I'll Take a Risk

I suppose this is an exercise in mimetic teaching: my act of teaching this class actually mimics the process, stress, uncertainty and risk I am asking my students to take later this year. In addition, I have to convince them to stay patient and come along for the ride while the vision of our class develops. Needless to say, this is highly uncomfortable for my inner-German.

My new class is called the Global Action Project and it is a year-long endeavor to teach students how to be social entrepreneurs. We weave the elements of social awareness, leadership, business principles, documentary filmmaking, public speaking, and leadership throughout three trimesters culminating in students designing and publicly sharing their enterprises to a board of adults from our community: terrifying.

This is my first true attempt at PBL and I went all-in. I am trying to give the students choices early on with various assessments to allow them to get used to so much academic freedom. Our school, like many, simply does not have the processes in place to allow students to make choices, though I am thrilled to report we are moving more and more in the right direction on this, recognizing the power of differentiation. My colleagues have truly come to realize that the old model of “you have to do it this way because all students before you have done it this way” is on the way out and in this digital age, students will be able to find a place for themselves where they can use their strengths.

So where are we the first week of September? For the most part, I think students were hooked with the summer reading (a choice between Sold, A Long Way Gone, The Bookseller of Kabul or The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind). They were asked to research an issue raised in the book and determine if the author fairly represented that issue. We have started our work with documentaries and examined our preconceived notion that documentaries are always “true” and unbiased. The students are working on their first film, a 5x5 project inspired by Dean Shareski. At the same time, we are four chapters into The Blue Sweater, studying Jacqueline Novogratz’s personal experience and looking at themes of leadership as well as the challenges presented by working in the Developing World. And today, we start Me to We in an effort for students to start searching for their own passion.

While is seems like we are making progress, the discomfort and uneasiness remains. It all fits together in my head, but that doesn’t mean the dots connect in theirs. As with many classes, I have some eager folks and some reticent ones. Some of my colleagues who I have shared my doubts with remind me that the first year of any course can be difficult and it will always get better the second year. This is too important to me to take that risk. I have 19 students in here that have the chance to make this a better world. So I try to calm my nerves by reading the poem over my desk. It was written by a third grader (years ago) from the Laurel School.

Help Out!
Be the one.
Be in charge.
Take a risk.
Be a peacemaker.
Help out.
Be nice to the poor.
Because I believe in you.
You can do it.
But what about me?
Me Rebecca Allen?
Well.
I’ll be the one.
I’ll be in charge.
I’ll take a risk.
I’ll be a peacemaker.
I’ll help out.
I’ll be nice to the poor.
Because I can do it.
I believe in myself.
I’m a super helper.
And I will save the world with my super goodness.
Global actionproject

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