna get Clancy into because I wanna hear a little bit of his context. Really quickly, I just wanna say that,

Speaker 9 I love the p that piece, Julia, because I think that I mean, if I look at just the way the past four or five months have impacted me, I have felt it's it's impacted me in a sense that I have been paralyzed. I haven't been able to tap into a source of energy and motivation. It's just like I'm it's something scrambled. What drive I had before quarantine has scrambled. And I know that kids may be feeling similar similarly. And I think that the activist part or taking those action steps really is about is is healing because you go from being this passive position of what's been happening to me, things are happening to me, to then taking action and, you know, moving forward through that and becoming empowered. I think that's really part of the healing.

Speaker 2 Clancy, you wanna give us a little and I see Ricardo's over here too. So, Clancy, you wanna give us a little about who you are, where you're at, and tell us, your thoughts.

Speaker 10 My name is Clancy Emmanuel. I use he, him, his pronouns, and I'm from New Haven, Connecticut. I just finished my first year of teaching. I was a software engineer for three years, and I have I graduated with a degree in electrical engineering before that. So I'm a little bit all over the place. And I teach at a private school. So sixth grade is still in the elementary school, and it's the highest grade at the school. So it's 11 and 12 year olds. And, I'm coming at it from a perspective of having only recently been engaged in activism myself. So the combination of being new to that and and and being new to teaching and not understanding always what's developmentally appropriate for kids, that's something that I'm trying to be really cautious of and also still wanting to bring that energy into the classroom. So I have a co teacher, and she's been at the school for eight or nine years. And she's lovely, and we're talking frequently about what the plan is because, like, if we have face shields and masks and, like, all this stuff, how are we gonna how are we gonna build a community if we can't be really close to one another? And, like, how are we gonna teach math if we can't? It's a it's a it's a big old mess. So we're trying to just be slow and realistic about heading in. And, yeah, I think I like I said, I think the thing for me is that in my situation, I can go to a protest. I can throw myself on the line. I can do this or that, And I need to, like, figure out how to, like I said, bring that energy to the classroom in a way that's developmentally appropriate and doesn't just, like,

Speaker 2 accelerate things too quickly for the kids or yeah. Just that's where I'm at. I was first of all, that makes a lot and really quickly, the group that's here, you've got a lot of fifth grade and sixth grade teachers, so definitely connect with everybody here. A quick side note too is in that empathy to impact, I know I shared it really quickly, but in that action part where it says things like creative expression for, you know, advocacy for participation, it doesn't have to be something where you're sending your kids out to the streets, right, for example. And that but I but but you know what I mean? I think sometimes even when I started in this type of work, that idea of activism is sometimes I think even that word in and of itself, when I work in China, I can't use the word activism. Right? So it's that that becomes a very threatening word for a lot of people, and we'll talk about that in a minute too. But we'll send that to you. It'll give you a lot of very, you know, ideas of ways that can really, I think, not only bring kids together, but give you a lot of pathways for for ideas. Right? So Cool. Ricardo, talk to us about who where are you at, man, and and just tell us about your story and and your thoughts.

Speaker 11 Oh, sorry. Were you talking to me? Yes. Hi there. I am Ricardo, born and raised in Panama. So I was looking forward to the presentation of the Tri Association. So, yes, born and raised in Panama. We're coming in 2021.

Speaker 2 It still on, but we're pushing back a year.

Speaker 11 Yes. So I'm a Spanish teacher, and, I've been working with PBL, but more focused through PBLL, project based language learning. And we've been using a different framework, so I was very interested with the one you are showcasing. And other than that, I just moved back to Panama after working in New York. So I was there introduced to the SDGs and worked pretty hard. I incorporated that into project based language learning, and looking for opportunities, especially I was at an IB school where, you know, part of CAST and all of this, you know, students had to go out and fulfill thirty hours of community service per year. So it was very so I I I still look forward to creating more. I I do resonate and follow with what Julia had mentioned about, like, during this time during this current impasse is to actually look out to online groups and classrooms around the world to connect and try to make this virtual connection at some point because I think this is going for the long run. And the other thing I would be interested, being an international teacher, I taught in The US for seven year for ten years. Well no. Yeah. Ten years. Then seven years in The Middle East, in Oman. And, if the borders get too open, I'll be making my way to Shanghai, slightly not to SaaS.

Speaker 2 That's awesome. Yeah. We're so I'm in I'm based in Beijing, and we work in Concordia and Shanghai a lot. So we'll definitely connect once that happens, but fantastic to meet you. Donna, do you wanna talk briefly about how we saw this idea that media is a great way with, like, to start connecting world language teachers, but also amplify and the way we're looking at I don't know if you know the WIDA standards. Do you know the WIDA standards, Ricardo? It's, it's mostly for English as a second language learners, but we're actually looking at using WIDA standards to support language learners and help world language teachers see that PBL can be a way for more immersive learning. Right? And Donna, briefly, do you want to talk a little about what you were doing?

Speaker 7 Sorry. We we just thought, like, how powerful would it be if we could connect, world language teachers to have real authentic experiences? So for example, if you're teaching Spanish, like, how cool would it be to connect with a sixth grade classroom in Spain or in Mexico and have them you know, this the possibilities are really endless. I mean, they could do round table discussions. They could do mini newscasts. They could do TED Talks. But have them have that authentic piece where they can actually connect with people that are of that culture, and really be immersed in the language. And so we just think for world language in particular, this would be an amazing opportunity just to build those language skills and also have that authentic audience piece. So you should definitely we should definitely follow-up with you because I think you would find that to be a really great experience just to connect those classrooms.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I'd love to get Clancy connected with everybody. Ricardo, we also are working with a group in Saint Louis, a sustainability coordinator, a school there that's also a Spanish teacher and the head of the world language department. So let's get that connected as well. Clancy, you wanted to add something?

Speaker 10 Actually, had a question, and it might not sure how well it fits into this line of conversation, but what I'm wondering is my connection okay right now? Can you hear me? Okay. What I'm wondering about is there seems to be a lot of, like, outward conversation going, and I'm wondering if you could talk also about, like, the inner work of, like, answering the question, like, who am I? Or and, like, identity exploration with the kids if that's part of

Speaker 2 does that make sense? Most most definitely. And let me show you quickly two things because we're gonna be moving here. But I this was part of what I wanted to share as resources. Right? So and I'll put these again. These will be follow ups. So here, for example, is teaching tolerance. I don't know if you've seen teaching tolerance. They have some really wonderful social justice standards, but you notice how they speak with identity first. Right? So it's really that who am I question first. And now if you can, you know, link those to the types of, you know, media or work you're doing, can be really powerful, and then you move into diversity, justice, and action. Another one that I use a ton is from this VIA character organization of looking at, you know, what are my what are my sort of ethical components? And the really the beautiful thing about this is, again, you hover over this, and they work as I can statements. Right? So, again, if I'm bringing this into a media, I can utilize this type of meta language then to connect those pieces of, how this is exemplifying this type of maybe character trait in myself or also identifying the stuff that I might wanna enhance, you know, in terms of, like, growth. Right? Last one that's a really good one is from this is from Emory University in the Dalai Lama. They put together this type of framework, and they have statements in a whole language built around this. But you can see, again, they start with that personal component of attention and self awareness to the self, compassion for the self, and unpacking, you know, that component first before you start building into more of a interpersonal awareness realm, right, and social realm. And the thing I love about them too, and this is where the sustainable development goals and stuff starts to kick in, is then you get into that idea of systems thinking and how it how all of this is really interconnected. Right? So a lot of this, right, really depends on how you wanna sort of approach the metalanguage, I think, with your classroom. I would say, you know, for me, I've been using all of those frameworks for a long time, and I kind of can now know how to pick and choose and bring certain ones in at the right time. But thinking about maybe choosing one of those, and then I always say if you link them to the sustainable development goals and targets, for example, this oh, I just stopped sharing my screen. This here, which a lot of our team knows, but I just wanna show you, at the global goals. Right? So for example, here, then I can click on this, and it's really helpful because this takes me down to the target level. Right? So a big one that I use, for example, with my students a lot is this idea of how am I promoting voice, not only my voice, but maybe the voice of an underserved community, in this case, globally, women. But, like, what does that look like locally or in my own community, maybe my own school, or maybe my own family? Right? And, you know, those can be really powerful ways to start that, you know, that idea of making that move from the the the internal to more of the local and global. Right? And, Julia, you were talking a lot about that. Do you wanna add on?

Speaker 8 I think you I think you hit the nail on the head. I really, it's just about, like, that that that framework to build voice and activism in kids from the inside out and the outside in. They're they're not just making sense of the world around them. Using the SDGs is that launch point, but they are grounding them. They're, like, owning them inside themselves. So they're they're accessing their own activism points, their own as you said, Clancy, like, that identity, like, what is it in you that you want to bring out right now, and how does that connect to what's happening in the world?

Speaker 2 Clancy, does that does that make sense? If we send you some of those things too, will that be helpful?

Speaker 10 Yeah. For I mean, I wrote down the links too. The Emory University one, I couldn't, like, jot down the link enough, but Yeah. It's called the

Speaker 2 s e e, social emotional ethical learning companion. The companion is that PDF piece, and I would just recommend you dip in through that. But, again, often what I'll do is I'll take a lot of these groups create resources that can be great launches in terms of, like, doing a one off in your class, but I try to find ways to embed that language into the culture of the class. Right? So it's just a little play between that and stuff. So, Abby, what about you with that internal piece or that identity piece?

Speaker 9 Well, I'm kinda taking that in, and I think that the work that I've done last year with my girls group and SDGs was really powerful, and then it kind of got we got we didn't get to fit actually have a follow through with the campaign we were doing at our school, because of leaving school in March. But the idea of of what Julia was saying of our students being able to personalize and make and see something in their local communities, not just the SDG target point applied to a global sense, but actually really narrowing the focus and bringing it into our own backyard is extremely powerful. And after some of our conversations, Steve, that's how I started. That's really how I was my entry point

Speaker 2 into this work. Yeah. And we utilize Plan C a lot, the work local, right, where it is trying to connect. But I I really think you're that that personal identity piece, and you got two people that just entered the room that are fantastic with that, with Evan and Kavita. So I'm gonna pass the sort of the mic to them. So you guys are staying. Donna and I are gonna change at the top of our thing to human res too. But we can continue this, like, whatever you need, man, just from Twitter or anybody. Ricardo, please contact. I wanna get ahold of you before you go to Shanghai or if you're in Panama. And, Donna, we have to move.

Speaker 12 Hey, Steve. Can I have a a real quick request? Yeah. Can I have you post in the chat that that link to the, that SCE framework from Emory? Of course. Of course. I was just having a hard time finding that particular diagram. Yeah. I was able to find the the website and some of the materials okay, but I couldn't find that exact one. I thought that really captured it. You want me to put it in the main chat? Is that what we're looking for? If you could just put it in here, and then maybe I could I could jump it over into the main chat too when we get done with it. But Sounds good. Donna, do you wanna make a move to Room 2? And I'll be there in a second. But thank you both so much for this one. Alright.

Speaker 5 So hi, everyone. So, obviously, I introduced myself, earlier when we're in the Google Meets room, and I think yep. I've got Evan in here with me too. So so it's great to to be here in the room with you. We've got about nineteen minutes together now. So so I'm gonna sort of go ahead and and share with you the kind of angle, I guess, that Evan and I are taking with, the the key questions that have been put forward by, the human restoration project and and sort of really, talk about how we're gonna approach this work that we're we're doing together today. But, Evan, I wonder if you wanted to say anything,

Speaker 6 share anything from the previous group, or anything like that. So I think, you know, that as we as we go through this work, when we in kind of our session today, you know, really do some self reflecting and in terms of some self awareness because a lot of the things that we're going to discuss in the journey that we're gonna take has to do about, you know, starting with ourselves. Right? And even though we wanna, we're talking about how can we, support our students. But the main thing is that we have to be in that space to do that first before we can expect that from our students. So, you know, as we talk about some things, you know, especially specifically when I'm modeling and creating creating opportunities so the students can see what we're doing, but also, safety, is something that we're gonna talk about as well because, with everything going on in the world, we wanna make sure that we are doing things to build a climate of safety for discussions and also for students to be to feel free to become advocates for themselves and to speak up and to have that voice. And oftentimes, as educators, we forget about that. We kind of think that we own the classroom or the building that we work in, but we forget that we're there and that and that and all that space is provided for the students first and foremost.

Speaker 5 Thanks, Evan. So I think Steve had asked me to speak a little bit to community, and so we'll get into that in just a moment. But sort of segueing more directly off what Evan just said, you know, one of the things about creating a safe space is, you know, promoting student voice to to do that. But then in terms of the student activism, we wanna extend that to creating a brave space, right, somewhere where they really can own their ability to be active and, you know, create opportunities for them to to really sort of speak out for themselves, as Evan said, you know, starting with self and then extending that out to the unsung voices, the unheard voices of the community, which can really think about, you know, this idea of okay. When we're talking about the unheard voices, it can be literally the planet, meaning, you know, the animals, the plants, you know, the the wildlife element, but also those communities that, you know, need need some, promotion, some some sort of idea that, you know, really, okay, on this digital platform, maybe they don't have as much access as we all do. You know? Maybe there are some equity issues that are underlying and, you know, really sort of preventing them from being activists for themselves. So, what we decided to do, Evan and I, is to really have this time with us as act as interactive as possible. And so in the chat, I've put a Padlet, that I'm hoping that you all can access. And rather than creating a new one with each room, I've sort of decided to keep it going and, you know, sort of you can read some of the the things that people in the other rooms have added and then add your own. So the invitation for the first sort of four to five minutes is just to look at the first two columns initially and really think about what is your definition of student voice. What is your definition of promoting activism? So, you know, I'd invite you to go through a bit of a sensory experience. You know? What will it look like? What will it sound like? How will it feel as an environment for yourself? You know? When we asked some grade eleven and twelve, they took it to another level in terms of their poet poetic sort of metaphors for what it would also smell like, what it would also taste like. So feel free to get as creative as you like in expressing your voice as to what you understand student voice and promoting activism to be. I just love I love being able to shout out when you see something,

Speaker 8 and it really, like, sparks you. So can we make it extra interactive? And as we're looking, be like, woah. Check that out. I love that. And then just tag on. Is that okay, Kavita? I would love that. Julie, you don't even have to ask. Just do it. Just do it. Just do it. Right on. Thanks, Evan. I

Speaker 5 don't see any naysayers in the room right now. So and thanks for the Right. For the phrase, Nick. I appreciate it. Do as do as we say. Right? Do as you say.

Speaker 8 Right on. Well, then I'll start. I just I love for me, especially someone who really values the art of language, it's powerful for me to speak the words that I'm feeling or speak the words that I see mirroring one of my thoughts. So to have created a platform here where we're able to share with each other, like, vocally and type, and, like, get a note down on a Padlet that I'm gonna be able to look at in the future is a super powerful tool tool. It especially allows for those kids who are more, like, reflective. Like, every kid gets to experience their own education, their own sense of activism in their own way. And I have kids who are amazing writers. I have kids who are willing to stand up and do slam poetry. So I just appreciate the openness of this particular activity and your, I guess, vision for how to create that internalized sense of activism that is able to reach outward.

Speaker 6 You know, I that's Thank such you so much, Peter. Such a great point, you know, because, you know, you hit on a lot of topics right under that umbrella of self awareness. Right? Knowing knowing our strengths, knowing what we're good at, knowing what we're how we're able to, you know, express ourselves and understanding that, you know, that's okay if it's different than someone else, but and also utilizing different different forms of media to do that. And I think that's that's so important that we have that understanding, and we create that and help our students understand it about themselves, because it also provides them that sense of self esteem, to be able to have the confidence to go out and do some things and be and be that that, that activist can have and be very, very self advocating for themselves as well and knowing what they need and knowing what they want and how to get there.

Speaker 8 So agree. And, hopefully, no one minds that I just keep piping in. I actually am thinking about creating, like, sentence stems for kids. Like, that whole vision of radical self care, I know that a lot of my kids don't have the language they need to express what they're feeling or what they I say to them, hey. What do you wanna activate? They're gonna look back and be like, what are you talking about? Right? So if I provide them some sentence stems and actually teach them the language of wellness, like it's math, like it's Portuguese, like it's a different language because we we don't I'm gonna backtrack. We're not as good at that at doing that in schools yet. So I just I really feel like we need to teach them the language of self care, wellness. Yes. And and as Clancy was saying, just identity. Who are you on the inside? You know, you may be wearing a physical mask on the outside, but what other masks did you put on during this pandemic, and which ones are you ready to grow out of? Where else are you wanting to go? Have you seen Ashanti Branch's masks project, Julia? His name is Ashanti. Yeah. I I love that concept. Yes. Who we are. Yes. I love it. And then world facing mask. Great points. Yeah. But how how crazy, ironic, but not because it's all with perfect timing. We're literally putting on masks right now. Like, every kid's gonna have a different mask. Yes. And we get to use that as a way to activate a different lens and and a different self understanding and self awareness. It's there's so many gifts all along this path. It's it's insane. It's so crazy.

Speaker 5 I love that attitude, Julia, to to see everything that's happening as an opportunity. Right? An opportunity to deepen your relationship with your students. And that's really sort of, you know, a big driver for everything I do as you all know, those of you that know me in the room. But, like, it's all about relationships. Relationships. It's It's all all about, about, okay, how can I get to know you a little bit better? Like, you know, what is your why? What is you know, what gets you going? What are you excited about? All of this kind of thing. And and also helping and supporting to, as you say, have the language to talk about it, you know, to be able to sort of take something that you say and then develop it further. And and and I love the embedding of social emotional language in everything that you just said because, you know, as our students come into the classroom, you know, they're wearing these masks potentially in the hybrid sort of setup. You know? Some will be wearing, you know, masks that they've designed for themselves, and some will be just wearing the surgical masks. And and, you know, what does that say? What does that mean? How are they feeling about it? You know? And being able to connect with them on that level will be so important, I think, because, you know and, again, I know that a lot of you have heard me say this before, but what a way to make the students feel seen. You know? What a way to make them feel like you're hearing them. And most importantly, what a way to make them feel valued. Because just by being there, you've really seen them. You know? You've really considered their voice and really given it value. And I think, you know, again, that's something that's really important in the current climate with, you know, Black Lives Matter movement and things like that as well because, unfortunately, you know, that's where we need to start having some of the safe and brave conversations. What value are we giving to another? So I am having a look at the Padlet and seeing some great ideas coming up. So we officially have another seven or so minutes in this room. So I wonder if I can invite you all to sort of start thinking about the technicalities around what we're doing and maybe add some platforms, some organizations that you come across that you feel are really gonna support, promoting student voice and introducing activism. There's already some ideas on there, and feel free to add questions, you know, to really think about that. I'm sure that Donna and Steve spoke to, you know, podcasts and and other sort of forms of communication that are widely used, you know, in this time to to really sort of open up voice. And so, you know, feel free to add some of those on there. But I am also gonna sort of go straight into looking at the coaching Mhmm. And really thinking about how are we gonna be proactive in coaching those students to use those platforms. So, you know, once they listen to it, what are they gonna do next? And how are we gonna provide that framework of questioning to say, okay. Whatever we invite you to interact with, let's reflect on how it's changed you, and then let's ask you what are you gonna do about it. And I'm sure that my friend Evan is just laughing at me because he is known for saying that to me. But, like, when I get upset about something, the question I get asked is

Speaker 6 So what are gonna do about it, Kavita?

Speaker 5 Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. I invite us to do the same for our students.

Speaker 12 Can I chime in for just a second too? Is that okay? Yeah. So so one thing that I'm thinking about, like, putting my my HRP hat on, you know, in terms of planning professional development, a lot of times we have to think about and we prompt teachers to reflect on what are those barriers that are preventing you in your context, be they real or imaginary. Because so often, some of the barriers that we have aren't actually barriers because we don't bother to test them. We don't bother to push up against them, and so we don't know that they're real until we actually try. But but one sort of way I think that these frameworks help us overcome those real and imagined barriers is is that, you know, in in sort of standards based world, of thinking about the the realpolitik of, you know, curriculums and schools is, I mean, there are so many different frameworks that we can connect any of this work to. Right? Teaching tolerance, SDGs. Steve in the previous group just linked to some, SEE frameworks and universal I've I've I had a YouTube video pulled up of it. Universal values. You know? So there's not just one set of standards that we all have to be beholden to. So there is great appeal for me, right, as someone who thinks from that that PD lens and trying to help teachers overcome those barriers is, well, how can we use these frameworks as a way to convince administrators and curriculum directors to see curriculum differently, then that maybe has a trickle down effect on what we can do in our classrooms. If we can connect an activity to a different set of values and standards, we can really sort of push the pedagogy in a in a positive direction. So that's just a reflection that I kind of had looking at the different platforms and organizations there on on the path of a tool.

Speaker 5 Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Because I think you're right that, you know, it's about how we use the tools. And and, you know, one of the things that Evan and I discussed this morning is how do we make sure that when we're thinking about the use of technology, it's not as a replacement for pen and paper? You know? Like, how do we how do we really lift up technology to become a tool for activism? And, you know, some of the ideas that we thought about were things like, you know, really sort of making sure that when we're engaging with things like that, you know, we're really sort of using it to share out, but doing that in a responsible way. And, again, I'm sure that Steven and Donna sort of touched on that a little bit, you know, the the thoughtful consumption of me, the responsible production of media. And then also, you know, as we said earlier, empowering others with their voice, you know, with their sort of absent voices, you know, not being in the room sort of thing, thinking about, you know, what what's important to the students and using our position of influence in a positive way. And and, you know, some of those ideas have come from, you know, one of our good friends from our Twitter PLN, George Kuros. And so, you know, I'd invite you to check him out as well as an organization. I'm not sure if anyone's put him on the Padlet yet, but but, you know, there's there are a lot of good ideas as to how we can do exactly what you were just describing. So thank you for that.

Speaker 10 Oh, also, I have another question. So I'm I'm noticing that there are a lot of people who already know each other, and I don't know a single person in any of these meetings. And I hear you saying I hear you saying, which I'm excited about. I'm not like, oh, for me. It's just like there's a lot of, like, language and, like, wording going around that I'm unfamiliar with. So I was wondering if somebody could fill me in on what's your why. Where does that come from?

Speaker 5 Sure. So for myself or for others?

Speaker 10 Just the general language. Like, can kind of intuit, but I'm wondering if there's, like, a deeper framework that exists that that is part of that I'm unaware of. Right. So

Speaker 5 for myself, my personal why is to be the best me that I can be for the benefit of others. And so how that shows up is to really think about, okay, what does it mean to be well within myself and how to model that to inspire others? And to that end, I've become the deputy director of Inspire Citizens. So you met Steve and Donna. Steve being you know, like, at the beginning, he was like, well, there's three of us. I'm number three. So so, you know, so and, John has John has just joined us for the global youth media sort of arm of Inspired Citizens. So, so that's me, I guess. I wonder if anyone else wanted to join and sort of explain their why.

Speaker 8 I'll jump in. Surprise. So, Clancy, I think in addition to asking specifically about personalized whys, I think you're asking about the language of the why, and that's Simon Sinek. Like, everything points to Simon Sinek. I just dropped the link in the chat. He's the one who Steve started with earlier with the circles, and it had the why in the middle and then the what and the how, which is a perfect transition to what Nick was actually asking, like, how are we gonna get all this into our classrooms? I think that's the key right there. I think as soon as we start having conversations, and we're having to have those conversations with not just our kids in our classrooms about their why, like helping them access their why, but we're we're getting to talk with them about, okay. So let's look at this from a systems perspective. That's SDG work. Here's a framework. Here's a system for understanding the world. Technology is a tool so that you can access that system. So we're actually kind of framing our learning with kids in a different way. And that why, how, and what, I think, that's that target image, is what can help kids zero in on how they fit in the world. It helps them understand their own access point for the system, the learning, I would say the pedagogy for me, but I think that's what we're that's the bigger why question I thought you were asking.

Speaker 5 Thanks, Julia. Just a sort of administrative thing, Evan and I need to move to the other room in two to three minutes. So, you know, please feel free for everyone to continue the conversation. But, yeah, we'll be sort of moving into the next room soon. But it was so great to see you all.

Speaker 12 Thanks, That was great, Kaditha. Thank you, Evan. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Thank you.

Speaker 3 You're waiting for us. Okay. Hey. Here we are.

Speaker 4 Last meeting, we jumped in, and they were still there. We felt a little we were like, hey.

Speaker 3 What's the what's the etiquette? Okay. Cool. Alright. So hi, everybody. You guys all probably did you get a chance to introduce yourselves to each other?

Speaker 12 That's what we're trying to do in between the session there. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 I see there's Ricardo, Clancy, Abby, Julia, Nick, and me and Wendell. What Ricardo, you wanna say hi? Tell us, where you are and what you do.

Speaker 11 Hi there. I'm Ricardo. I'm originally from Panama. I'm right now in Panama, and, I've been just looking forward to working continue working with project based language learning and, using different empowering students to become true solutionaries.

Speaker 3 Ricardo in Panama. Good to meet you. Clancy, let me have you say hi.

Speaker 10 Hey. I'm Clancy. I use he, him, his pronouns, and I'm from New Haven, Connecticut. And what do I do? I take care of my garden out back, growing some tomatoes, some eggplants. I play music too. And I think the question you're really asking is I teach sixth grade at a school over in Fairhaven, which is just like a a a neighboring neighborhood. So yeah.

Speaker 3 Sounds like a good life. Alright. Good good to meet you, Clancy. Abby, let me have you say hi.

Speaker 9 Hi there. I'm Abby French. I am in Woodstock, Virginia, which is about ninety minutes outside of Washington, DC. I teach sixth grade US history, and I've been on a quest to just make teaching and learning much richer for all classroom participants, and, this is one of the ways. I'm really interested in the out of the blocks portion of this, Global Youth Media. So excited to work with you guys. Good to meet you, Abby.

Speaker 3 Julia, let's have you say hi.

Speaker 8 Hi. I'm Julia. I teach sixth grade language arts in Evergreen, Colorado. A huge believer and proponent of transformative pedagogy, truly see the world as our classroom, and I'm committed to connecting every kid I teach to his or his or her own journey in a powerful way, and I strongly believe that's through global connections, obviously technology right now and always.

Speaker 3 Excited to be here. Good to meet you, Julia.

Speaker 12 Nick, let's have you say hi. Yeah. I'm Nick in Iowa. I teach high school social studies. I'm also the creative director here at Human Restoration Project. And, yeah, I'm just well, I I'm happy to facilitate, you know, a conversation and and get some more of them with you all today.

Speaker 3 Good to meet all you guys. So I'm Aaron. Wendell's here, and, we're we're, we're overpreparers. So we actually have a slide deck for you. So I'm gonna figure out how to share my screen here briefly. We're gonna walk you through, a couple of slides, and then we'll open it up for some q and a stuff. I mean, basically, we're gonna start just by talking about how we ended up kind of randomly discovering that this this documentary project, this podcast and radio show that we do, actually translates really well into an educational tool. We partnered up with Inspire Citizens. They actually brought us to Seoul, South Korea, last year for a week. And I wanna take you through kind of what we worked on with students there before they headed out ultimately into the neighborhoods of their own city to record interviews with strangers. When we're working with kids, we tell them that, you know, this kind of thing, what they're about to do, to go out the world with this sort of unusual mission. It's this mission to talk to complete strangers about their lives. And it's weird. Right? Like, our parents tell us not to do this, but but our point is that this can actually be a really kind of profound experience and a really fulfilling experience if it's done, you know, under the right safe and and supervised circumstances.

Speaker 4 Yeah. So while we're talking, with you this morning, we're gonna show you a slideshow of some of the faces of some of the people we've met and interviewed. So I do all of the music. I write an original musical score for each episode and also all the photography. So these are some, of the photos that I've taken. And so these are from Baltimore, Maryland where we we are currently, and then also from some of the other cities in the in The US that we've been to. And the reason we wanna show you these faces is because we've learned, something very profound about life from every single one of these people's stories. So on this particular slide deck, you can see on the left, we have Pamela, and she told us the story of holding her mother's hand as she died. In the middle is Michael, and he told us the story of getting shot in his face and trying to control his urge to take revenge on the person who shot him. And then on the right is Kemi, and she told us a story about opening her own African restaurant after immigrating to The US from Nigeria. So people share, some really profound and personal stories with us. It's amazing what people are willing to talk about, if you are willing to to listen.

Speaker 3 So we talk with students about this idea that, you know, what we do is is kind of a documentary leap of faith. It's rooted in this belief that everybody has got a story that's worth sharing. And we talk about the the idea that our agenda is kind of a radical agenda, which is to say that we have no agenda. We just show up somewhere, and we listen. And and when we work with students, we we invite them to make that their agenda as well, to show up, to listen, to be present, and, to trust that there's a a story to be told and to learn from. And I'm gonna, I could tell we could tell you bios about every single one of these people in every single one of these photos. But in the interest of, keeping things moving along here, I'll just do a I'll do a teaser for the podcast. You gotta listen to the podcast to find out who the rest of these folks are. And I'll let, a slide go to the next slide here, Wendell. Yeah.

Speaker 4 So as Aaron said, we wanna, you know, make sure the students know that there's they should trust that there's a story to be told. And then we ask you just to think about the question about whose stories gets get told, and whose don't, and why that is. And we let them know that this is their chance, to go out into the world themselves and be the new answer to that question. And, really, they only need three things to get started. Those three things are courage, curiosity, and empathy. And, if they happen to have a a microphone and a camera, with them, that's helpful. But you don't need those things to to get started in terms of having a meaningful meaningful conversation, with a stranger.

Speaker 3 So we let students know that when when you do this kind of work out in the community, when you meet someone, someone that you wanna interview, the the first part of that encounter with that person really isn't about interviewing them. It's it's about introducing yourself and and in a sense, letting that person interview you. You know, we tell students your job is first and foremost really just be authentic about who you are, to be transparent about what you're there to accomplish. You know? Who are you? Why are you there? What do you hope to learn? Answer these questions before, you know, you answer ask any of your own questions. We we talk about this idea that disclosure begets disclosure. You know? That that honesty begets honesty.

Speaker 4 Yeah. So there's a saying that goes that when you share power, you gain new powers. And so we train kids that with each new person that they meet, they should ask that person, who else do I wanna make sure that I meet around here? And that's really one of the ways that that our show works is, you know, we we'll have a list of people that we we have contact information for and scheduled interviews, but then those people will will tell us who else in the community we should talk to. And so, you know, we encourage students to to to do this as well. Because when they do this, they're being inclusive and conscientious and immersing themselves in a network of organic relationships, which helps things move a lot more smoothly.

Speaker 3 So this is kind of a daunting prospect for students or grown ups. And and, you know, we we talk with our students about the idea that in any group of people, you've got your extroverts and you've got your introverts. Anyone you you know this. Some people, the first time you meet them, they'll share their life story with you. Other people, they're gonna keep you war at arm's length. And we we prepare students for for the fact that they're gonna encounter some people who are gonna be less talkative than others, who maybe aren't gonna wanna have anything to do with them. And that that's okay. That's that's natural. That's human nature, and don't take that personally. That's part of this experience. And instead, you know, we really encourage students to to concentrate their time with the people who do sort of light up when they're proposed with this, you know, encounter. People and they're you know, they're they'll be pleasantly surprised at at the number of people who really do want to to share with them in in really kind of profound and surprising ways. So

Speaker 4 we train students to work towards two primary goals, in their documentary encounters. The first is, to think of an audio visual tour. That's to collect a pallet of different environmental sounds and images, and then also a description of what's behind those sounds and images, to help to create a sense of space. And then the second thing is, a compelling story, which includes, or these are two sort of, things to shoot for, an anecdote and a reflection.

Speaker 3 Yeah. And we'll we'll talk more about each of these, elements here briefly. As far as the audio visual tour, you know, we train students that the more sounds and images that you can collect, the better. You've got your camera, maybe. If not, you've got a microphone at least. You can use that microphone like a camera. You can get close ups of certain sounds. You can get wide shots. You can collect these sounds, after each sound, you can ask the person that you're talking with, you know, what are we hearing? Let them paint a picture with words to describe their space, what happens there. You can record a person just doing what they do and talking about what they're doing. You can record someone interacting with other people in their lives, and you can end up with a really sort of a cinematic experience by by using your microphone as a camera.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And so, you know, we like to stress the idea that when you do an interview, the questions that you ask are obviously important. But it's really listening to the answers to those questions is even more important. And so, you know, we encourage students to think of an interview sort of like fishing, where each question is like casting a line in the water, and then, you know, you watch the bobber, which is as you're listening to the response, you know, you'll get some nibbles to your questions and you wanna keep casting. But eventually, you'll get a bite on one of those questions. And so, you know, you wanna make sure that even if you have sort of a preexisting set of questions that you're focused on the response because that can guide you to what you wanna ask next.

Speaker 3 So to to continue the analogy, right, like, you've you've got a beautiful fish on the line now, meaning someone has really opened up and begun telling you a meaningful, compelling, personal story about their life. And we encourage students to think about this moment as, you know, you're you're still wearing the hat of interviewer, but you're listening actively. And you actually, at this point, you kinda wanna switch hats and put on the hat of story coach. There's a story there. You know there's a story there. And your job now is to really take your time with that person and and and help them in a way to tell that story well, to tell that story completely.

Speaker 4 Yeah. So we mentioned before the two, main ingredients that we wanna sort of help students gather. One is an anecdote, which is a sequence of actions that builds the momentum, and raises the questions that are gonna be answered. So stringing together a series of actions. So this one thing happened, and then that's it. This next thing happening. So that doing that makes the audience feel like they're moving toward a destination. And then the reflection, equally important, is the moment when someone clearly says, or or explains this is the point of the story?

Speaker 3 We really, kind of invite students to to adopt the language almost of of a movie director, at this point in a conversation and and to really, you know, you can ask a storyteller to rewind. Let's go to the beginning of that story or that day. Set the scene. Tell me a little bit more about that. You can invite a storyteller to you know, oftentimes, when I'm interviewing people, I say, let me let me pause you there. Let's zoom in and really talk about, what was going through your mind at that moment. You can you can you can really put into focus certain moments of a story. It's like collecting multiple camera angles. You and you can do this by, you know, not being afraid to kind of control the conversation a little bit and ask sometimes the same questions over and over again in in in different ways and and kind of solicit different details along the way.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And so, for the reflection, we, you know, we also train students to help their storytellers verbalize the significance of their stories. So, again, sort of, you know, asking, you know, what what is the point, but in different ways. So you can ask, you know, the, interviewee. You can ask, you know, what do you think you learned from that experience? How did, you know, how did that experience change you as a person, or what is the moral of the story? So there's different ways to sort of get to that reflection moment, to get it, to get the interviewer to express it clearly.

Speaker 3 So we ask a lot of different questions. We work with students to think about a lot of different kinds of questions that prompt people to tell stories. But, really, we tell kids when you're doing work like this, every question you ask is essentially just another way of getting at one essential question, which is, you know, tell me a story about your life that helps me understand something important about about who you are as a person.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And we talk about the fact that, you know, sharing a story is you wanna think of it sort of like planting a seed. Right? Just like when you plant a seed, there's no way to know if anything's going to actually happen as a result. But, you know, we can tell you every single person who's been inspired to tell the story, I know this is true for me, that their inspiration came from them hearing a powerful story from someone else. And so, you know, for me, sort of my love of stories and and, you know, hearing it and telling stories came from listening to my dad telling me stories when I was a little kid. And I think we all sort of recognize, you know, the the power behind that. And so we'd like to think that when student a student invites someone else to tell a story, that that student, in a way, is paying something forward and, that that person, you know, will hopefully extend the invitation down the line to the next person.

Speaker 3 So there's a theory out there that it's the secret wish of the soul to be interviewed, that no matter how skeptical someone might be, you know, at some level, they're they're curious about about participating with you. And that and with students, what students are doing when they do this kind of work, we tell them, is is kinda getting people back past that initial skepticism. And in the process, I I hope that these students learn you know, that when when someone realizes that your your only agenda is to be a patient, active listener, there really is no limit to to what can happen next. People like have been really young people have been really surprised at the depth of experience that total strangers will share with them about their lives. And and hopefully, they'll learn along the way that it's it's actually very deeply validating to have someone take a genuine interest in you as as a person no matter who you are.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And so there's a quote that I I actually first heard from Aaron, and I've heard heard him say it many times. But that quote is that the universe is made of stories, not atoms. And so we like to leave students with the idea that stories are the most important tool we have for shaping our reality, and the reality of others, frankly. And that stories can put us in the minds, eyes, and hearts of other human beings. You know, we all have examples of how stories, have created empathy. And, you know, for students, this whole experience flexes that empathy part of their brains, and it's it's intimidating at first, and it does take courage, for them to do this. We've seen students sort of, you know, struggle with that initially. But, you know, throughout through the experience, you know, when we when we see kids come back from the experience with their footage and their stories and sort of the success of having broken through that, you know, sort of that barrier of not being able to talk to someone initially, they're really honestly truly lit up inside, and it's it's just a huge a huge accomplishment for them. And, you know, hopefully, what they've learned is that, even though they're in school surrounded by really great teachers, that they can treat everyone that they meet as a potential teacher in that moment. You don't just learn in school, but anybody who's telling you a story, is teaching you something.

Speaker 3 So, alright. I think I just unshared the screen. Is that correct? Are we all here? Okay. So that's kind of what what we do and sort of what we learned about turning this into something useful for students, we're we're happy to hear your thoughts, your reflections on, you know, sort of what you're doing in your own, sort of educational environments to, you know, to to broaden your students' horizons, to get them out of their their classroom bubbles, if you will, to answer any questions you might have about, you know, why or how we do what we do. I'm not sure how much time we have before we get shuttled along to our next portion of the of the morning, but we're all ears, and the the floor is open. So

Speaker 9 I just want to say, well, hello, because I'm just a huge fan of what you do and why you do it. And, I I have to say that, like, thinking about helping my students move into this this role and this type of project is so empowering and so exciting. And I think that it speaks to just such authentic, real, impact for their lives, for kids, you know, and and being able to connect with a subject, a person, developing empathy from it, developing connection, and and how that then reframes, like, how they see themselves and their community. You know, I wonder, like, with the with everything going on with the pandemic, how that will impact this type of work, at least in the immediacy, but I know there are certainly routes around that. But, I I just wanna get started doing this, whether it's students interviewing people in the school building as a community or, you know, on the campus. I think, you know, that's a place to start going Zooming in, going very, kinda localizing. And then I don't know. I I just wanna do this. I wanna support this platform.

Speaker 3 Well, I'm I'm grateful to hear your enthusiasm. And I can I can tell you it's not rocket science? It's a it's a really simple idea, and it can be done look. Wendell and I are we're struggling with the social distancing world, and it's totally ground to a halt, the normal formula of the way we do things. But we're figuring out ways around it and and having people record remotely. We're you know, for I think for students, you know, you could actually you know, if you think about yourself as maybe sort of an executive producer role where maybe you can look around, as you say, to the the people in your immediate educational environment who aren't on your teaching staff, Maybe they're on the janitorial staff. Maybe they're on the kitchen staff. Maybe they're in other supplemental transportation services or whatever. There's a there's a whole world of people that make a school work who aren't teachers, but who can be treated as teachers. And, you know, you can have them you can record Zoom meetings very easily or other social media, you know, or platforms where we're on with each other live. You know, you could, I think, very easily set up a situation where, you know, you reach out to these other folks, in your educational community or just in your daily life. You know? Maybe it's the person you get coffee from in the morning or maybe it's some you know, just someone in your place where you live or in your own neighborhood and say, hey. Would you be interested in letting students interview you about life? I mean, you could probably get some people to to bite on that idea, and then, you know, set your students up in these sort of one on ones with them. And, yeah, I I I think Zoom in a way makes people kinda more available than having to run all over town sometimes.

Speaker 9 The ultimate sound quality of it, you know, is is a little more lo fi, but it's actually kinda liberating. Well, I think it's a way to look at it. Like, that's a great way to turn kind of a stumbling block into a stepping stone for sure. Yeah. There's more access,

Speaker 8 really. Yeah. Truly. Yeah. And now, hopefully, you don't mind me piping in. But as we start to question more the stories that are written down in books And as we teach kids how to dig deeper into that level of inquiry, just the idea that we can shift the storytelling to an active proactive, actually, experience of the world where we are using our own self awareness to help kids tell their own stories and collect the stories of others that are just as valid, just as authentic, just as powerful as the stories that have been told over and over again in history. It just this is such an access point for true voice and reflection about the power of story, the power of the single story, the power of who the heck did write down that story in history, and what is the story of, like, the first racist person. And how like, there's just so much

Speaker 9 to connect to here. Think it's phenomenal. I'm really excited about it. Being able to examine a single point or a single event or a single time right now, like this moment, from different perspectives translates really beautifully to being able to examine, you know, this topic in US history and understanding it's not a singular there's not it's not a singular story. There are multiple ways that we have to go about looking at it, like the stories. Mhmm.

Speaker 8 For sure. Like, who told that story? What was their bias? Why did they tell it like that? What are they bringing in? What's the context? Like, all of that to just be able to see the microcosm and the macrocosm at the same time. Like, this is how it's been in the past, and I wonder how can we use our own lenses to change that perspective now.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Well, you know, for us doing the show, it's it's been it's been amazing for me. Oftentimes, when we'll have interviews with people that are that are older, you know, 60, 70, 80, you know, 90, and, you know, Aaron will will ask them about specific times in their life, and they will share stories that usually tie into some something of great great historical sort of global significance. And hearing those individual perspectives has then, you know, made me then go look look up about something that I really you know, I I'd studied. I thought I knew about it. But, you know, again, hearing an individual's perspective, can be really eye opening. And I think and, you know, I'm I'm in my forties. Right? And so I I can imagine, you know, we can see, like, when we when you have a a a young student, you know, speak to somebody who's been here for a really long time about something that is particularly something that they're learning about right then and there. It's it can be really transformative in a way that, you know, that learn in a different way from learning in the classroom.

Speaker 3 Yeah. It makes stuff, that seems like it happened a long time ago when you read about it suddenly seem much more immediate when you, you know, you're hearing from someone whose parent or whatever grandparent told them a story about their own life. And, you know, it's it's all of a sudden you're hearing a first person source connecting you with with something that seems so remote in a book. Mhmm. Yeah.

Speaker 10 I'm curious what is it what the arc is from you two having never met students in a room to kinda like that first stage if it exists of, like, how do you if they don't already know, how do you how do you welcome them to the power of story and finding their own story in a way? And and is that a step in the process? Or do you do you go immediately to, we're gonna go interview these people? Like, how how does that sort of internal how do you help them internalize?

Speaker 3 Right. Yeah. That's a great question. So we you know, we've been at this a long time, and we have a pretty big body of work. Some of it may be a little extreme to play for students depending on their age, but we have the stories we hear are all different kinds of stories. They're, you know, story they're stories tragic stories. They're triumphant stories. They're love stories. We, and so we have enough stories in our archive that we can sort of pick and choose some stories, maybe lean toward younger storytellers, and share some excerpts of what we do, as we talk about, you know, the idea of this this documentary project of ours. So we'll share some excerpts, and then what we'll do is we'll invite students to, pair up and take turns interviewing each other. And the activity oftentimes that we'll do is we'll say, we're gonna give you one story prompting question, and that's the only question you get. And you're gonna interview this student this this fellow student for four minutes, but you don't have a list of questions. You have one question. And the real challenge is to be a good listener and to figure out what the next smart follow-up question is to take that student either in another interesting direction or to invite them to speak in more detail about what they've just said to you. So it becomes this ex this exercise in, you know, flexing your active listening skills. And for some students, the that four minutes can seem like forever. But for other students, you you know, we'll all come back together as a group after pairing off like that. Some students will say, that time flew by. We have just really gotten gotten started talking. And those, you know, those those conversations sort of are are are are sort of an indoctrination into, you know, what they're gonna then reach out and begin to do with with people maybe that they're not so familiar and comfortable with. Hey, Aaron.

Speaker 9 Yeah. Do you guys have, excuse me, any resources about, like, first steps in like, do with kids or first steps that you promote you found successful? Like, do you have those anywhere? Any

Speaker 4 Well Aaron, do you wanna talk about your deck?

Speaker 9 Oh, the deck. A deck of cards.

Speaker 3 Yeah. There's a deck of cards. Where I've got one here. We actually this was a random little moment of inspiration, but we I'm we made, this is a deck of playing cards. Right? Like, it's a normal deck of cards. You can, you can play poker or whatever you want with them. But on each card is a different ace I keep up my sleeve in my mental Rolodex of questions that prompt people to share stories about about their lives. Like, this one says, you know, what mistake do you make over and over again? Here's, you know, what can you do today that you couldn't do a year ago? And we we you know, we actually bring you know, before you even bring out suggested prompts like this, you can really go through a brainstorming activity with students about, like, what makes a good question? What kind of question really invites someone to tell a story about their life? There are, you know, obvious questions that are not gonna go too far, which are, like, random informational yes or no questions. And then there are also questions that, you know, maybe we'll get vague philosophical answers from people that are kind of, like, mushy squishy answers. Like, tell me your thoughts on, you know, the likelihood of world peace. Right? But then there are those questions that really ask in not so many words, like, tell me a story about you, about your life. You know? What was your most recent lie? You know? What problem are you currently grappling with? So, you know, you can, you know, you can work with students to to come up with a a short list of good questions, the prompts. This, I'm running out of these. I gotta reorder. But I've got, you know, I've got a small supply of these decks. I always give a bunch of them to Steve and, the Inspire Citizens folks. So and, you know, it's it's also frankly, they're they're web resources that, you know, you can you can probably Google, you know, conversation starting questions and, you know, and sort of prepare yourself. Stack your own deck, if you will.

Speaker 9 I I actually have that deck, and I I love those. And I think, like, for Clancy, Julia, other teachers, like, this would be an awesome this would be an awesome way to start the year. You know? This would start start like, set the tone for, the importance of reflection and the importance of listening to each other. It just just hit me when you were talking about some of those questions. That's that's how I wanna start it with my sixth graders this year.

Speaker 3 They are definitely turbocharged conversation starters that get you beyond sort of the small talk. And, I mean, if we all had started at the beginning of the session answering one of those questions instead of just saying our name and where we are and what we teach, we'd be we'd be at a different place with each other sort of in in terms of our understanding of each other. So, yeah, it's, I mean, it's definitely diving feet first.

Speaker 10 Yeah. Clancy. I sort of have a a question that might generate a vague philosophical answer on your part, but it's just something I've been thinking about recently. Have you thought about, like, how did like, the interplay between, like, vulnerability and equity, like, at if that comes up at all in in your work? Or, like, I don't really know quite what I'm asking, but that's just something I'm thinking about recently. Curious if that resonates with just being around so many folks and, generating a vulnerable space.

Speaker 3 I don't know. Wendell, you got thoughts on that?

Speaker 4 Well, it's a good question, and it is I mean, I I I I can appreciate the the the vagueness of it. And so my my answer might be equally vague, but I think it will somehow relate. So, you know, one of the things that we do with our show is we don't well, first of all, we we we we try to go places that don't get sort of, you know, a lot of coverage in general. Or if they do get coverage, their coverage often tends to be negative and very specific, when, you know, quite frankly, people are are just most people are just living their lives anywhere they happen to be. And, you know, so going to place and we we also try to go to places that we we don't necessarily know well ourselves. So there's a certain amount of vulnerability on our part just in terms of, you know like, it it it takes it takes effort to put yourself somewhere where you yourself don't necessarily feel completely comfortable or or you don't you don't really know what sort of the outcome's gonna be. And then it requires vulnerability on the person of of the, you know, the people that you're meeting to to to open up to you. You know, it's it's one thing if you if you meet somebody or you have a conversation with someone at your local grocery store who you, you know, you've seen from time to time. It's another if you're having a conversation with somebody who's never seen you before, doesn't know why you're there. Maybe they think you're a police officer or, you know, someone from the city. You know, they they it it takes additional time to sort of break, you know, break down those barriers. And, you know, of course, that's that's not time that that, know, students or school necessarily has. But, when we were in Korea, for example, and we know we took these students out after these initial steps that Erin described where students interviewed each other, for them, this really you know, yes, it was in their community, but these people were were total strangers. And so they had to sort of deal with being vulnerable vulnerable themselves. And it was honestly, it was kind of fun to watch at times. You know, there'd be sort of this group of five kids, and you'd see, you know, these people walking towards them, and you'd see them all sort of huddle up and say, like, oh, I think we should talk to these people. And by the time they got the confidence, you know, the people had walked past, and then it was up to us to sort of explain to them that, you know, those people made eye contact. They were curious about you as well. You know, they were interested in being vulnerable. And, you know, so then it got to the point where they would initiate conversation, and sometimes people would then say, you know, we're not necessarily interested. And then it got to the point where they were actually able to get people interested who had said that. And so, you know, I think it it it it it becomes sort of a a much broader sort of human experience of of interaction than just sort of, like, you know, interview somebody and get a story. And another thing that I wanted to mention is, so, Nick, I saw you asked a question about the photographs. So those photographs are not student photographs. Those are those are mine, but we did have students go out in teams with cameras as well, which allows people to do you know, in a team to sort of play to their strengths. Right? So you have, again, people that are more introverted or extroverted, so that maybe they wanna ask more questions. So we you know, in my group, I know that I try to get everybody involved sort of in the interviewing process, but there are some people who, you know, found that their sort of skill was getting people to come over to the interview, sort of gathering people up. There were other people who, took photographs. There were other people who took who actually did the interviewing. So they would switch off doing these different things, but they would then learn sort of what their strengths were, what they enjoyed doing the most. And then they would all come together at the end to sort of put together this project, which is similar to what, you know, Aaron and I do. We have our specific skills that we both bring to bear for this particular project. So it also inspires sort of this idea of of of teamwork, and then there's there's there's lots of really great points of intersectionality that that I think, you know, the students can lock in on. That was equal that was equally vague, was it not? Yeah.

Speaker 10 Yeah. It was it was

Speaker 4 But it I I hopefully, I think it hopefully,

Speaker 10 it really is. Yeah. It's interesting to think about also the interplay between, like, speaking from wounds versus scars. Like like, with kids who aren't necessarily practiced interviewers, like, asking question, it's like, woah. Like, I'm not like, that's what do you I'm not telling you that. Or, like, yeah. Wondering it can't be a totally clean process. Right? Like, kids must come back and be like, shit. Like, I asked this question I really shouldn't have or something. Like

Speaker 4 Yeah. And I think that's fine. You know? I I mean, I actually think that that's good. And, you know, I'm I'm sure Aaron, you know, could tell you stories about things that that had gone great or or or you know? I mean, I remember when were in Aaron, where was it when we were speaking to that veteran? Was it Detroit? Was that Detroit?

Speaker 3 Or Saint Louis? Detroit.

Speaker 4 The one who had nothing to say until you turned the microphone off. Oh, right. That was in Saint Louis. Yeah. And he was, like, 90? Was he 92?

Speaker 3 He was, yeah, he was World War two veteran. And with the whole time we were recording, he was just kinda humming and hawing and said a couple of platitudes, and and we just sort of we're like, no. This is kind of a bust. And we thanked him and turned off the microphone, and then what he started telling us, basically, about, like, saving an entire platoon. And you know, some there's always the you know, the the, you know, the fact of making a recording of something is always gonna change that interaction as well, and that's something that's an interesting things for thing an interesting thing for students to learn as well. Yeah. So I think we're getting I think we're probably, like, hanging on longer than I think the rest of the group might be in a, like, a a wrap up chat right now. So I guess you guys have a link to some sort of, what does it say, asynchronous something or other.

Speaker 12 Yes. And and, Aaron, I can I can tackle that too because I've been I've been talking to to Chris just separately? So I think the idea is that as participants, we can just dismiss, like, from here. And as, session, leaders, you guys can go to the the session leader room, just to kinda break down some things with Chris and and and post some materials and stuff. But then I think we would ask if we wanna continue the conversation, I mean, continue that on Twitter. You guys are at at out of the blocks one. I think there's a one on the end of that too. Right. And and then if if you all want to join, I posted a link to a a discourse, which is basically an online message forum. So a lot in the ways that we got the padlet from the other session here too. So it's almost asking the the same questions because because great minds think alike, I suppose. Just just prompting, you know, what platforms or organizations can we utilize to help us engage in this work? How do we coach students through this process to make meaningful change? How do we introduce activism and promote student voice in a hybrid virtual environment? So just ways that we can move beyond the 240 or 280 characters of Twitter, and actually have a a conversation in the discourse. So you might have to create an account on there, but if you wanna continue that asynchronously after this, then I think that's it. But otherwise, man, what a what a powerful set of conversations today. So thanks thanks to Aaron and Wendell for for sending us off into the end of the weekend thinking about the power of stories.

Speaker 3 This was a cool way to start the day. I'm I'm glad to to meet all you guys and and excited for you and wishing you well as you get ready to start this, I'm sure, extremely unusual school year. Good luck with it. Absolutely.

Speaker 12 Thank you so much. Alright. Take care, Raul. Thank you so much. Yeah. Take it easy. Bye. You. Bye. Goodbye.