The power of student-driven learning: Shelley Wright at TEDxWestVancouverED

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[APPLAUSE]

I've been teaching
for about 14 years.

And for the majority
of my career,

I would consider myself probably
a very traditional educator.

This is what my classroom
looked like for the majority

of that time.

My students tended to sit
in straight rows facing

the front because I was the
one who was usually talking.

I directed the show.

I decided what we were learning,
when we were learning it,

how we were going to learn it,
what the assignments would be,

what books we would be reading,
when the exam would be,

and, of course, there
would be an exam.

Essentially, I was the
master of the universe

in a very small domain.

And to be honest, I taught that
because that's what I knew.

That's the way I was taught.

When I think about my elementary
and my high school career,

that's how I learned.

My university, even though I
was training to be a teacher,

it was largely that as well.

And to be honest, it
didn't occur to me

that there could be
another way to do it.

And so I replicated what
I saw in the classrooms

as the teachers that
I worked with when

I was learning to be a teacher.

And it wasn't until
my master's degree

when I was working on a
master's in edtech and design,

and I took a class
with Dr. Alec Couros.

And that class changed my life.

To be honest, when I was
taking it, it almost killed me,

but it changed my life.

It wasn't about technology,
although at the same time

it was.

About pedagogy.

And I started
learning about things

like student-centered
learning and constructivism.

And inquiry and PBL.

And for the first time,
I began to realize

that maybe my students could
construct their learning.

That learning is constructed in
community, and that maybe they

could be the center of it
and that maybe they would

have something to say about it.

And so one day, as
I'm walking to class,

I decided that I was going
to ditch my lesson plan.

And that was not
something I did.

I am not a
fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants

teacher.

I always knew exactly
where we were going.

And I'm thinking, as
I'm walking up to--

I have this little podium
because I was a science

teacher, so I was a master of
the universe with a podium.

How much better does it get?

So I'm walking up, I'm thinking,
I don't have to do this.

I have a lesson, I
can just teach that.

I don't have to do this.

Nobody will know any better.

And so as I stood at
the front of my room

looking at my students, I said,
"If you could design school

to be anything you wanted it
to be, what would it look like?

What would it sound like?

What would I hear?

What would I see?

What would it feel like?

What would you be doing?"

And when they realized I was
serious, they began to write,

and they wrote and they
wrote and they wrote.

And they giggled
and they laughed

and they chattered and they
wrote with such passion.

And then we began to talk.

And really, although
they did not say that,

that was the bottom line.

Here, they said things
quite kindly like,

"We don't mind that you lecture,
but maybe not quite so much."

And "Can we sit on
the floor and hear

what each other has to say?"

And so we actually
reconfigured our classrooms

so that we had this
huge space, probably

this size in the
middle, and they all

had these learning pods that
we created on the outside,

and we always sat in a
circle in our classroom

so that we could discuss.

And I found out
during this process

that my students wanted
to make a difference.

And it turns out at
the time, that they

had been learning about the
wars that had been happening

in Uganda, and how children
had been enslaved as soldiers,

and the schools
had been destroyed.

And my kids really
wanted to do something.

And so I said, OK,
well, you know what?

We need to do some research.

We need to know what
we're dealing with.

We need to know what would
really make an impact.

And so the next day, we went
down to the computer lab

and we were researching.

And about halfway through
the class, one of my students

comes bounding down the
stairs and says to me,

"OK, I know this research
thing is really important, but

can we actually do something?"

And I said, "Sure.

What do you want to do?"

And so she starts telling
me about this thing

that she had found, the Schools
for Schools competition.

And she's rattling off
all this information,

and as she's telling me,
I bring up the web page

and I plug in our information.

And then basically
at the same time

that she finishes telling me
all about this, I hit Submit

and I said, "OK,
we're signed up."

And she looks at me
and she says, "Really?"

Absolutely.

And so she turns around and she
starts shouting to the class

that we're part of this
competition and yeah,

and awesome, and
they're all excited

and they're texting and telling
people, and I'm thinking,

this is going to be awesome.

We'll raise a couple
thousand dollars,

my kids will feel like they're
important, this will be great.

And so the next day,
we come back to school,

and it was a Friday, and
my students come back class

and they say to
me, "Mrs. Wright,

we have decided on a goal."

And I said, "Awesome,
what is it?"

"We have decided that we
want to raise $10,000."

And inside my head, I'm
thinking, "Oh my gosh,

do you have any idea how
much money $10,000 is?"

And my outside voice
said, "That's awesome!"

[LAUGHTER]

"How do you propose we do that?"

And they're like,
"Oh, well there's

this thing called
Change for Change,

and basically you make
all these change jars

and you put them around the
city and people can put change

in them, and you
can raise money."

And you have to realize, I'm
from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

that has a grand total with--

probably if you included all
of our cats, 35,000 people.

So you're going to need a lot
of change jars to raise $10,000.

But I'm like, OK, that
sounds like a terrific start.

So they start planning
and it was great.

And then we left
for the weekend.

And the thing about
learning, when it's something

that your students
have decided to do,

is it doesn't stay in the
walls of your classroom.

It takes on a life of its own.

And you don't necessarily
control it anymore.

And it just so happened
that that weekend

at a drop-in center
in Moose Jaw,

that there were
kids from Uganda who

had gone to the
schools that had been

rebuilt by this organization.

And my kids heard
them and heard how

their lives had been changed.

And they met them and
they talked to them.

And my kids were
deeply impacted.

And so unbeknownst to me, all
of this happened on the weekend

and they came back Monday, and
they said to me, "Mrs. Wright."

And they told me the whole
story and they said, "We've

decided to change our goal."

And I'm thinking, "We
ain't going lower, are we?"

And they said, "We have decided
we are going to raise $20,000."

And in my head, I'm thinking,
"Oh my gosh, where I come from,

that's a down
payment on a house!

Like, you have no idea
how much money that is!"

And I think that was the
brilliance behind it,

to be honest.

I think if it was adults, we
would have struck a committee

and we'd still be there figuring
out how to make this happen

and we wouldn't
have raised a cent.

But kids aren't like that.

And I said, "OK, well, $20,000,
how do you propose we do that?"

And that began the roller
coaster of the next 45 days,

because that's how long we
had to raise this money.

So we had the Change
for Change jars.

And then we decided, well,
how about we have a roast beef

dinner and an auction.?

And so they began
planning all that.

We called the
caterer, they started

doing all the details for that.

It turns out that the kid
who went around the city

to get every auction item was
a kid who never spoke in class.

And to me, that was shocking.

This was so far out
of his comfort zone,

but it was something
he deeply believed in

that he decided to do it.

And so there are
these high moments

like the roast beef dinner
where we raised $7,000 in one

evening.

And there were times where
it's like, OK, we can do this,

we can do this, we can do this.

And then we planned
a benefit concert

and we were going to-- we had
all these musicians lined up

and it was on a Sunday at the
end of November on the same day

and year that the Riders
made it into the Gray Cup.

[LAUGHTER]

No benefit concert,
because in Saskatchewan,

that's a really big deal.

And so it's like, OK, well
how do we compensate for that?

OK, well how about
we hold a barbecue?

And we did at the beginning
of December on a day

when it was 40 below.

[LAUGHTER]

And it turns out that the
barbecues are stored outside,

and that if you do that, the
propane tanks will freeze.

And so we had
half-a-barbecue to barbecue

300 hamburgers and hot
dogs, and it was a nightmare

from beginning to end.

And partway through, one
of my students looked at me

and she's like, "Oh, Mrs.
Wright, this is so terrible,

everything's falling apart.

We have to figure
out how to fix this!"

And I looked at her
and I said, "Have you

ever planned a wedding?"

[LAUGHTER]

I said, "Trust me, you're
going to need these skills."

And so, at the end of 45
days, it was a Friday,

our total was $15,000 and change
and I thought, it's not bad.

I mean, we had about 25 kids.

It was more than
their first goal.

We didn't quite reach the
second goal, and to be honest,

I was somewhat disappointed.

But I left class thinking,
"We did a good thing."

But the truth is, the
story wasn't over.

Because during
that time, my kids

had actually split
up into teams.

They just created
them themselves.

We had a finance team,
we had a PR team,

we had fundraising teams, and I
would literally walk into class

and say, so what
are we doing today?

And they would tell me.

Some of the kids
who had done the PR

had been interviewed by the
radio station numerous times,

and the DJ there knew
what my kids were

trying to do in their goal.

And so he went on
to their web page

that day that showed
our total and he

knew their goal was $20,000.

And so, that afternoon,
he got on the radio

and began asking people
to donate to help

my kids reach their goal.

And the crazy thing
is, people did.

By 6 o'clock, we were
sitting at $19,000.

And there was a
livestream wrap-up party

that was being held in San
Diego by the organization that

was doing this.

And they saw this
little city of Moose Jaw

shoot out of nowhere
to have $19,000.

And through social
media, they were actually

able to get a hold of
two of my students.

And my kids told them
what our goal is, $20,000.

And so, the people at
the livestream party

got on the livestream
and asked people

to donate to help my
kids reach their goal.

And the crazy thing
is, people did.

And so by the end
of it, my students

had raised $22,824 American at
a time when we were not on par.

We lost almost $0.10 for
every dollar we raised.

That day, I learned to
believe in my students.

To believe in what really
deeply matters to them.

And to remove
whatever obstacles I

can to try to make that happen.

More importantly,
my students learned

to believe in themselves.

They learned that they
can make a difference.

They had a saying
the entire 45 days,

"We are not the future
we are right now."

And my students learned
that there is a world out

there so much bigger than them.

That cares about the things
that they care about.

And the kindness of
strangers to help them

meet a goal that they
deeply, deeply wanted.

Our schools need
to be places that

set our kids' hearts on fire.

That they can figure out what
they are passionate about.

Where we give them
opportunities to pursue it.

And that we can give them a
place to make a difference now.

One of the things that
I've learned over and over

from doing this kind of
stuff with my students

is that our students will often
exceed our expectations of them

if we only give them
the opportunity.

Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]