Letting Their Lives Speak: Harnessing Student Activism and Amplifying Their Movement

NAIS Annual Conference 2019: Long Beach, CABlake Kohn, National Network of Schools in Partnership

Diego Duran-Medina, Shorecrest Preparatory School (FL)Monique Daviss, El Sol Science and Arts Academy (CA)

Guybe Slangen, San Francisco Friends School (CA)

Diego Duran-Medina Shorecrest Preparatory School (FL)

Blake Kohn National Network of Schools in Partnership

Monique Daviss El Sol Science and Arts Academy (CA)

Guybe Slangen San Francisco Friends School (CA)

Why are we here? Goals for the day:

Learning Objective #1 Discuss and define the opportunities and challenges of activism in independent schools.

Learning Objective #2 Provide examples of specific projects at the middle and upper school levels in both independent and charter schools.

Learning Objective #3 Discuss a model for partnership that will support this work and to define future steps.

Letting Their Lives Speak

“We must start seeding effective social change at younger ages than ever before. In the wake of [the] school shooting in Parkland, Florida, the world marveled at how well-spoken and prepared the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were as they took on Congress and sparked a national youth movement on gun control. But what many people don’t know is that Broward County, where the school is located, is home to one of the largest debate programs in the United States. All the high schools, middle schools, and even some of their elementary schools in the county are teaching students how to argue both sides of an issue, digest differing viewpoints, and plead their case. Imagine a world where all young people got training on how to advocate for causes that they care about.”

Kathleen Kelly-Janus

Stanford Program on Social Entrepreneurship

SF Friends School Youth SummitCulminating effort for our 8th graders yearlong study of homelessness focusing on AWARENESS and ACTION

Awareness● Studying the issues, challenges, needs, and opportunities ● Observing our neighborhood and our city: See, Think, Wonder● Hearing from various speakers, formerly homeless, “changemakers”

Nonprofit leader speaking with students about homelessness

Touring the Tenderloin with formerly homeless residents

Action● “Getting proximate” as best we can through ongoing, local service● Various trips and events: speaking at City Hall, hosting exhibits,

visiting nonprofits

Weekly service with The Gubbio Project, cleaning mats and helping our

unhoused neighbors

Students attended a Solving Homelessness workshop

National Walkout Day: 3.14.18● Made space for conversation, helped students grapple with the

complexity, and ensured students were heard and valued● Participated in various ways to amplify student voices sharing

messages of peace, strength, hope, and change

Need and Opportunity● No space in SF for just Middle

School youth to gather, engage, and learn with/from each other

● Students wanted an opportunity to connect with their peers on issues that matter to them

● Teachers wanted to create space for SFFS students to share what they learned about homelessness, for other students to share what matters to them, and to feel their collective energy and promise

Goals● Make space for students to

LEARN WITH/FROM peers on issues that matter to them

● Raise AWARENESS about various issues and inspire positive ACTION for change

Impact● 10 private and public schools from

all over San Francisco● 230+ middle school students● 35+ workshops: homelessness,

climate change, gun control, human trafficking, violent video games...

●

Letting Their Lives Speak

Keys for Success:

● Inform, expose, engage● Tap into their passions and

make space for student voice and choice

● Set them up and then get out of their way

In their own words.

Uncommon CivicsThe Teaching Handbook for Activating Citizenship

Redefining Civics

-quick survey

-how do we think about civics?

-(1) the study of the rights and duties of citizenship

-study: what kind of pedagogy?

Uncommon Civics Definition

What is meant by Uncommon Civics is this: a teaching model that helps students have an understanding of themselves, the issues they care about and a command of mediums to deliver powerful messages to the world. All activism begins with agency and powerful messaging.

The foundation of civics in schools

4 Vs

-volunteering

-voting

-values

-voice

Uncommon Civics Class Components

1. (Heart) Values: What do you believe in and why? What do others believe in and how have they acted on those beliefs?

2. (Impart) Blueprint: Research and reflection process involving factual analysis, discernment of what is true and can be supported by evidence from multiple credible sources.

3. (Art) Artifact: A message with a medium based on the finished blueprint: How will you get your voice heard?

The course

-13 weeks long, about 200 minutes of contact time per week

-four components: values, citizenship readings, blueprint and medium

-students choose topic to research through a blueprint process

-take that data and produce an artifact through a specific medium

-students also organize conversations called Civic Saturdays

Stay in touch

www.leadserveconsulting.com: student samples of podcasts and films

Twitter: @leadservelearn

dduranmedina@shorecrest.org

Amazon: Uncommon Civics

“JUSTICE IS WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE IN PUBLIC...JUST AS TENDERNESS IS WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE IN PRIVATE” –

CORNEL WEST

SETTING THE TONE | LEADING BY EXAMPLE

CREATING A CULTURE

PARTNERING WITH PURPOSE:UNIDOS US AND EL SOL ACADEMY

• NCLR’s service learning-program—Cultura, Aprendizaje, Servició, and Acción (CASA)—works to develop culturally aware youth leaders who serve as agents of change to address issues that impact their communities. Through active engagement, students develop complex critical thinking and reflective skills while gaining high levels of academic learning

• The ultimate goal of the CASA model is to anchor academic learning in a culturally and linguistically responsive context to address a genuine need in the Latino community.

Survey MethodsData Analysis and InterpretationStrategic Program Planning and DesignMeasurable Goals

Historical PerspectivesResearch and InvestigationPolicy and the Electoral Process

Leadership DevelopmentCareer PathwaysFrom Personal to Passionate to Public

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SKILLS

FINDING THEIR VOICE

BUILDING RESILIENCE

“We must start seeding effective social change at younger ages than ever before….Imagine a world where all young people got training on how to advocate for causes that they care about.”

Kathleen Kelly-Janus

Stanford Program on Social Entrepreneurship

“If you think you are too small to make a difference,

try sleeping with a mosquito.”

The Dalai Lama

Letting Their Lives Speak: Harnessing Student Activism and Amplifying Their Movement

Thank you! Questions?