The ability of teachers and students to engage effectively in difficult conversations, across that gap or amongst peers is central to creating the kinds of opportunities we want for students. At a bare minimum, those skills are needed to offer and receive effective feedback on student’s work. They are even more important if we want to engage students (and teachers) on challenging topics or to drive change within their school or in the broader community. The centrality of those skills seemed like a good place to kick off our 9th season of Collab Labs.
On October 10th we gathered at UWM’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Center for Collab Lab 63 and a discussion focused on Empowering All Voices. Our work for the evening engaged participants to map factors that allow all voices to participate in brave conversations.
The maps shown here were captured and included here unedited. The primary two goals of creating this experience for the attendees were to:
Discuss and reflect on what group members with different backgrounds but shared purpose consider relevant factors and how they relate and impact each other.
Reflect on how you would apply the insights generated to your own ‘self-management’ in a group setting with familiar and unfamiliar participants.
We did not explicitly ask attendees to consider a K12 setting with teacher-student(s) and teacher-teacher interactions. We are in the process of integrating these maps into our larger model, and will share that work in a subsequent post.
What do you see in the maps when you look a bit more closely? Are there commonalities that stand out to you?
What would be a question you might ask (one of the teams) to help connect some dots or further complete the map?
What becomes possible when we are brave enough to hear and support all voices in a classroom?
Last November, Collab Lab participants noted trust and open communication as key factors that allow both teachers and students to deal with uncertainty. Those same factors were also noted in Collab Lab 54 as key drivers of safety, affirmation for both teachers and students. We’ll kick of our 9th season of Collab Labs with a discussion focused on building trust and open communication– between students as well as between students and teachers.
Come share your experience, questions, and ideas. As always, you’ll be joined by peers and collaborators from K-12 higher education, industry, and the nonprofit community. If you work with or know of a student (7th grade and above) who would like to join the discussion, please extend the invitation.
Please note that in October we’ll be at UWM’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Center. For the rest of the season we’ll be back at MSOE’s STEM Center.
Agenda
5:30 to 6:00 pm
Grab something to eat, meet some interesting, passionate people
6:00 to 6:15 pm
Welcome and introductions
6:15 to 8:00 pm
Let’s talk through some ideas
8:00 to 8:30 pm
Wrap up and next steps
Food and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided. There is no charge for participation but space is limited!
Featured Participants
Among others, you’ll have a chance to talk with:
Hannah Fox — Health Education Coordinator, Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers Hannah’s work within the Department of Environmental Health and Community Wellness focuses on helping children form a connection with nature and showing them how they can have a positive impact on their environment and in their community. Hannah’s professional interests include sustainability, cross-cultural collaboration, nature therapy, systems thinking, and planetary citizenship. Before starting at Sixteenth Street, she worked as a translator and taught English to international students and community members in the Netherlands, Brazil, and Germany.
Serina Jamison — Program Director, Future Urban Leaders Serina is the program director for Future Urban Leaders, a non-profit providing leadership and enrichment opportunities for Black students in Milwaukee to help close the opportunity gap. She is also an experienced educator and leader with over a decade of advancing education equity and student success. She holds Master’s degrees in Education Policy & Leadership and English from Marquette University. As a former Dean of Culture at Pathways High School in Milwaukee, she fostered a community focused on authentic relationships, equity, and social justice.
Serina has taught rhetoric and civil rights courses at Marquette University and developed curriculum as an adjunct instructor at Alverno College. Her work as a teacher coach and English instructor emphasized literacy, equity, and discernment. She is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, facilitating core identity sessions and promoting culturally relevant pedagogy.
Yesi Pérez — Neighborhood Revitalization Project Manager, Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers
Yesi is a graduate of Marquette University, where she received a B.A.in Political Science, with a focus in Law and Policies, as well as a minor in Studio Art from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. As a graduate of the Burke Scholar Program, Yesi spent her four years as an undergrad advocating for social justice among the many sectors in the Milwaukee community.
As the Neighborhood Revitalization Project Manager in the Department of Environmental Health and Community Wellness, Yesi is able to apply the knowledge she gained from her service in the Milwaukee community, continuing to build trusting relationships between community members and organizations, so that the neighborhood may be heard, healed, and empowered in creative ways. Yesi works to collaborate with various project partners to implement initiatives that seek to improve the built and natural environment at the neighborhood scale, to enhance the lives of those who live, learn, work and play throughout our built and natural environments.
Chris Willey — Director of Technology, Islands of Brilliance At Islands of Brilliance, Chris engages neurodivergent individuals with creative technologies. His work revolves around developing Digital Academy programs for the 14+ community, leading a team of Creative Technologists, and supporting community upskilling efforts.
Chris has a mission is to make the education revolution irresistible. He is a trailblazer in teaching and learning, focusing on emerging creative technologies. Drawing inspiration from the metaphor of gardening, he cultivates a teaching philosophy that centers around fostering growth, nurturing creative curiosity by building resource-rich learning environments, and emphasizing the process.
Chris is an Adobe Creative Innovator. He gets to collaborate with a distinguished community of creative educators on a global scale with the sole purpose of generating lifelong learners. With over a decade of teaching at the college level, his expertise spans digital art, digital painting, animation, audio/video production, 3D modeling, and game engines.
Collab Lab Sprints
If you want a jump start on putting ideas from the Collab Lab into practice, join us for a Collab Lab Sprint. We’ll kick off the first of these mini projects on Monday October 7th with a four week sprint focused on brave conversations. Over the course of the sprint we will give you the framework for short exercises you can run with your students. A check-in call each week with us and peers participating in the sprint will give you the chance to share what’s working, and where you have questions.
What becomes possible when we are brave enough to hear and support all voices in a classroom?
