In this immersive, hands-on session, educators will explore strategies to help elementary students become "problem spotters"—those who actively identify challenges in their surroundings. By teaching students to recognize and solve real-world problems, educators can increase student engagement, foster deeper connections to the world around them, and cultivate essential skills like agency and empathy. Participants will leave with practical tools and approaches they can implement immediately on their own campuses to enhance student learning and community impact.
In this session, educators will learn about how Dr. Chattin incorporated civic engagement and social justice in a public charter middle school and also an independent school. This model encourages students to take pride and ownership of their local communities in the form of community activism.
The last decade has seen an intensification of three of our roles as classroom teachers: the desire and need to teach civics, including supporting students' curiosity with the political process, the duty to protect marginalised students and uplift silenced voices, and professional responsibility of maintaining partisan neutrality in the classroom. However, the polarisation in the political environment of the past few presidential administrations has made teachers feel as if some of three responsibilities take precedence over the others or -- worse -- that backing away from these discussions is the easy way out. Instead, I will aim to make a convincing case for the importance in helping our students productively engage in civic discourse and embrace their viewpoints, and help to equip teachers in all disciplines to do so safely.
Join the Community Activation team from United to Learn (U2L) in Dallas, Texas to learn about bringing the service learning classroom into the field. In this session, U2L staff will share about its Teen Corps Program to model a practical example of collaboration between private and public high schools actively engaging with a local nonprofit organization to build purposeful leaders and advocates for educational equity. This session will showcase the Teen Corps flexible and differentiated program model to complement varied and diverse educational spaces and audiences. Attendees will also learn about ways to sustain Teen programs by providing opportunities for students to exercise their own agency, influencing the program vision through participation in organizational leadership structures.
