-
[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]
-