Building Deeper Learning.How do you build a Deeper Learning at your school? Read on to learn about my school's journey to create an environment that embraced Deeper Learning.
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Recruiting AlliesWe were intentional and reflective with how we built our DLE-movement. In the past, we haven’t had stellar parent and community turn-out for academic and artistic events. Thus, we created an event called: A Taste of Deeper Learning. We heavily marketed the event through personalized invitations, phone-calls, social media, our website, and one-calls (a mass emailing and voice-message to parents). We were clear that we were offering a feast of food and an information session on what Deeper Learning is: marketing it as “learning that matters”. We had a great turnout for our first Taste of Deeper Learning- about 200 people. Our culinary students prepared and served a meal for them; this was our culinary students’ DLE as the audience enjoyed their dinner.
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Inviting an AudienceMy team and I presented on what deeper learning is and how important it is for our students to have parents and community members as part of the audience for our Deeper Learning Exhibitions. A few students performed/shared “a taste” of their DL projects. Then we asked parents to sign commitment cards to attend our BIG EXHIBITION the following week and hang their invites on the fridge at home until the event. We recruited staff members to join us; we lead afterschool PDs, and we beat the drum that school needs to connect to our students lives and passions. Our first exhibition showcased over 100 kids; over 600 parents attended. Our 2nd one grew more. And so on. More student, teacher, and community buy-in came each time.
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On Display: Passion + PurposeAs hundreds of students exhibited learning about climate change, civil rights movements, and video games; from everything from A to Z they could connect with the content and skills from their classes… an audience of students, teachers, parents, community members, non-profits, and legislators helped HEAR THEM TO SPEECH. These kids needed an audience for their work to matter more, for their passion to have a greater purpose. These students and many in their audience were transformed.
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