Final Project - Expanding the Classroom

 

Using GoogleSites to Expand the Community!

When I think about myself as an educator, I think about the relationships I've built with young people. These relationships are our foundation, they have always been bigger than the space we are in, and I always ask myself why that is.What about these classes, that make us and allow us all to connect and grow in ways that we didn’t expect and always wish for. Why is this the first time I am feeling like this in school? I often go back to a particular story of my very first year of teaching.

It was February and my second full week teaching my “own” classroom, covering someone else's maternity leave. Like most kids, and adults, they were  very curious about my ethnic background. I can see the Wonder in their eyes as they're about to ask “ Miss Zoe, what are you?” I replied proudly that I was black first always,  and I am half white. there's one child, Brooklyn, her eyes lit up so bright and I can already predict the word she was about to say “ME TOO!”  she exclaimed!  and at that moment I knew that I have to be here.

Bringing my full authentic self into the classroom  really leaves space for youth of color to bring their authentic selves in. This is the self that is always asked to stand outside, the self that is over and over again asked to stay behind or out there. “That way of talking is not appropriate for this space” or  “ Zoe, don’t bring out your ‘black half’ here.” Words like this and the actions behind them imprint this message on young people of color that they are not good enough, they are not the standard to live up to.

In contrast to those sounds, we grounded ourselves in the words of “In La Kesh” “ You are my other me, when I do harm to you I do harm to myself, when I love and respect you I love and respect myself” . Students learn when they genuinely feel loved, safe, part of a community,  and able to be authentic.And we created a space that strived to accept, engage, protect, and love one another and the world around us, a space that reflected our values in the 5th grade. In this space young people took risks and had the confidence to stand up for the values they believed in.

Building these foundational relationships has always been the priority for me, even above academics. These concepts or practices were repeated by every researcher we have read. The idea of Wesch comes to mind first though, using the relationships he built with his young people to design his curriculum and how he was going to approach each lesson. Recognizing that every student, young or old, learns differently and their academic experiences should be different based on that.

 Unfortunately this is not the norm in traditional academic spaces, despite what research says students are constantly asked to be anything but authentic and teachers of color are asked to do the same. When no one is able to be authentic, how are authentic balanced relationships going to happen?Where is the community going to happen? Without relationships young people cannot connect with the curriculum, and teachers cannot facilitate connections if they do not know what to connect to. Community is the foundation to learning.

Going into this past school year I was nervous that I was not going to be able to facilitate a similar community online. Switching an already built community, as I did the previous year,  felt easier to me somehow.  They obviously proved me wrong, most of them showing up daily with their bold, courageous, brilliant, and risk taking selves.  They showed me that they were learning and engaging with the curriculum. Taking pride in themselves and their culture. Questioning the why’s of the world.  My heart was so proud. 

In my school these types of spaces are not the norm at all, and the disconnect between families, the community, and the school is very noticeable. Families have often told me that they feel unwelcome in the building and that the school as a whole does not include them in the culture of the building.I want to expand our classroom community in a deeper way, I want families and community members to be apart of it and to see what goes on inside the classroom. And as team lead,I wanted a central way of communicating with all 5th grade families.

Before this class I was a really really good Techno- Traditionalist, using technology like google classroom and google docs/slides to create lessons and upload assignments for young people on the computer.Knowing my projector was my best friend.Thinking about what Turkle said about critically looking at our relationship with technology, and this past year of teaching and learning online, I really looked at the role that I want  technology to have in our community. Instead of opening a google doc I want them to open an extension of our community.As an aspiring techno-constructivist I decided to take on creating a digital platform that is specific to the 5th grade using GoogleSites. Students and families would be able to See the celebration and engage with our community through this digital platform. 

Basics like our class pledge, community agreements, contact information for the 5th grade team, and resources for students and Families will stay available always. Other things will be periodically updated like spaces that act as bulletin boards for student work, galleries of student pictures and student artwork, And active links to our Google Calendar so families can stay up-to-date and always have access to what's coming up.Included in the site would be links to all of the other platforms, including our  google classroom, our reading, math, and creative websites, and of course our class playlists. This way students and families can use this website, bookmark it, and use it as the central hub for grade.

The hope is that families will feel more a part of the community that we are building at school and students can have a place where their accomplishments and celebrations are shown. This way families and parents are able to see what goes on in the classroom and have a connecting point for their child’s education. By doing this I hope to help  bridge the disconnect that happens in my school between families and the school.

Over the summer I am going to continue to work with the website. I want to figure out how to include  a message box or something of the sort. For now I will link a “chat with me” button and use google chat from the Community page. I also want young people to be able to create their own page to create a living portfolio. I don’t know exactly how to do all of this yet, but I do know that our growing community, expanding every year, is full of beautiful minds who will be ready to find solutions, use technology to engage with the community, and hold space for all voices.

Here is a link to my google site!