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I've been teaching for about 14
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years and for the majority of my career
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I would consider myself probably a very
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traditional
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educator this is what my classroom
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looked like for the majority of that
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time my students tended to to sit in
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straight rows facing the front because I
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was the one who was usually
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talking um I directed the show I decided
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what we were learning when we were
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learning it how we were going to learn
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it what the assignments would be what
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books we would be reading when the exam
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would be and of course there would be an
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exam essentially I was the master of the
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universe in a very
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small
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domain and to be honest I taught like
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that
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because that's what I
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knew that's the way I was taught when I
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think about my elementary and my high
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school career that's how I learned my
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University even though I was training to
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be a teacher it was largely that as
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well and to be
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honest it didn't occur to me that there
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could be another way to do
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it and so I replicated what I saw in the
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classrooms of the teachers that I worked
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with when I was learning to be a
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teacher and it wasn't until my Master's
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Degree when I was I was working on a
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masters in edtech and design and I took
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a class with Dr Alec Kos and that class
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changed my life to be honest when I was
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taking it with it it almost killed me
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but it changed my life it wasn't about
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technology although at the same time it
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was it was about pedagogy and I started
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learning about things like student
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centered learning and
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constructivism and inquiry and pbl and
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for the first time I began to realize
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that maybe my
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students could
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construct their learning that learning
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is constructed in community and that
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maybe they could be the center of it
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maybe they would have something to say
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about
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it and so one day as I'm walking to
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class I decided that I was going to
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ditch my lesson plan and that was not
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something I
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did I am not a fly by the seat of my
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parents teacher I always knew exactly
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where we were going and I'm thinking as
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I'm walking up to you know I have this
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this kind of little Podium because I was
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a science teacher so you know I was a
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master of the universe with a Podium how
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much better just get so I'm walking up
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I'm
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thinking I don't have to do this I have
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a lesson I could just teach that I don't
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have to do this nobody will know any
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better and so as I stood at the front of
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the room looking at my students I
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said if you could design school to be
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anything you wanted it to be what would
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it look like what would it sound like
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what would I hear what would it what
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would I see what would it feel like what
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would you be
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doing and when they realized I was
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serious they began to write and they
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wrote and they wrote and they wrote and
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they giggled and they laughed and they
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chattered and they wrote with such
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passion and then we began to
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talk and
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really although they did not say that
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that was the bottom line
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you know they said things quite kindly
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like we don't mind that you lecture but
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maybe not quite so
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much and you
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know can we sit on the
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floor and hear what each other has to
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say and so we actually reconfigured our
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classroom so that we had this huge space
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probably this size in the middle and
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they all had these learning pause that
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we created on the outside and we always
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sat in a circle in our classroom so that
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we could
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discuss and I found out during this
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process that my
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students wanted to make a
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difference and it turns out at the time
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that they had been learning about the
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Wars that had been happening in Uganda
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and how children had been been enslaved
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as soldiers and the schools had been
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destroyed and my kids really wanted to
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do
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something and so I said okay well you
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know what we need to we need to do some
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research we need to know what we're
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dealing with we need to know what would
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really make an impact and so the next
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day we went down to the computer lab and
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we were
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researching and about halfway through
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the class one of my students comes
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bounding down the stairs and says to
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me okay I know this research thing is
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like really
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important but can we actually do
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something and I said sure what do you
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want to
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do and so she starts telling me about
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this thing that she had found this
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schools for
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schools competition and she's rattling
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off all this information and now she's
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telling me I bring up the web page and I
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plug in our information and then
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basically at the same time that she
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finished his telling me all about this I
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hid submit and I said okay we're signed
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up and she looked looks at me and she
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says
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really
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absolutely and so she turns around and
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she starts showed to the class that
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we're part of this competition and yeah
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and awesome and they're all excited and
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they're texting and telling people and
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I'm thinking this is going to be awesome
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you know we'll raise a couple thousand
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dollars my kids will feel like they're
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important this will be
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great and so the next day we come back
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to school and it was a
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Friday and my students come back to
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class and they say to me Mrs Wright
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we have decided on a goal I said awesome
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what is it we have decided that we want
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to raise
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$10,000 and inside my my head I'm
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thinking oh my gosh do you have any idea
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how much money
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$10,000 is and my outside voice said
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that's
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awesome how do you propose we do that
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and they're like oh there's this thing
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called change for Change and basically
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you make all these you know change jars
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and you put them around the city and
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people can put change in them and you
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can raise money and you have to realize
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I'm from moose jce gatchan that has a
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grand total with you know probably if
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you included all of our cats 35,000
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people so you're going to need a lot of
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change jars to raise
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$10,000 but I'm like okay that sounds
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like a terrific start so they start
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planning and it was great and then we
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left for the
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weekend and the thing about
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learning when it's
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something that your students have
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decided to do is it doesn't stay in the
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walls of your classroom it takes on a
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life of its own and you don't
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necessarily control it
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anymore and it just so happened that
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that weekend at a dropin center in
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mustra that there were kids
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from
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Uganda who had gone to the
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schools that had been rebuilt by this
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organization and my kids heard
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them and heard how their lives had been
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changed and they met them and they
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talked to them and my kids were deeply
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impacted and so unbeknownst to me all of
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this happened on the weekend and they
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came back Monday and they said to Mrs W
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and they told me the whole story and
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they said we've decided to change our
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goal I'm thinking we ain't going lower
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are
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we and they said we have decided we are
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going to raise
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20,000 and in my head I'm thinking oh my
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gosh where I come from that's a down
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payment on a house like you have no idea
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how much money that is and I think that
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was the Brilliance behind it to be
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honest I think if it was adult we would
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have struck a committee and we'd still
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be there figuring out how to make this
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happen and we wouldn't have raised a
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scent but kids aren't like
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that and I said okay well
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$20,000 how do you propose we do
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that and that began the roller coaster
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of the next 45 days because that's how
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long we had to raise this money
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so we had the change for chain of JS and
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then you know we decided Well you know
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how about we have a roast beef dinner in
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an
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auction and so they began planning all
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that we called a caterer they started
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you know doing all the details for that
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it turns out that the kid who went
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around the city to get every auction
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item was a kid who never spoke in
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class and to me that was shocking this
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was so far out of his comfort zone but
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it was something he deeply believed in
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that he decided to do it and so there
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were these high moments like you know
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the roast beef dinner where we raised
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$7,000 in one evening and there were
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times where it's like okay we can do
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this we can do this we can do this and
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then we planned a benefit concert and we
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were going to you know we had all these
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musicians lined up and it was on a
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Sunday at the end of
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November on the same same day and year
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that the Riders made it into the gray
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cup no benefit
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concert scatch when that's a really big
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deal and so it's like okay well how do
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we compensate for that okay well how
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about we hold a barbecue and we did at
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the beginning of beginning of December
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on a day when it was 40
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below and it turns out that the barbecue
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are stored outside and that if you do
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that the propane tanks will
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freeze and so we had half a barbecue to
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barbecue 300 hamburgers and hot dogs and
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it was a nightmare from beginning to end
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and partway through one of my students
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looked at me and she's like oh this
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great this is so terrible everything's
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falling apart you know we have to figure
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out how to fix this and I looked at her
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and I said have you ever planned a
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wedding I said trust me you're going to
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need these
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skills and
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so at the end of 45
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days was a
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Friday our
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total was $15,000 in
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change and I thought it's not bad I mean
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we had about 25 kids it was more than
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their first goal we didn't create reach
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a second goal and to be honest I was
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somewhat dis
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disappointed but I left class thinking
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we did a good
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thing but the truth is the story wasn't
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over because during that time my kids
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had actually split up into teams they
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just created them themselves we had a
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finance team we had a PR team we had you
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know fundraising teams and I would
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literally walk into class and say so
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what are we doing today and they would
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tell
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me
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some of the kids who had done the pr had
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been interviewed by the radio station
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numerous times and the DJ there knew
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what my kids were trying to do in their
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goal and so he went on to their web page
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that day that showed our total and he
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knew their goal was
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$20,000 and so that afternoon he got on
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the radio and began asking people to
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donate to help my kids reach their
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goal and the crazy thing is is people
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did by 6:00 we were sitting at
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$119,000 and there was a live stream
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wrap-up party that was being held in San
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Diego by the organization that was doing
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this and you know they saw this little
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city of Moosejaw shoot out of nowhere to
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have
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$199,000 and through social media they
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were actually able to get a hold of two
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of my
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students and my kids told them what our
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goal is
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$20,000 and so the people at the live
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stream party got on the live stream and
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asked people to donate to help my kids
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reach their
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goal and the crazy thing is people
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did and so by the end of it my students
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had raised
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$228 American
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at a time when we were not on par we
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lost almost 10 cents for every dollar we
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raised that day I learned to believe in
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my
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students to believe in what really
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deeply matters to them and to remove
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whatever obstacles I can to try to make
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that
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happen
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more importantly my students learned to
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believe into themselves they learned
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that they can make a difference they had
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a saying the entire 45 days we are not
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the future we are right
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now and my students learned that there's
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a world out there so much bigger than
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them that cares about the things that
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they care about and the kindness of
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strangers to help them
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meet a goal that they deeply deeply
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wanted our schools need to be places
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that set our kids' Hearts on Fire that
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they can figure out what they are
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passionate about where we give them
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opportunities to pursue it and that we
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can give them a place to make a
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difference
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now one of the things that I've learned
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over and over from doing this kind of
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stuff with my students is that our
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students will often exceed our
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expectations of them if we only give
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them the
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opportunity thank
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you
