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

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    [APPLAUSE]
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    I've been teaching
    for about 14 years.
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    And for the majority
    of my career,
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    I would consider myself probably
    a very traditional educator.
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    This is what my classroom
    looked like for the majority
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    of that time.
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    My students tended to sit
    in straight rows facing
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    the front because I was the
    one who was usually talking.
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    I directed the show.
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    I decided what we were learning,
    when we were learning it,
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    how we were going to learn it,
    what the assignments would be,
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    what books we would be reading,
    when the exam would be,
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    and, of course, there
    would be an exam.
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    Essentially, I was the
    master of the universe
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    in a very small domain.
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    And to be honest, I taught that
    because that's what I knew.
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    That's the way I was taught.
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    When I think about my elementary
    and my high school career,
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    that's how I learned.
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    My university, even though I
    was training to be a teacher,
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    it was largely that as well.
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    And to be honest, it
    didn't occur to me
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    that there could be
    another way to do it.
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    And so I replicated what
    I saw in the classrooms
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    as the teachers that
    I worked with when
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    I was learning to be a teacher.
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    And it wasn't until
    my master's degree
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    when I was working on a
    master's in edtech and design,
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    and I took a class
    with Dr. Alec Couros.
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    And that class changed my life.
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    To be honest, when I was
    taking it, it almost killed me,
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    but it changed my life.
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    It wasn't about technology,
    although at the same time
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    it was.
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    About pedagogy.
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    And I started
    learning about things
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    like student-centered
    learning and constructivism.
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    And inquiry and PBL.
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    And for the first time,
    I began to realize
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    that maybe my students could
    construct their learning.
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    That learning is constructed in
    community, and that maybe they
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    could be the center of it
    and that maybe they would
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    have something to say about it.
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    And so one day, as
    I'm walking to class,
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    I decided that I was going
    to ditch my lesson plan.
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    And that was not
    something I did.
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    I am not a
    fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants
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    teacher.
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    I always knew exactly
    where we were going.
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    And I'm thinking, as
    I'm walking up to--
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    I have this little podium
    because I was a science
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    teacher, so I was a master of
    the universe with a podium.
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    How much better does it get?
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    So I'm walking up, I'm thinking,
    I don't have to do this.
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    I have a lesson, I
    can just teach that.
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    I don't have to do this.
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    Nobody will know any better.
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    And so as I stood at
    the front of my room
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    looking at my students, I said,
    "If you could design school
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    to be anything you wanted it
    to be, what would it look like?
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    What would it sound like?
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    What would I hear?
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    What would I see?
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    What would it feel like?
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    What would you be doing?"
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    And when they realized I was
    serious, they began to write,
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    and they wrote and they
    wrote and they wrote.
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    And they giggled
    and they laughed
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    and they chattered and they
    wrote with such passion.
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    And then we began to talk.
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    And really, although
    they did not say that,
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    that was the bottom line.
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    Here, they said things
    quite kindly like,
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    "We don't mind that you lecture,
    but maybe not quite so much."
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    And "Can we sit on
    the floor and hear
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    what each other has to say?"
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    And so we actually
    reconfigured our classrooms
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    so that we had this
    huge space, probably
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    this size in the
    middle, and they all
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    had these learning pods that
    we created on the outside,
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    and we always sat in a
    circle in our classroom
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    so that we could discuss.
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    And I found out
    during this process
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    that my students wanted
    to make a difference.
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    And it turns out at
    the time, that they
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    had been learning about the
    wars that had been happening
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    in Uganda, and how children
    had been enslaved as soldiers,
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    and the schools
    had been destroyed.
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    And my kids really
    wanted to do something.
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    And so I said, OK,
    well, you know what?
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    We need to do some research.
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    We need to know what
    we're dealing with.
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    We need to know what would
    really make an impact.
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    And so the next day, we went
    down to the computer lab
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    and we were researching.
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    And about halfway through
    the class, one of my students
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    comes bounding down the
    stairs and says to me,
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    "OK, I know this research
    thing is really important, but
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    can we actually do something?"
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    And I said, "Sure.
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    What do you want to do?"
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    And so she starts telling
    me about this thing
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    that she had found, the Schools
    for Schools competition.
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    And she's rattling off
    all this information,
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    and as she's telling me,
    I bring up the web page
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    and I plug in our information.
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    And then basically
    at the same time
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    that she finishes telling me
    all about this, I hit Submit
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    and I said, "OK,
    we're signed up."
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    And she looks at me
    and she says, "Really?"
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    Absolutely.
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    And so she turns around and she
    starts shouting to the class
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    that we're part of this
    competition and yeah,
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    and awesome, and
    they're all excited
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    and they're texting and telling
    people, and I'm thinking,
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    this is going to be awesome.
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    We'll raise a couple
    thousand dollars,
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    my kids will feel like they're
    important, this will be great.
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    And so the next day,
    we come back to school,
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    and it was a Friday, and
    my students come back class
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    and they say to
    me, "Mrs. Wright,
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    we have decided on a goal."
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    And I said, "Awesome,
    what is it?"
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    "We have decided that we
    want to raise $10,000."
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    And inside my head, I'm
    thinking, "Oh my gosh,
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    do you have any idea how
    much money $10,000 is?"
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    And my outside voice
    said, "That's awesome!"
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    [LAUGHTER]
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    "How do you propose we do that?"
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    And they're like,
    "Oh, well there's
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    this thing called
    Change for Change,
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    and basically you make
    all these change jars
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    and you put them around the
    city and people can put change
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    in them, and you
    can raise money."
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    And you have to realize, I'm
    from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
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    that has a grand total with--
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    probably if you included all
    of our cats, 35,000 people.
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    So you're going to need a lot
    of change jars to raise $10,000.
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    But I'm like, OK, that
    sounds like a terrific start.
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    So they start planning
    and it was great.
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    And then we left
    for the weekend.
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    And the thing about
    learning, when it's something
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    that your students
    have decided to do,
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    is it doesn't stay in the
    walls of your classroom.
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    It takes on a life of its own.
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    And you don't necessarily
    control it anymore.
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    And it just so happened
    that that weekend
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    at a drop-in center
    in Moose Jaw,
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    that there were
    kids from Uganda who
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    had gone to the
    schools that had been
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    rebuilt by this organization.
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    And my kids heard
    them and heard how
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    their lives had been changed.
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    And they met them and
    they talked to them.
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    And my kids were
    deeply impacted.
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    And so unbeknownst to me, all
    of this happened on the weekend
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    and they came back Monday, and
    they said to me, "Mrs. Wright."
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    And they told me the whole
    story and they said, "We've
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    decided to change our goal."
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    And I'm thinking, "We
    ain't going lower, are we?"
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    And they said, "We have decided
    we are going to raise $20,000."
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    And in my head, I'm thinking,
    "Oh my gosh, where I come from,
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    that's a down
    payment on a house!
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    Like, you have no idea
    how much money that is!"
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    And I think that was the
    brilliance behind it,
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    to be honest.
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    I think if it was adults, we
    would have struck a committee
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    and we'd still be there figuring
    out how to make this happen
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    and we wouldn't
    have raised a cent.
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    But kids aren't like that.
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    And I said, "OK, well, $20,000,
    how do you propose we do that?"
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    And that began the roller
    coaster of the next 45 days,
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    because that's how long we
    had to raise this money.
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    So we had the Change
    for Change jars.
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    And then we decided, well,
    how about we have a roast beef
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    dinner and an auction.?
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    And so they began
    planning all that.
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    We called the
    caterer, they started
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    doing all the details for that.
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    It turns out that the kid
    who went around the city
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    to get every auction item was
    a kid who never spoke in class.
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    And to me, that was shocking.
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    This was so far out
    of his comfort zone,
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    but it was something
    he deeply believed in
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    that he decided to do it.
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    And so there are
    these high moments
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    like the roast beef dinner
    where we raised $7,000 in one
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    evening.
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    And there were times where
    it's like, OK, we can do this,
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    we can do this, we can do this.
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    And then we planned
    a benefit concert
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    and we were going to-- we had
    all these musicians lined up
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    and it was on a Sunday at the
    end of November on the same day
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    and year that the Riders
    made it into the Gray Cup.
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    [LAUGHTER]
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    No benefit concert,
    because in Saskatchewan,
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    that's a really big deal.
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    And so it's like, OK, well
    how do we compensate for that?
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    OK, well how about
    we hold a barbecue?
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    And we did at the beginning
    of December on a day
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    when it was 40 below.
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    [LAUGHTER]
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    And it turns out that the
    barbecues are stored outside,
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    and that if you do that, the
    propane tanks will freeze.
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    And so we had
    half-a-barbecue to barbecue
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    300 hamburgers and hot
    dogs, and it was a nightmare
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    from beginning to end.
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    And partway through, one
    of my students looked at me
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    and she's like, "Oh, Mrs.
    Wright, this is so terrible,
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    everything's falling apart.
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    We have to figure
    out how to fix this!"
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    And I looked at her
    and I said, "Have you
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    ever planned a wedding?"
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    [LAUGHTER]
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    I said, "Trust me, you're
    going to need these skills."
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    And so, at the end of 45
    days, it was a Friday,
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    our total was $15,000 and change
    and I thought, it's not bad.
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    I mean, we had about 25 kids.
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    It was more than
    their first goal.
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    We didn't quite reach the
    second goal, and to be honest,
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    I was somewhat disappointed.
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    But I left class thinking,
    "We did a good thing."
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    But the truth is, the
    story wasn't over.
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    Because during
    that time, my kids
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    had actually split
    up into teams.
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    They just created
    them themselves.
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    We had a finance team,
    we had a PR team,
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    we had fundraising teams, and I
    would literally walk into class
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    and say, so what
    are we doing today?
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    And they would tell me.
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    Some of the kids
    who had done the PR
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    had been interviewed by the
    radio station numerous times,
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    and the DJ there knew
    what my kids were
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    trying to do in their goal.
  • 12:39 - 12:41
    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 $20,000.
  • 12:46 - 12:50
    And so, that afternoon,
    he got on the radio
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    and began asking people
    to donate to help
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    my kids reach their goal.
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    And the crazy thing
    is, people did.
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    By 6 o'clock, we were
    sitting at $19,000.
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    And there was a
    livestream wrap-up party
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    that was being held in San
    Diego by the organization that
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    was doing this.
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    And they saw this
    little city of Moose Jaw
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    shoot out of nowhere
    to have $19,000.
  • 13:25 - 13:27
    And through social
    media, they were actually
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    able to get a hold of
    two of my students.
  • 13:31 - 13:36
    And my kids told them
    what our goal is, $20,000.
  • 13:36 - 13:39
    And so, the people at
    the livestream party
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    got on the livestream
    and asked people
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    to donate to help my
    kids reach their goal.
  • 13:48 - 13:52
    And the crazy thing
    is, people did.
  • 13:52 - 13:55
    And so by the end
    of it, my students
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    had raised $22,824 American at
    a time when we were not on par.
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    We lost almost $0.10 for
    every dollar we raised.
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    That day, I learned to
    believe in my students.
  • 14:18 - 14:23
    To believe in what really
    deeply matters to them.
  • 14:23 - 14:25
    And to remove
    whatever obstacles I
  • 14:25 - 14:30
    can to try to make that happen.
  • 14:30 - 14:32
    More importantly,
    my students learned
  • 14:32 - 14:34
    to believe in themselves.
  • 14:34 - 14:38
    They learned that they
    can make a difference.
  • 14:38 - 14:41
    They had a saying
    the entire 45 days,
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    "We are not the future
    we are right now."
  • 14:45 - 14:47
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    And my students learned
    that there is a world out
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    there so much bigger than them.
  • 14:53 - 14:56
    That cares about the things
    that they care about.
  • 14:56 - 15:00
    And the kindness of
    strangers to help them
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    meet a goal that they
    deeply, deeply wanted.
  • 15:03 - 15:06
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    Our schools need
    to be places that
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    set our kids' hearts on fire.
  • 15:11 - 15:14
    That they can figure out what
    they are passionate about.
  • 15:14 - 15:17
    Where we give them
    opportunities to pursue it.
  • 15:17 - 15:22
    And that we can give them a
    place to make a difference now.
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    One of the things that
    I've learned over and over
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    from doing this kind of
    stuff with my students
  • 15:27 - 15:33
    is that our students will often
    exceed our expectations of them
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    if we only give them
    the opportunity.
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    Thank you.
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    [APPLAUSE]
  • 15:42 - 15:45
Title:
The power of student-driven learning: Shelley Wright at TEDxWestVancouverED
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Duration:
15:45

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