Opportunities for Student Voice

Last spring, I was part of the strategic planning team (along with students, parents and administrators) and we were tasked with creating a set of priorities for our district when it comes to technology integration.  One of the top priorities was digital citizenship.

Fast forward to this September...

In my Digital Citizenship (semester long class) class, students are required to do extension activities throughout the semester when they finish a project early or we are in between projects.  They have a lot of choices from the document I linked above but they can also propose extension activities.  One of the activities a group of students chose to do was to have digital citizenship sessions for parents at Open House.  Our Open House is more of a community night where parents can interact with teachers, students, programs (music for instance).  Parents do not have to follow, in period order, their child(ren)'s schedule and we have found it very freeing.

The group who wanted to hold the sessions at Open House discussed what they wanted to share with parents and how best to accomplish this.  They decided to have one room where they showed Positively Social (a documentary that was student driven in our district and created in partnership with our BOCES) and then answered questions regarding the information in the video.   They decided to have a second room where they were teaching parents how to use social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat and Twitter.  In that room they also were teaching parents ways to monitor their child(ren) and how to use the social media platforms for positive purposes.  The third room was a room for parents to fill out a Google Form, that the students created, to find out what level of understanding parents have about digital citizenship.

The feedback from these student created, student led sessions was phenomenal!  I had parents come to my room that night, email me and tag me in social media later giving the students props for not only being leaders but for teaching them how to use the social media sites for positive purposes.  It was a huge hit!

You can see pictures from both this event and the one described below here! 


Also at Open House were the students (pictured in the above link standing in front of my Smartboard) that wanted to be my student ambassadors for Open House.  They each chose a specific topic to run a station at Open House.  We had one station where a student was explaining hyperdocs and how they have been so helpful to her in learning and being able to voice her opinion and share her learning.  I had another explaining formative assessments and how those, in tandem with our gaps sheets, helps them be better prepared for assessments.  Another student was showing parents how we use Google Drive and Schoology.  The last student was showing parents about how we use Growth Mindset in our classes.  They did a great job!!

Earlier in the week, two of my students decided they wanted to go to Homer Brink Elementary (one of two elementary schools in our district) to talk with a 3rd grade class and a 5th grade class about internet safety.  They emailed both teachers (@MsBurghardt and @MrNortonHB5) to ask if they could visit the classes and when would be best for all involved.  It was great to see their emailing skills evolve throughout this process!  We traveled to the building on Tuesday of Open House week and they did an excellent job of reviewing the tips they created in Google Slides and also giving them real world examples!  They answered questions from the 3rd and 5th graders and it was definitely a meaningful experience for all involved!  The 3rd and 5th graders then created a Google Form to give feedback and shared it with us.

Here is a picture from the day..

There are so many opportunities for students to voice where maybe we hadn't thought of before and I am always on the lookout for more.  If there's an opportunity to have the students talk about something instead of me, it is so much more meaningful!  How have you amplified student voice?