As Jesse describes it, "it's the kind of question you can keep pushing on forever."
- What if we let students design the bell schedule?
- What if we let students design how they are assessed?
- What if we let students design our school's guiding vision?
Each question spurs a bigger and bolder possibility. For Jesse and his chemistry-influenced colleague, the question they landed on was "What can our students create that will allow them to grow in these two subject areas?"
Then, they simply asked their students.
There is a lot of perceived risk when inviting learners to design their learning experience. What if they don't hold themselves to a high enough standard? What if their ideas are poorly constructed? What if they go too big and fail too hard?
All of these questions and more were present for Jesse, but he leaned into a belief that he simply needed to let his students try.
Naturally, the students came up with an idea that was far beyond what Jesse and his colleague could have ever imagined. They wrote, directed, and produced a play called "Who Killed Carbon," where every character was named after an element on the periodic table and embodied the element's core nature (e.g. volatile, stable, cold).
Never again would Jesse question if providing this type of decision making power to students was a good idea.
Jesse has taken this lesson into his work as Director of Strategic Partnerships at Learner-Centered Collaborative. The guiding question in the above image remains the same with the word "students" replaced with "school and district partners."
For Jesse and all of us at Learner-Centered Collaborative, learner-centered is a way of being no matter who you are with, kids or adults. And, it is how we show up with all of our partners, catalyzing their learner-centered journeys and ensuring they have the capacity to continue that journey for decades to come.
If you're ready to bring this power to your learning community, let's have a chat!
Talk soon,
The Learner-Centered Collaborative Team
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