Seven #BacktoSchool Strategies for Strengthening Relationships with Students

A new school year is a great time to remember the importance of building and strengthening relationships with students. I recently had the opportunity to join Paula Denton who is an educator and author of the book, “The First Six Weeks of School” and author and inner city high school teacher Larry Ferlazzo in a conversation with Rae Pica, host of Teacher’s Aid on Bam Radio. We discussed some ways to build relationships with students.

Below are some ideas I shared as well as some I didn’t get to in the interview.

Students Talk Social Media in Education via the 1st #StuVoice Google Hangout

Student Voice launched their first Google Hangout.  The topic was: Learning in the 21st Century: Social Media in Education. During the hangout participants discussed how they are using social media in their education and how they think it can better be used in their learning experience.

Here are the topics that were discussed.

• Education on proper use - Social media is an effective and necessary tool when those using it are educated properly on its use.  

• Use in the classroom - Students are using social media for research, communication, and connection via activities and platforms such as a study group on facebook, talking to peers about topics of interest, connecting with influencers and policy makers on Twitter.

• Choice is key - People want options. They want a platter of services. We can’t push it in their face, but instead need to give them options for achieving learning goals.  

• Most commonly used platforms - Participants all agreed that Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter are the most popular platforms.  Also mentioned were Wikis and LinkedIn.

Hangout participants included the following individuals.  Click on their name to learn more.

Moderator:

Kai Alexandre

Guests:

Devont’e Watson

Line Dalile

Lisa Nielsen, educator

Lucia Grigoli

Josh Birdwell

You can view the hangout below!

About the Student Voice Google Hangouts

Student Voice is launching an On Air Google Hangout series that will bring together students and other stakeholders in the education field for a face to face conversation. The hangouts will allow students to connect with their peers from across the globe and present action-oriented conversation to the Student Voice community that expands upon the 140 characters of our weekly #StuVoice Twitter chats.

Do we have to choose between student voice and teacher voice?

It turns out my support of student activist Jeff Bliss caused at least one teacher to announce on his blog that he wants to quit Tweeting and blogging.  

Friends bombarded me with the post, accompanied by comments like, “This is great. We don’t need someone like that representing our profession.” Or, “Wow. He must really be threatened by students being heard. I think that’s a good sign.”

I represent, apparently,all that makes him want to quit. The problem however, is that what he expresses in his blog is a poorly articulated, almost despondent rant. The discouragement that he is feeling is completely understandable; he sees Bliss’s attack as one more on the pile laid upon teachers whose hands and voices are tied tighter every day.  But what he expresses can have a dampening effect on those trying to amplify the voices that matter.

This is about more than one frustrated student’s angry words, and the shouts of praise and derision that followed. This is about whether a voice representing one view can marginalize or even erase another.

Was #JeffBliss disrespectful for using his #StuVoice to demand a beyond-the-packet education?

By now, you've probably seen the video of high school student Jeff Bliss demanding an end to what he calls "packet teaching." Instead he puts out a call to action for teachers to work to touch the hearts of kids to open their minds. The interaction was ignited when his teacher told him to stop his bitching about the test and kicked him out of class. A student flipped open the cell phone, caught his reaction on tape, and published it. It hit a chord with many and went viral, being viewed by millions around the globe.

As Jeff shared his frustration, his teacher saw no value in his wisdom and told him that he was wasting her time. When he responds, she apathetically silences him, tells him again to leave and informs him he is not welcome back.

 

What surprised me more than this teacher's dismissal of a young man so passionate about the education of himself and others, was that there were so many people who thought Jeff Bliss was the one being disrespectful.

Wait! What????

As I recently expressed during a weekly Student Voice chat on Twitter, here's my thinking about how we should view students.

My best teachers were students #stuvoice
— Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) May 7, 2013

And this resonates with students.

@innovativeedu I love you so much Lisa! Best tweet ever.
— Lucia Grigoli (@lugrigs) May 7, 2013

When a teacher tells a young man frustrated about being robbed of his education that he should stop bitching and stop wasting her time, how on earth can we be focused on the student being the one that is showing disrespect?

Our school system is here to support children in learning. Most of us are aware that very few students learn well with "packet teaching," yet it remains.

Criticism of Jeff Bliss in social media and the mainstream press indicate he could have gone about this a different way.

They say he should have addressed her privately.

• This makes NO sense. It was the teacher who called him out and kicked him out publicly in front of the class.

They say he should have gone to the principal or school board.

• I'm sure he will, but at the time, he was responding to the woman who told him to stop bitching and kicked him out of class for voicing his frustration.

They say he should know the politics of education and know this is the fault of those beyond the teacher.

• It is not the job of students to know the politics of education. It is their right to learn and to observe their freedom of speech when this right is being withheld. 

They say he robbed his classmates of an education by disrupting the class.

• No. No. No. Students speaking to their teachers about how they learn best is not robbing anyone of an education. It is an opportunity for everyone to put down the packet, talk, think, and discuss how they can best learn. Students can fill in bubbles anytime, anywhere. A class is a place for interaction and discussion.

They say he shouldn't have addressed the teacher because she was just doing what she was told.

• We should not silence students who are telling their teachers they can't learn they way they teach. Students should be able to speak with their teachers and teachers should listen. When they do they will find there is something valuable they can learn.

I commend Jeff Bliss for standing up for himself and all the other students who deserve a beyond-the-packet education.

Our children are not our future. They are the voices we need TODAY. Our job is to listen and support them. When they say they can't learn the way we are teaching (or not teaching in this case) we must hear them and do what we can to ensure they receive the education they deserve. When we do that we will have citizens who are not just good at sitting down and filling in packets but standing up and filling our world with those who are empowered with embrace their right to change the world.

You can like Jeff Bliss's Facebook Page here and follow him on Twitter here.

Oh, wait. Before you go, check out this great remix of Jeff Bliss's inspirational words.

Newsflash: Social media is real life

Co-authored by Lisa Nielsen and Lisa Cooley

A recent Common Sense Media story about Facebook Home warns parents that the new Facebook Home app will be an ever-present distraction in the lives of young people. It states that as your teen's engagement with friends via Facebook goes up, engagement in the “real world” can go down.  

Adults need to wake up. We need to take a step back from the notion that online communication is interaction in a world that is not real or is somehow less valuable than face-to-face life.  This impulse to dismiss social media as a “distraction” is detrimental to both ourselves and our children.

Social media has come to be a modern day tool, just like those we use to build houses and cars. While you can, of course, build a house or assemble a car without machines, it would be hard, if not impossible, to run a successful company without doing so.  Likewise, in today’s world, if you want to run for office, run a business, or change how things are run where we live, work, or play, you probably use social media to do so effectively. Just like the machines that build our homes and cars, social media, has become the tool that makes college, career, or success in building a movement more attainable.

#StuVoice Summit Recap via Twitter

The Student Voice movement was born and grown from using social media as a tool to connect like-minded individuals via weekly #StuVoice Twitter chats (8:30 p.m. EST), a Facebook Book Page to share and celebrate success, a Facebook Group to interact, and a website to get information.  The weekend, was the first ever Student Voice Summit. It provided an opportunity for individuals to see the faces of so many of the minds they had already gotten to know through their passion to give students a voice in the educational policies that affect them. The Student Voice, soon to become a non-profit, strives to create an international network of empowered students by providing them with the tools they need to use their voice in policy discussions.

Twitter provided a great way for attendees to interact, connect, make meaning of big ideas, and share them with the world.  Here is a recap.

Who are the Tweeps talking about Student Voice? Follow them!

How many Tweets?


What were the big words used at Student Voice Summit? 

Student Voice Images.

What were folks at the Student Voice Summit?  
Check out the hashtag #StuVoice and join the chat tonight at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Students Respond to State of the Union

On Monday night at 9pm EST, a half hour later than the regularly scheduled #StuVoice Twitter chats, the Student Voice will be hosting a Google Hangout to provide students from across the United States with the opportunity to respond to President Obama’s education policy proposals in his State of the Union. 

Join in on the conversation by using and following the #StuVoice hashtag. 30 minutes before the event, they will provide information with the hashtag informing those interested how they can participate. 

Whether you are a student, a student voice supporter, or simply interested in hearing from various student perspectives, this is something you want want to miss.

Visit this link to learn more about the weekly #StuVoice Twitter chats. 

Key hashtags for this week: #StuVoice, #DoMoreEdu, #SOTU #edSOTUKey 
Twitter handles for this week: @Stu_Voice @DellEDU

Extraordinary education happenings in 2012

17-year-old Nikhil Goyal nails it with his take on the Best of 2012: The Five Most Extraordinary Things to Happen in Education for GOOD magazine.

Goyal hits on five transformative developments effecting education this year.  The one I'm most jazzed about for innovative educators is how students were able to use the power of social media to have a voice in the education conversation.  

From Goyal:

The Students Speak Out: 

Students around the nation have seized the national microphone and have begun articulating their voices in education. With hundreds of student protests documented, young people are no longer willing to sit idly on the sidelines. In September, I published my first book on revolutionizing education from a student’s perspective. Earlier this month, Stephanie Rivera and few other college students launched Students United for Public Education in an effort to stop the takeover of public education in America. The group even had a protest. 

And this past summer, Zak Malamed founded the StuVoice movement, corralling student leaders onto one platform, giving spotlight to their voices, and making some dents in education policy. For one, Malamed, Matthew Resnick, Joshua Lafazan, myself, and a few other students signed a letter to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo demanding that students be added onto the New York State Education Reform Commission. With the power of social media, we will not stop petitioning, marching, protesting, and rallying until our voices are heard and represented. As educator Diane Ravitch once said, “When the students awaken, the national conversation will change.”

One of the most import jobs of innovative educators is empowering our students to have their voices heard and represented. It is imperative that we ensure students are prepared to effectively use the tools of their world to change their world.  

Read the rest of Goyal's extraordinary happenings here. 

Students you should be following on Twitter to stay in the know this school year

Editor's note: Social media is a tremendous way for students to engage in meaningful work and causes. This is why it is so important for educators to be in the know when it comes to guiding and supporting all students in making a difference using this powerful resource.  In the post below Stephanie Rivera shares some students worth following. 

Guest post by stephrrivera | http://teacherunderconstruction.com 

Students are waking up and using social media to make their voices heard for their rights, especially when it comes to education. Two students, Zak Malamed and Allison Wu took initiative and partnered up with Dell Education to revolutionize the way students use the social media site, Twitter. Every Monday night at 8:30 EST, students, and those who support them, from all across the globe join in to discuss issues in education with the hashtag #stuvoice (previously #studentvoice). To learn more about what a TwitterChat is, check this out.

With that being said, one #stuvoice supporter, Lisa Nielsen, suggested we compile a list of the Twitter handles of those who represent\support student voices. Zak Malamed went ahead and made a list on Twitter, and the below list will also bring attention to some youth who deserve to be heard.

Reflect on Education Nation’s Student Town Hall During Tonight’s Student Voice Webinar

"When the student voice awakens, the national conversation will change." -Diane Ravitch

Viewers of Education Nation’s Student Town Hall watched students from across the country attend and speak up to share their ideas. Tonight during a special webinar, participants will have a chance to connect with those who attended the conference to respond to and discuss their perspectives and solutions to the issues explored at the event.

You can join students, parents, teachers and others to reflect upon and discuss what happened during NBC’s Education Nation Student Town Hall today, September 24 at 9 pm EST. The webinar will give participants the opportunity to reflect on the Town Hall and discuss what can be done to enhance and empower the student voice nationwide.

Participants will have an opportunity to engage in a stimulating dialogue where they can respond to the panelists’ remarks and discuss how we can continue to elevate the student voice in our communities and on a national stage.

This personalized, solutions-driven webinar will provide a platform for students, parents, educators, and anyone interested to unite in a collaborative effort to not only give students a voice, but also a seat at the table in education policy discussions.

Be a part of the solution and join this webinar on Monday evening from 9 pm to 10 pm EST. You can participate by visiting this link.  

Student Voice
Student Voice is a grassroots organization that works to unite and elevate the student voice. This support network serves to aid and empower students in their efforts to be heard and earn their rightful seat at the table.

Keep the conversation going.
You can keep the conversation going with #StuVoice chats (hosted by StuVoice.org) on Mondays at 8:30 EST, with weekly topics that focus on enhancing and empowering the student voice nationwide.

• Follow us on Twitter: @Stu_Voice
• Use and follow the hashtag: #StuVoice
• Like us on Facebook: Student Voice

NBC’s Education Nation puts the spotlight on students

Education policy is an ever-polarizing issue where students, the real victims of the system’s failures, are often ignored or entirely forgotten.

NBC's Education Nation is putting the focus where it belongs and amplifying the voice of education’s most important constituents, the students, with the broadcast of its first-ever Student Town Hall on a special edition of MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Show.

Harris-Perry’s believes this is an important conversation to have sharing that, “Far too often we talk ‘about’ young people without bothering to talk ‘to’ young people. Students know what inspires them, what challenges them, what impedes their progress and what facilitates their learning. We cannot have a fully informed conversation about education reform, without the perspective of students themselves.”

The esteemed panel includes high school student, 17-year-old Nikhil Goyal, who is the author of One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student Assessment of School.   

Viewing details
Tune in to NBC today, Sunday, September 23 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. EST to hear students from across the country sharing their ideas about education and how it will effect their future. Viewers can share their insights, solutions, and expand the dialogue that arises during the program using both the #StuVoice and #EdNatSTH hashtags on Twitter.  

Student Voice
Student Voice is a grassroots organization that works to unite and elevate the student voice. This support network serves to aid and empower students in their efforts to be heard and earn their rightful seat at the table.

Keep the conversation going.
You can keep the conversation going with #StuVoice chats (hosted by StuVoice.org) on Mondays at 8:30 EST, with weekly topics that focus on enhancing and empowering the student voice nationwide.

• Follow us on Twitter: @Stu_Voice
• Use and follow the hashtag: #StuVoice
• Like us on Facebook: Student Voice

I don't support daddy laptop shooter Tommy Jordan

Message to Tommy Jordan's daughter:  


Hannah, I can relate to how you might have felt. It must be heartbreaking to have your Dad see you as his adversary. 

It is frustrating when there is someone else who seems to be controlling and dictating everything you do. Like you, I wanted to be trusted and empowered to make and be responsible for my own decisions when I was a teen (and now!). When that is the case you can get credit for being your wonderful self rather than just acting because you're following someone else's orders.

A Mother or Father can parent by control OR by compassion and mutual respect. One of these will foster a loving relationship. The other, one of compliance and fear.

I wish you the best and hope you know there are many people who support you.


Sincerely, Lisa

Readers of this blog:

If you feel the same way, I welcome you to share words of support to Tommy Jodan's daughter at this link. If you disagree, there are many other places to share such sentiments. This blog and the group are not those places. Please respect the intent of each.


For further insight into this story via the sentiments of a blogger I respect and agree with, read this.

If you are unaware of the story you can watch the video below.

Students Unite to Provide a Platform for The Missing Voice in Ed Reform

Join The Student Union
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheStudentUnion

Education reform has been a hot topic this week in general and in particular it took center stage in our nation’s State of the Union address. But there’s an important voice that has been missing from this conversation. That is the voice of students.  There’s been a lot of talk lately about the need to hear student voices in the education reform conversation. 

Here are some of the articles I’ve read and written on the topic this week.  

• Youth Rights, Dignity, and the Anti-Democratic Values of Public Schooling
• Learning Revolution. Are you ready?
• #SOTU Inspired A Replacement For Standardized Tests | Edudemic
• Education: not ready to listen?
• Do we really want to listen to our children?  
• Listen to the students before it's too late.  
• Hey Mr.Knowitall, 2 Weeks Detention…For Talking Seriously About Education 
• I Feel Sorry for Kids In School. Every. Single. One.

There is now a place where young people who want their voices heard can come together to connect, communicate, collaborate, create, and come together to strategize on ways to transform learning in our country.  These young people are writing books, publishing in online spaces and magazines, organizing protests, and more. They want adults to start hearing what they have to say before it’s too late.  They welcome supportive adults to the group as well. The role of adults in the group is to listen and spread their message to other adults who care about children.

If you care about our shared future and want to help our youth, please invite any young people you know to join this incredible group called "The Student Union" at http://www.facebook.com/groups/TheStudentUnion.

Do we really want to listen to our children?

If you’ve been listening to the conversation about ed reform you may have noticed that there is one group whose voice is missing. That group is students and it’s not for lack of trying. Students want to be heard and they have a lot of smart things to say, but adults are often reluctant to listen. The problem is pervasive and overt with many organizations having no remorse or misgivings engaging in such practices.

Until now, these activities went largely unnoticed. This is no longer acceptable. It’s time to blast these doors open. Identify institutions that are engaging in discriminatory practices. Take a stand and tell these organizations that age discrimination is not okay. We can no longer leave out the most important stakeholders in the education reform conversation. Not only is this not okay, but students, educators, parents, and anyone who cares should boycott organizations that engage in such ageist beliefs. It is outrageous that such discrimination and silencing is targeted at the very people they should be serving.  

One such student who has been blatantly discriminated against is Adora Svitak. A prolific short story writer and blogger since age seven, Adora (now 14) speaks around the United States to adults and children as an advocate for literacy and education transformation! In response to this discrimination, Adora has started The Student Union. This is a group designed to bring student voices to education reform. She believes “Students + education leaders = positive change.


We need to be concerned because if somebody like Adora, who has credibility through years of working in the public eyes, is denied of access to share her voice, what about other students who have equal brilliant things to say about their education? Many of them have been told their voice doesn't matter, does not deserve to be heard, or is not wanted. These young people are often shut down before a struggle can even begin. To be clear, this is not about Adora not having a place to speak, this is about all the children don't have a place to speak. Adora has not been rejected because of her ideas, but rather because of her age. A class of people, not a person has, been dismissed. Adora's story is a concrete demonstration of the unjust and harsh reality that our adults have created to shut our children out.

To follow is the type of discrimination taking place within the organizations that inspired Adora to start her online student activism group.

20 Things Students Want the Nation to Know About Education

It's rare for education reformers, policymakers, and funders to listen to those at the heart of education reform work: The students. In fact Ann Curry who hosted Education Nation's first *student panel admitted folks at NBC were a little nervous about putting kids on stage. In their "Voices of a Nation" discussion, young people provided insight into their own experiences with education and what they think needs to be done to ensure that every student receives a world-class education. After the discussion Curry knew these students didn't disappoint. She told viewers, "Students wanted to say something that made a difference to you (adults) and they did. Now adults need to listen."

Here is a video of the student panelists followed by a recap of some of the sentiments they shared.

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Below are the sentiments shared by these current and former students during the segment.