After attending the Education Institute of Hawaii 2018 Empowerment Conference with a team of teachers, I am comfortable in saying that we are empowered at DKIES. We are not a textbook-driven school, and students have opportunities to work collaboratively to solve problems, including problems that affect our school community or our state. Our students and teachers are learning through project-based learning and are truly making a difference. Our military-impacted students need more than just a curriculum that focuses on grade level standards; they need the non-cognitive skills that will prepare them for their futures. Our first graders learn about wants and needs and coordinate a drive to help victims of Hurricane Harvey; second graders use their garden to hone math and science skills and build a compost bin to produce richer soil that they can reuse; and fourth graders learn about climate change and plant new plants to replace the invasive species they removed earlier. Dr. Bill Daggett shared this slide about "The Top 10 skills you need to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution." I believe that PBL has empowered our teachers and students by providing a venue to explore their questions and to share what they learned.
Earlier this week, Eric Sheninger visited DKIES and had discussions with students and school leaders about student agency - voice, choice, and advocacy. The students were in a circle around Eric as he posed questions to them about their goals, their passions, and how school helps them achieve their goals. Observing the conversation was eye-opening. Some students had quick answers when Eric asked questions, but when he probed and asked "Why?" quite a few could not respond. For example, a student responded confidently that he wants to go to MIT, but he could not answer when Eric asked him "Why?" The question that students were quickest to respond to was, "What do you like best about school?" Their answers were revealing: Eagle Council, clubs on Fridays, Cardboard Challenge, Hour of Code, Enrichment classes, recess, and their responses came quickly. While students had shared their dream of going to MIT or becoming engineers, none of them mentioned academics though these were our "best and brightest." It was the first time I was an observer in a discussion with our DKIES students that was totally student-focused.
That evening, we hosted our School Community Council Virtual Facebook meeting. We've been doing this since 2013; wow, I didn't realize it had been so long! Instead of asking generic questions like "What can we do to improve the teaching of reading?" or "What other family events would you suggest for our school?" or "Safety is an important priority for our school. Do you have any concerns to improve traffic safety in the mornings and afternoon?" we decided to take what we had learned at the Empowerment Conference and ask questions like, "What are your hopes and dreams for your children?" or "Our world is changing quickly. Did you know that there will be driverless cars by 2019? What types of skills will our students need to exhibit a purposeful life in 5 years? 10 years? 25 years?" One parent responded with this comment: "Build their confidence but don't baby them. . let them learn from their mistakes and try to fix it themselves." I shared a comment one of our students had made about learning more from her failures during the discussion with Eric Sheninger that day to which the parent responded, "That's great, but was this available to all students?" I made some lame excuse about it being a last-minute opportunity because I realized she was right! All students need that opportunity to have their voices heard. (View the on-line discussions here.) Parents' voices are important, too, and I love that many of the parents who participate in these virtual meetings are not the ones who are in our school helping out with parent activities or volunteering in classrooms because they may have little ones at home or they may be working or going to school themselves. We need to hear their voices, too!
So what does that mean for our school? Well, once student voice became a buzzword in education and one of Superintendent Kishimoto's priority strategies, we realized the opportunities we have to really listen to our students and to have them be part of the solution. The other day, Vice Principal Arikawa was in a discussion with a group of boys after an altercation at recess time over basketball. Rather than overreacting and warning the boys that we would ban them from basketball or take away the ball if they couldn't play nicely, she asked questions and the outcome after an hour-long conversation was shared in a memo. The boys were so excited! They had never considered themselves as "leaders" yet here they were, being asked to lead the discussion with their peers about how to ensure that basketball can be an option at recess while also taking safety into consideration. We don't know where this journey will lead, but our hope is that this will have a positive impact on other students and help them to realize their power to make their voices heard and to truly make a difference, not only for themselves, but for others as well.
Empowered schools are more than just engaged schools. We truly need to hear the voices of our entire school community in order to prepare our students for their futures!
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