Collab Labs

Who will you find at Collab Labs?

Who will you find at Collab Labs?

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K12 Schools

Higher Ed

Business & Non-Profit

How often do you have an opportunity to connect with colleagues in other districts to share innovative practices in education?

Learn Deep brings educators from across Milwaukee together to share what we’re working on to benefit our students. Each gathering includes individuals from organizations in the greater Milwaukee community who have looked at parallel innovation practices from another perspective. Together, we explore the goals educators hope to reach, hurdles which stand in the way, and opportunities to move forward, however small at first.

Collab Labs are a chance to learn what strategies others have used to succeed, and to solicit help and feedback from others who have worked towards similar goals.

Each Collab Lab is focused on a specific topic. Past topics included ‘Maker Spaces‘, ‘Finding Room to Innovate‘ and ‘Engaging Community Partners‘. At each session we bring in featured participants from schools and the broader community who have significant and often unique experience in the subject at hand. Across all of our attendees, you’ll find folks who are willing and open to share what they know to help others in the room, whether that’s an approach to a problem, a strategy to get buy-in, or connections to others that can help.

Participation in our Collab Labs is always free, but space is limited. Our dates and topic focus can be found in the listing to the right on this page.

We’re happy to return to the WE Energies STEM Center at MSOE for our 7th season of Collab Labs

Collab Lab 55: Reflecting Back/Looking Forward

What if students took the lead to create a culture in school where both students and educators feel safe, affirmed, and free to build the skills, knowledge, and relationships needed to pursue their passions?

We pull in a diverse group of educators and others who are are looking for ways to help Milwaukee area schools move forward. Attendees have joined us from the following organizations:

K12 Schools	Higher Ed	Business & Non-Profit
Arrowhead School District School District of Beloit Carmen Schools of Science and Technology Cedarburg School District Cudahy School District Elmbrook Schools Escuela Verde Fox Point/Bayside School District Holy Family Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School Kettle Moraine School District MC²School District of Menomonee Falls Milwaukee Jewish Day School Milwaukee Montessori School Milwaukee Public Schools Muskego School District New Berlin School District Nicolet High School Norris Academy Notre Dame School of Milwaukee Oak Creek Franklin School District Pathways High Pewaukee School District Oregon School District Racine Unified High School District School District of South Milwaukee Seton Catholic Schools Shorewood School District St. Joan Antida High School St. Monica St. Robert St. Thomas More Tenor High School UCC Acosta Middle School Union Grove Union High School District University School of Milwaukee Veritas High School Wauwatosa Schools School District of Whitefish Bay West Allis-West Milwaukee School District Wisconsin Lutheran High School	Alverno College Cardinal Stritch Gateway Technical College Marquette University MATC Medical College of Wisconsin MIAD MSOE University of Wisconsin Milwaukee University of Wisconsin – School of Education Wisconsin Lutheran College	88.9 Labs Artists Working In Education ArtWorks for Milwaukee [email protected] Betty Brinn Children’s Museum Brinn Labs Baird Black Arts Think Tank Bray Architects Brady Corp. Broad Street Brookhill Institute of Mathematics BU Magazine CESA 1 The Commons Dance Circus David Jakes Designs Design Fugitives Digital Bridge Employ Milwaukee Epiphany Learning GE Healthcare Growing Minds Groundwork Milwaukee Haldeman Homme Islands of Brilliance Kohl’s Johnson Controls Junior Achievement, Wisconsin LISC Linden Grove Communities Mad Genie City of Milwaukee Milwaukee 7 Milwaukee Makerspace Milwaukee Repertory Theater Milwaukee Succeeds MKEGrind MMSD Next.cc Northwestern Mutual NVISIA Project Foundry Re-Creation Station REDGen Reflo Riveredge Nature Center Rockwell Automation SafeNet Consulting Sharp Literacy Sixteenth Street Community Health Center STEM Forward Sustainable Formations TEALS Teens Grow Greens Tiny Earth Translator MKE Urban Ecology Center WI Department of Public Instruction Workshop Architects Young Enterprising Society ZipMKE Zoological Society of Milwaukee

Collab Lab 54: Recap & Notes
April 26, 2023

Collab Lab 54 explored issues around youth mental health and violence. One of our largest groups to date, which included middle and high school student leaders, focused on factors that impact the degree to which students and teachers feel safe and affirmed at school. Matt Nink and Vanessa Rodriguez from SKY Schools kicked things off for us with a mindfulness exercise, after which we dove into the discussion. The output of those conservations was a long list of interrelated factors, and some initial thoughts on how those influence each other. We pulled those factors into the first draft of a system map. If you’re not familiar with a system map, each of the factors identified in the Collab Lab is represented as a node. Solid arrows connecting two nodes indicate that an increase in the factor represented by the first node leads to an increase in the factor represented by the second node. A dashed line indicates a negative relationship between nodes. As an example, zooming in on one area of the map, we indicate that Students’ feeling of affirmation are driven by level of student voice and leadership, and in turn an increase in the degree to which students feel affirmed at school leads to higher levels of respect for teachers and greater levels of engagement. Conversely, we suspect that an increase in the frequency of policing interventions will lead to a decrease in students’ feeling of affirmation. We invite you to explore the map in greater detail here. Again, this is a first draft, we haven’t been able to connect all of the factors raised in the session, so we know we are either missing nodes, or don’t understand how those do connect. It’s also likely that the connections we show between nodes might be off, and the phrasing used for some of the factors is unclear. Your feedback and ideas are more than welcome. Let us know what you see, or join us for Collab Lab 55 on May 11th, where we’ll use the discussion to get to an improved version, identify nodes where community partners are already focused, where some of the projects we’re looking at for the 2023-24 intersect and how this mapping might inform how we approach those. A special thanks to Kyle Ashley, Lawrence Battle, Nate Deans, Clintel Hasan, Maria Hamidu, and Sharlen Moore who got us started on this path, helped us plan the session, and recruit participants. A big thanks to the students from Glen Hills Middle School, Pathways and Reagan High Schools, and Youth Forward MKE sharing your voices and experience, and keeping the discussion focused on issues that matter most to youth!

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Collab Lab 53 Recap & Notes
March 31, 2023

What if students could see their work and stories impact the community? Collab Lab 53 attendees explored new or unexplored ways in which educators might enable students to share their voice and practice advocating for a cause they believe in. They explored: What experience(s) can we offer to give students a story worth telling? What do students need from those experiences to have a story worth telling? What are the assets we can draw upon to help students tell effective stories/share their work? Experiences we can give We surfaced 4 major themes as we introduced examples of impressionable storytelling to each other at our tables Creating an inventory of experiencesOur attendees this evening first discussed an often overlooked aspect of storytelling: In order to be able to tell a story with conviction, passion etc. you need to have experienced it or something like it. How do you create space in your approach to teaching to start building that inventory of experiences? What experiences should you prioritize on, because they are new or unique and not part of the reference context that students bring to your classroom? Discovery and IdentityMany teachers may have students in their groups that do have a lot of personal experience with certain issues, such as food insecurity or housing instability. Those experiences have certainly contributed to identity development of the individual student. That offers the opportunity to explore what that identity is and how the identity of the narrator influences the telling of the story. What are the biases that the storyteller may bring with her that may present a certain perspective. How do I as a teacher create opportunities to explore identity and bias in story telling and enable students to practice? Using animals as proxy to tell the storyWhat would happen to the strength, color, impact of the story one narrates if we put ourselves in the place of an animal proxy? Will the story become more interesting to our audience because we take the human identity out of the equation? How can we as teachers encourage students to step outside their identity and tell the story from a (neutral) point of view? Talking WITH the person, not ABOUT the personAnd lastly, we can make our story more engaging and impactful if we engage our audience in the process. That means learning how to consider the audience, the perspectives that the individuals in that audience bring to the room, and how we can be respectful towards them while we also have a position that may differ from theirs, at least at the start of the story. What students need Before we get to the technicalities of developing a great story, we need to understand what many of our students need in order to get to a place where they feel safe and trusted enough to want to explore that. Many have been ‘burned’ by people in their environment (including sometimes teachers) in their interactions to the extent that they are confused and distrusting of intentions. Layer on top of that the many voices that are generated through access to technology, and by technology (Bots, AI, etc.) If we want to create space for student practice in storytelling and advocating for their interest (or that of their community or group), how do we as teachers recognize our students’ needs? How do we create our own space to learn and practice, knowing that the pacing guide dictates what we should be teaching, when? Authenticity of exposure Trust Safety – safe spaces Passion for an issue – connection to an interest, their world Opportunity and time to reflect Assets All humans have a need to share through storytelling What students bring: Rapidly building life experiences Developing identity (with a lot of uncertainty) A curiosity about the world they are experiencing What we can provide them: Interest in hearing them individually Ability to assemble resources, create experiences Structure through Process: Engineering and scientific process Are you actively experimenting with ways in which you can guide your students into deeper learning about the various stories they might consume and how they need ‘listen’ to them? We’d love to hear about your experiences! Need some support and guidance as you start to explore what you can do for your students? Let’s explore some experiments that you can try without a lot of planning time. Consider sharing your experience so far by joining the Collab Lab space on our Collaborative Learning Community ‘inspirEd’. Check it out, we’d love to welcome you into the inspirEd Community Thanks go out toOur featured guests: Katie Felten – CEO and Brand Strategist, Strategy House Marissa Jablonski – Executive Director, Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin Supporting organizations: MSOE for use of their space at WE Energies STEM Center Northwestern Mutual for sponsoring the NM classroom at MSOE STEM Center Our next Collab Lab Join a diverse group of Milwaukee community members who share a concern about the rising number of Milwaukee youth struggling with mental health challenges preventing them from successfully participating in their education. Collab Lab 54: Student Led Collaboration to Address Youth Mental Health

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Collab Lab 51: Recap and Notes
December 14, 2022

Collab Lab 51 attendees explored the hopes and fears attendees commonly express having when it comes to letting students drive the issues that are the focus of their learning. What do we hope for when we offer students the opportunity to pursue issues they are passionate about? What fears might hold us back from doing so? Hopes Across the discussion groups we heard a number of common themes among the hopes that were expressed — that students feel heard, they are motivated and engaged in work that is meaningful to them, they have the opportunity to discover what it is that they do care about, that the work allows them to build the skills, confidence, and empathy to take on more complex challenges. We also heard hopes for what that process could look like — that students have a chance to iterate and learn from missteps along the way, that we are able to design and support project based learning experience effectively, with scaffolding in place that allows students to take on the work, that teachers are equipped and supported as they do this work with students. The overarching paradigm for participants is that student driven issues would drive the process of project based learning: allowing students to discover their passions and to let those passions drive their education. Fears Moving forward to create opportunities for student driven work won’t happen if we don’t recognize and address the fears that hold us back as teachers. Chief among those is that a lack of structure on an open ended project could lead to chaos, with some students left behind. Our participants also worry school or district leadership won’t recognize what’s going on in the classroom as productive learning, that it deviates from curriculum, that we won’t hit standards, and don’t have the right tools to evaluate student learning progress. Other fears center on the challenges we might offer students — what if the topic fails to engage them, we don’t have the time or support to pull it off, or are blocked by competing curriculum demands. Participants also noted fears students themselves might have — how they will know if they are making progress, that they won’t get “the right answer”, that it feels weird to take on work that is by nature open-ended. Next Steps Our final question of the evening focused on what one might do in the next 30 days to push things forward. For our participants, the key to moving forward is building the support to take some risks and align resources that can both support and inspire students in their work. That’s the hard work that teachers find difficult to navigate individually. The inspirEd Community recently established a Collab Lab group to explore these and other topics in a community setting. Consider joining the Community if this sounds like something that could help you in your teaching. Acknowledgements We are especially grateful to our featured participants for the experience and insight they brought to the discussion: Leslie Fee – Talent Manager – Development, J.W. Speaker Clintel Hasan – Strategic Initiatives Manager, Milwaukee Succeeds, GMF Maria Hamidu – High School Success Project Coordinator, Milwaukee Succeeds, GMF Adam Hengel – Coordinator of Instructional Services, West Allis/West Milwaukee School District Chad Johnson – CEO and Founder of Tip-a-Script, Milwaukee Thanks again to MSOE’s STEM Center for hosting our Collab Lab series this season.

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Collab Lab 50: Recap & Notes
November 30, 2022

We hit a milestone with last Thursday’s Collab Lab — our 50th session since we started in the summer of 2016! Thanks to all the attendees who were there to celebrate with us in person. The focus for the evening was Community Engaged Science for K12 students (AKA community engaged research or citizen science) — what do we hope students might gain, what assets we can bring to bear to support the work, and what we can do in the short term to move towards those goals. We started the conversation by asking participants what community engaged science means to them. Beyond goals such as “the chance to see what professionals are working on and how they approach their research”, beyond “opportunities to engage in or contribute to research efforts that extend beyond the classroom”, and even beyond “:giving students a chance to connect with scientists in industry, higher education or government agencies”, was the idea that the community is engaged in deciding the issues to focus community research and science on. That set us up nicely to talk about our goals for students. Goals for students Participants had a broad range of goals for student involvement with community engaged science. From those several common themes emerged: We want students to see that they can make contributions, that science is something they can participate in, and that scientific understanding can empower them to be more effective citizens who can take on issues in their community and become stewards of the environment, We want students to see that they can be lifelong learners, that there are broad opportunities to apply scientific knowledge and skills, and that they can make connections with working scientists in the community who might serve as role models or mentors. We want this work to bring diverse voices, perspectives, and ways of knowing into conversations within science and and the focus areas for that work. Finally, we want students to experience the joy that can come from scientific investigation, discovery, and understanding. The question then becomes: “where are the scientists, the voices and perspectives, that we as educators may include in student inquiry projects?” Assets we know We took advantage of the broad mix of folks in the room to inventory the assets available to Milwaukee students and teachers. It turns out, there are a lot of resources and programs to explore ideas and connect with partners who can support community engaged science. Just consider this (not curated) list: Business/Professionals Higher-ed, nonprofits Badger State Science & Engineering Fair natural world school yard rivers, trails, & parks community partners multi-visit relationship follow-up curriculum (training and capacity needed) Project Lead The Way school Leadership teams, teachers, admin & district staff teacher experts extracurricular & interest groups local science projects (water inquiry project) SIFTR Other schools’ older & younger students media/news local science experts academia local government nonprofits Parks museums nature centers field experiences Green Schools Consortium Funding United way Donors choose ESSER Funds NSF MMSD (funds for green schools projects) Wisconsin DNR WSST NRF Partners/Physical Resources Teens Grow Greens WAEE local nature centers county parks systems Flex Farms users Museums UWM School of Freshwater Sciences Reflow MMSD Green Point Partners How do we move forward? Just knowing (or just now learning about) assets that are available, is nice but not very useful. We wrapped up the conversation by asking “What can we do in the next 30 days to get closer to your vision for community engaged science for K-12 students?” All of our discussion identified some version of “Continue the conversation with the folks I met here” as a key next step. This could be to: learn more about what another school or teacher(s) is doing, availability of programming or expertise offered by community partners, or for those partners, ways to better understand the needs and goals of educators. Acknowledgements We are especially grateful to our featured participants for the experience and insight they brought to the discussion: Jessica Knackert – Volunteer Coordinator, Wisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesPeter Lenaker – Physical Scientist, USGSChristopher Simenz – Practicum Coordinator, Clinical Professor, Marquette UniversityBernardo Traversari – Director of Science Outreach, Edgewood CollegeAdriana Vázquez – Director of Education & Public Programs, Milwaukee Public MuseumThanks again to MSOE’s STEM Center for hosting our Collab Lab series this season. Be part of the Conversation If you like the topics we select every month and would like to be part of the conversation, we invite you to join us next time for Collab Lab 51 (RSVP). We’ll explore how we can let students drive issues that are the focus of their work (essential component of inquiry based learning, student voice, project based learning). Come share your experience if you are practicing student inquiry with your students, or join the conversation by asking your questions to expand your thinking about how your peers do this and why they believe in this approach. Join us by RSVPing here

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Collab Lab 49: Recap & Notes
October 19, 2022

Community Engaged Learning starts with a conversation Our vision of Community Engaged Learning, an evolution of Project Based Learning for K-12, recognizes a role for both near-peer mentors and industry mentors. This essential role supports and coaches students over the course of the projects they take on. We believe that there’s a big difference between simply having folks show up at a school, and inviting them to play an effective role in the process for students and teachers. It is so important in our view that we decided to kick off our 7th season of Collab Labs at MSOE’s STEM Center last Thursday with a discussion focused on the roles of mentors, what successful mentoring looks like, and what it takes to get there. Participants included K-12 educators, professionals engaged in mentoring, or working with organizations that provide or support mentors, or engage with schools in other ways. We were also glad to welcome additional community members in a joint effort with Foureva Media’s to use the Collab Lab as their Foureva Movement’s October meetup. By chance or circumstance, the group included several mentor/mentee pairs, who were able to provide additional meaning for the discussion. Personal experience We began the evening with a discussion of participants’ own experiences with, or as a mentor, and what they took away from that involvement. We’re not surprised anymore that our ‘kitchen table format’ consistently enables attendees to ‘go deep’ within 15 minutes of sitting down with complete strangers. Our participants observed: There’s a gatekeeping role in terms of who has access to support students Systemic racism impacts who has access to mentors, who mentors are willing to serve, and expectations about how those relationships should occur The role of the teacher is different than that of mentors, and an outside mentors can often motivate students in ways a teacher cannot The continuity of mentor/mentee relationships can anchor students who might otherwise have disconnected relationships with family Mentors can provide the confidence students need to push through challenges Time is a limited resource, so we need to look for relationships that can offer the maximum impact within those constraints Stats show: People who’ve had mentors are more likely to take leadership roles Definitions of mentoring vary, but what is key is the mentor/mentee relationship A young person needs to trust a mentor as a friend Mentors need to be able to listen Mentors can empower students by giving them a voice Mentors need to be open to “accepting the call” from a student Barriers between the community and school get in the way of mentorship opportunities Goals for Mentors and Students With this as context, we asked participants to capture what they see as the goals behind building mentor/mentee relationships with students. We ask this not just from the perspective of what we want for students, but what we hope mentors gain from the experience. For students, we hope for: Support I want students to see how to be there for yourself I want students to feel heard, empowered I want students to see “professional interaction, and learn to function as a group to build each other up, solve problems, and change the world I want students to feel like they are not alone, that they are supported and wanted I want students to feel loved and that people care about them I want students to have access to supports they may not have at home Acceptance/Validation I want students to feel freedom of exploration I want students to see its ok to be a little different I want them to experience their own ideas in real life I want students to feel included I want students to feel comfortable I want students to feel that they matter and they can create a future beyond where they may be now Variety I want students to experience different opportunities that spark their curiosity I want students to see other role models, learn STEM and life skills Diversity in thought I want students to experience life outside of central Milwaukee I want students to experience representation for all/diversity Perspective I want students to experience a different viewpoint I want students to see someone close in age I want students to see other avenues to be successful I want students to see personality Inspiration/Resilience I want students to see what’s possible, that they can do anything I want students to see the opportunities available to them to be successful I want students to feel excited, encouraged, heard I want students to experience success Bring something different out of them I want students to experience opportunities for curiosity I want students to see a path forward without telling them explicitly– questions and guidance I want students to be curious, to experience opportunities that challenge, and push themselves to think critically and learn new perspectives I want students to experience what they can be outside of what they typically experience Real Life I want students to see people/adults with similar backgrounds and experiences doing what they’ve dreamed (or just thought) of doing I want students to experience every day living I want students and mentors to see the humanness/the light in each other I want students to experience real life/hands on personal growth/learning I want students to learn social responsibility and critical thinking I want mentors to feel an emotional rush/connection For mentors, we hope for: Fulfillment I want mentors to feel they are making a difference I want mentors to feel a connection I want mentors to experience the joy of young people, to see their success and personal growth, to learn from students I want mentors to feel that their time invested in you makes a difference I want mentors to view mentorship as part of their legacy I want mentors to feel capable, confident, energized, that they grow through the experience I want mentors to experience the confidence that they have helped build. I want mentors to see transformation in a mentee, to experience the feeling of impacting some else’s life, to more….

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Collab Lab 47: Recap & Notes
April 20, 2022

Our focus for the Collab Lab 47 was a reflection on what we’ve learned over the first year of our Fellows Program. Prior to the Collab Lab we sat down with a our Fellows for a conversation about what they wanted to get out of the discussion. The first two questions we settled on are a reflection of where the Fellows see value in the program and partners. Too often teachers are offered programming or resources without the recognition of what else might need to be in place, or the additional work required of a teacher to take advantage of them. Nothing interesting happens in a classroom without a teacher willing to say “yes”, and that comes when we solve problems for teachers. That lead us to our first question for the evening: What makes an offering of support for teachers a gift rather than just one more thing to take on? Collaboration share the workload cross pollinate ideas It’s real service learning connected to community multidisciplinary PBL Engages students students work to develop solutions It fills a known gap for the teacher A curriculum framework that: is completed is documented integrates outside expertise that know how to work with students is updated provides a prescription for how to execute with room to flex Provides resources for both students and teachers to execute Helps students develop 21st century skills Builds career connection Field experiences (free is good) Provides access to mentors Kids are engaged and motivated Aligns with standards Provides opportunities for problem solving/authentic learning Can be extension projects Multiple points of alignment/integration with curriculum Provides a chance to showcase the work of students Streamlined partnerships/easily accessed resources Listen first, keep listening find openings point out success teachers have Create Joy Be transparent Extend gratitude Ask for feedback Don’t be scary Goals that differ from teacher time consuming unaware of pacing guide, constraints, or not connected to standards offering doesn’t complement curriculum Too scripted and prescriptive Focus on kids’ learning Through the Collab Labs and work with program partners over the course of the year, the Fellows see a lot of value in understanding how those outside of education approach parallel problems. Collaboration is important to the fellows, both in terms of providing a richer set of experiences for their students, and also to share the load with colleagues and to learn from what peers may have tried. That led us to our second discussion point for the evening: How do you form a relationship with colleagues conducive to creating a collaborative culture focused on learning? Share successes Create opportunities for shared learning experiences Focus on kids motivation and engagement Provide opportunities for casual, open-ended conversations Make it a regular practice Practice collaboration across different content areas Use student presentations as a chance to collaborate/share with colleagues. Foster trust Be supportive Model collaboration/continuous learning during the school day Build diversity into the process with a range of levels of expertise knowledge experience Establish norms for sharing listening encouraging all to share process and project management approaches Establish accountability universal commitment Recognize that preferred modes of communication will vary between colleagues The third question for the evening came from our shared goal of ensuring that all Milwaukee students have the chance to participate in the kind of community engaged, real world, learning experiences that can help them both uncover what they are passionate about, and see paths forward to pursue those passions. How do we make these opportunities equitable and accessible to all students? Engage all students from the outset and provide choice – enable students to approach and pursue the challenge from the points where they are most engaged flexibility – be creative/flexible about how the learning experience might evolve, and where it might lead anticipate and address barriers that may limit participation or engagement for some students Maintain a growth mindset Provide a safe place, where it is ok to be vulnerable Focus on others strengths Connect to what learners love We we’re glad to see a high level of engagement around the questions, and, as usual, very different approaches to documenting each group’s conversation. That the conversations continued well after we wrapped things up is a measure of success for the process. Thanks again to our Fellows for guiding the discussion and MSOE’s STEM Center for hosting us!

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