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If clicking on the image below doesn't take you to the blog, o to this link: http://ajjuliani.com/5-steps-getting-tedx-event-school/

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It's almost here! TEDxPennsburgED is finally happening in one week, and we'll be broadcasting it live to the world (at Upper Perkiomen High School) on May 7th from 12:30-4:30pm (EST).

The idea and planning began in the summer for this official TEDx event, but as more and more people are asking, "How did you guys get a TEDx event at Upper Perk?", I wanted to break down our process into five steps (even though it has felt like 500 steps!).

Step 1: Event Type and Initial Brainstorm

The TEDx guidelines allows you to apply for a variety of different types of events. You can choose between the following:

This is the basic event type. It is subject to all of the standard rules, and applies to most events. Learn more

Holding your event for your university? This event type is for those hosted at a college or university, and organized by current university administration staff, faculty or students. Learn more

This is a TEDx event organized by, or catered toward, youth and/or kids or school communities. Learn more

This is a small weekly or monthly event that keeps a TEDx community engaged between regularly scheduled TEDx events. In order to organize a Salon event, applicants must already have an existing standard license. Learn more

TEDxLive is centered around the simulcast of the annual TED Conference. Here, the world becomes TED's audience. Learn more

A TEDxWomen event is a TEDx event on the topic of women and gender which features the simulcast of TEDWomen. Learn more

This is for corporations, organizations, government entities, non-profits or other institutions that want to organize an event under an institutional name. This event type, and the naming exception it grants, is approved only for internal, private, employees-only events. Learn more

Some communities may not have the resources and infrastructure to organize an event. In these cases, we deliver all the resources needed to organize a TEDx event, packaged in a portable box. Learn more

This event follows the same format as a standard event, except that it is hosted by librarians at a local library. Learn more

ED events are TEDx events where educators, students, administrators and others gather to discuss the future of education. Learn more

We ultimately decided on the "ED event" as is demonstrated in our name TEDxPennsburgED. We wanted our community, educators in our district (and surrounding districts), and students to come together to learn from experts around the world.

Next was brainstorming ideas for a date, potential speakers, and learning about the TEDx rules (there is a lot, but all for good reason). Once this was done it was time to apply.

Step 2: Fill out the Official Application

You can apply for a TEDx license here. Reading the rules and understanding the guidelines helps in filling out the application, but I did have to do one revision after filling it out. I choose the TEDx ED license to apply for, but made some mistakes in what the event could be called (we initially wanted to call it TEDxUpperPerk but that was not allowed).

As the curator (person applying for the license) you'll also have to go into detail about your background, why you want to host a TEDx event, and give some explanation about how you plan to pull it off.

After re-submitting the application...we waited, and waited, until finally receiving the confirmation email that TEDxPennsburgED had been approved!

Then it hit us...uh oh, this is real. What's next?!

Step 3: Build a Team

The best part about doing a TEDx event at your school or district is how many people are willing to get involved and spend their free time on creating this event! At Upper Perk we sent out a few emails letting everyone know about the event and asking for folks to join the planning committee.

I was blow away by the response. We have over 20 teachers, 9 administrators, and 50 students all playing major roles as part of our TEDxPennsburgED planning committee!

At the first planning meeting we did the following:

1. Locked down a date and place

2. Made an initial list of speakers to contact

3. Decided whether it would be a full or half day event

4. Came up with a theme for our event (An Innovative Learning Culture)

5. Talked about the timeline

6. Discussed what potential roles and sub-committees there would be

7. Discussed who would be invited as part of our 100 guests

Our team has grown and multiple people have taken on roles that have brought this event together. I can't begin to say how proud I am of our team and the work they have done so far!

Step 4: Speakers and Audience

One of the most difficult pieces of any TEDx event is inviting the right speakers and actually getting them to accept the invitation. TEDx rules are specific about not paying speakers, and also not allowing any selling from the stage.

Our planning team discussed having a variety of speakers from across the education spectrum, and we were able to create a speaker lineup of a student (a 10th grader at Upper Perk), teacher, principal, professor, college president, associate provost and researcher.

Our student Pooja Girwarr was one of 12 students in our district that applied to speak at the event, and after a few rounds of interviews, I'm so happy to have Pooja represent the student body at Upper Perk and the entire community!
Here are the rest of our speakers for TEDxPennsburgED:
John Spencer

John Spencer is a teacher in Phoenix, Arizona. John has written several education books, and the popular young adult novel titled "Wendell the World's Worst Wizard." John is also the co-founder of technology writing platform, Write About. John is a national speaker on education, creativity, and the power of story.

Principal El

Salome Thomas-El is a Principal in Philadelphia. As a teacher a Vaux Middle School Salome led a group of inner city students to 8-international chess champion titles. He has since written the books "I Choose to Stay" and the "Immortality of Influence" while being featured on CNN and as a regular contributor to the Dr. Oz show.

Dr. Edward Clapp

Dr. Edward Clapp is a Harvard University Professor and Senior Research Manager of Harvard's "Project Zero". Edward is a leading voice in the design and maker movement around the world, and is an international speaker, who has also written and produced an off-broadway play. Edward is an international speaker on education and design.

Dr. Karen Stout

Dr. Karen Stout is the President of Montgomery Community College and the incoming President of the national organization Achieving the Dream. Dr. Stout has led a national movement to raise up community colleges and fight for the achievement of all students at the post-secondary level. Karen is an international speaker on education and leadership.

Pooja Girwarr

Pooja Girwarr is a 10th grade student at Upper Perkiomen High School, and has been in the school district since she was in Kindergarten. She has been involved in various organizations throughout her years of schooling at Upper Perkiomen. On her own time, she strives to fundraise money to support research to find cures for childhood cancer. Pooja is very excited to represent the school with her talk, "Becoming That Little Kid, Again".

Dr. Alan Snyder

Dr. Alan Snyder is Vice President and Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Studies at Lehigh University. Alan has worked to make the university's research environment and its rich connections with human concerns of value to all students.

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It's almost here! TEDxPennsburgED is finally happening in one week, and we'll be broadcasting it live to the world (at Upper Perkiomen High School) on May 7th from 12:30-4:30pm (EST).

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In a way, [youth] need to be mentoring us as much as we're mentoring them. They're coming from a different place; they were born in the late '90s, and they have an important perspective. I like that idea about reverse mentorships.

Adult CSR Team Member

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In a way, [youth] need to be mentoring us as much as we're mentoring them. They're coming from a different place; they were born in the late '90s, and they have an important perspective. I like that idea about reverse mentorships. Adult CSR Team Member

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Teaching Poetry? How about making it matter?

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Founded in 1996 in San Francisco, Youth Speaks has long championed a local, national, and increasingly global movement of young people picking up pens and stepping proudly onto stages, declaring themselves present. We believe that literacy is a need, not a want.

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The dangers of professional football dominated headlines last year when thousands of athletes brought a lawsuit against the National Football League for mishandling concussion claims. Broadcasters with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) wondered: How does this issue play out on high school fields? The network sent dozens of student reporters to do some digging, and the results were impressive.

The young journalists produced reports on the death of a high school athlete and investigations into the effectiveness of concussion rules. One teen journalist reported on high school football players who were cheating on the school's mandatory neurological exams to stay in the games, despite possible concussions. The student athletes felt more comfortable opening up about this sensitive topic because the journalists were also their peers.

The youth broadcasters who produced these stories attend different schools throughout the country, but each individual is a product of the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs (SRLs). At more than 80 SRL sites throughout the nation, student broadcast journalists receive mentorship from PBS staff in technical production, interviewing, and storytelling. The pieces they produce are published on the SRL website or the NewsHour blog-and exceptional stories like this piece about the player who felt pressure to avoid head injury tests are aired on the national NewsHour broadcast.

"It's one thing to make your own story and have it played on your local station, but to have it noticed by this national organization is really impressive," said Ruby Rosenberg, a 17-year-old high school senior in Oakland, California. Rosenberg attends Media Enterprise Alliance (MEA), an extracurricular video program open to all Oakland high school students. Participants have the option of working on stories for PBS.

The biggest benefit of the relationship with PBS "is the legitimacy and motivation it gives to a student like Ruby," said Jake Schoneker, program director at MEA. For teenage reporters, audience is typically limited to the handful of people who pick up a school newspaper or tune into a public access channel. SRL reporters are driven by the prospect of their hard work being watched by a million viewers.

The veteran reporters who lead the SRL program can't personally visit each site, but they regularly video chat with the young journalists to guide them through the production process, and they field text messages late into the night. At many sites, the youth are also paired with a staff mentor from a local PBS station.

The relationships between PBS and each SRL site vary. Sometimes the SRL is a dedicated class at a school that uses a video reporting curriculum developed by PBS. In other cases, it's an optional unit in an afterschool program. At one high school in North Dakota, a chemistry teacher with no media experience applied to host an SRL so her students could start telling science stories. PBS provides equipment stipends for programs that need it, but often the staff simply lends additional professional expertise to established youth media programs.

The SRL directors demand an extraordinary level of professionalism, which lets the students know they're taken seriously, said Chris Sloan, an English teacher at Judge Memorial Catholic High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. The young producers are more likely to be interested in current events when they have the opportunity to add-or hear their peers'-perspectives, explained Sloan, whose new media class is an SRL.

"It's one thing to watch a news show and watch adults talking to you," said Thaisi Da Silva, SRL director. "It's another to see the kid in your English class talking [on TV] about what's going on in Ferguson. The kids perk up and all of a sudden they start to care when they see the youth voices respected."

It's this platform and power-and undoubtedly the opportunity to get their hands on cool cameras-that attract teens, including those who might not respond to more traditional education models. Rosenberg said many of her peers who are not engaged by the traditional classroom curriculum have become quite passionate about their media projects, something she sees as evidence that more technology is needed in classrooms.

"There's a lot of brilliant people that aren't academically oriented," she said. "Technology in general really needs to be promoted in schools, and it's through programs like this that students are able to learn these things."

Rosenberg's current project looks at school safety measures in her district. After the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, PBS announced that this year's SRL students should pitch stories on school safety. In addition to an annual theme, the SRL headquarters sends out "Rapid Response" questions on an issue du jour. SRL reporters put together short pieces, which PBS then edits into a story for broadcast.

The PBS label lends credibility to student reporters who may typically have trouble securing an interview with, say, a school administrator. But PBS also benefits from the students' unique access to their peers.

"They always come up with an angle you wouldn't hear from an adult," Da Silva said. "What's really fascinating is they're able to get their colleagues [peers] to open up at an intimate level."

SRL is only in its fourth year, but many alumni have scored prestigious journalism internships or are applying to film school. At the very least, most of the participants now watch the news.

"Education needs more partnerships like this," Sloan said. "Mainstream media needs more consumers, and kids need information."
Top Photo: Students at Media Enterprise Alliance, a Student Reporting Lab in Oakland Ca.
Photos/ Natalie Orenstein

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Partnership with PBS Empowers Teen Journalists to Tell Stories that Matter

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Educator Innovator and its partners share the goal of creating more powerful and connected learning for youth through bringing together learning and leadership opportunities for teachers, youth workers, mentors, librarians, and museum educators that are open, re-mixable, and typically free or low-cost.

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Project-Based Learning Research Review | Edutopia

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Project-Based Learning Research Review | Edutopia

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What is Project-Based Learning?

Project-based learning hails from a tradition of pedagogy which asserts that students learn best by experiencing and solving real-world problems. According to researchers ( Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; Thomas, 2000), project-based learning essentially involves the following:

students learning knowledge to tackle realistic problems as they would be solved in the real world

increased student control over his or her learning

teachers serving as coaches and facilitators of inquiry and reflection

students (usually, but not always) working in pairs or groups

Teachers can create real-world problem-solving situations by designing questions and tasks that correspond to two different frameworks of inquiry-based teaching: Problem-based learning, which tackles a problem but doesn't necessarily include a student project, and project-based learning, which involves a complex task and some form of student presentation, and/or creating an actual product or artifact.

These inquiry-based teaching methods engage students in creating, questioning, and revising knowledge, while developing their skills in critical thinking, collaboration, communication, reasoning, synthesis, and resilience (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008). Although these methods of inquiry-based teaching differ slightly, for simplicity they're combined in these pages and referred to as project-based learning or PBL.

Learning Outcomes

Studies comparing learning outcomes for students taught via project-based learning versus traditional instruction show that when implemented well, PBL increases long-term retention of content, helps students perform as well as or better than traditional learners in high-stakes tests, improves problem-solving and collaboration skills, and improves students' attitudes towards learning ( Strobel & van Barneveld, 2009; Walker & Leary, 2009). PBL can also provide an effective model for whole-school reform ( National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform, 2004; Newmann & Wehlage, 1995).

A 2016 MDRC/Lucas Education Research literature review found that the design principles most commonly used in PBL align well with the goals of preparing students for deeper learning, higher-level thinking skills, and intra/interpersonal skills ( Condliffe et al., 2016).

Keys to Project-Based Learning Success

Researchers have identified several components that are critical to successful PBL (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; Ertmer & Simons, 2005; Mergendoller & Thomas, 2005; Hung, 2008). While project-based learning has been criticized in the past for not being rigorous enough, the following features will greatly improve the chances of a project's success:

1. A realistic problem or project

aligns with students' skills and interests

requires learning clearly defined content and skills (e.g. using rubrics, or exemplars from local professionals and students)

2. Structured group work

groups of three to four students, with diverse skill levels and interdependent roles

team rewards

individual accountability, based on student growth

3. Multi-faceted assessment

multiple opportunities for students to receive feedback and revise their work (e.g., benchmarks, reflective activities)

multiple learning outcomes (e.g., problem-solving, content, collaboration)

presentations that encourage participation and signal social value (e.g. exhibitions, portfolios, performances, reports)

4. Participation in a professional learning network

collaborating and reflecting upon PBL experiences in the classroom with colleagues

courses in inquiry-based teaching methods

You will find much greater detail on these four key components, along with step-by-step instructions on how to put them into place, in the next section.
Continue to the next section of the PBL research review, Evidence-Based Components of Success.

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Project-Based Learning Research Review | Edutopia

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Studies have proven that when implemented well, project-based learning (PBL) can increase retention of content and improve students' attitudes towards learning, among other benefits. Edutopia's PBL research review explores the vast body of research on the topic and helps make sense of the results.

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The History of 20-Time:

3M started it in the 1950's with their 15% Project. The result? Post-its and masking tape. Google is credited for making the 20% Project what it is today. Google asks its employees to spend 20% of their time at Google to work on a pet project...a project that their job description doesn't cover. As a result of the 20% Project at Google, we now have Gmail, AdSense, Google News, and my favorite, the Google Teacher Academy. Using 20 Time in the workplace allows innovative ideas and projects to flourish and/or fail without the bureaucracy of committees and budgets.

What Are the Options?

20% Project: A lot of time has been spent with both success and failures to mold the 20% Project template series above. If you'd like a structured template for instituting 20-Time in your classroom, the 20% Project is for you. Check out the 20% Project writeup, the 20% Project Template Series, and the 20% Project Community. For an indepth guide on integrating 20-Time in your class- Kevin Brookhouser's 20Time Project is a must read.

Genius Hour: For those not ready for a commitment (teachers or students) try Genius Hour. Students search a different topic each week with a few informal presentations at the end of the hour.

Need One More Reason?

How about 10 Reasons? Check out AJ Juliani's post "10 Reasons to Try 20% Time in the Classroom."

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20-Time In Education Inspire. Create. Innovate.

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The History of 20-Time: 3M started it in the 1950's with their 15% Project. The result? Post-its and masking tape. Google is credited for making the 20% Project what it is today. Google asks its employees to spend 20% of their time at Google to work on a pet project...a project that their job description doesn't cover.

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Out of Australia comes the CREST Awards Program for original science investigations

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Out of Australia comes the CREST Awards Program for original science investigations

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Choose2Matter - Choose2Matter challenges us to make "mattering" a way of life.

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Choose2Matter is a universal movement that challenges us to make "mattering" a way of life. When people accept they matter and know their actions count; learning, lives and worlds change. Are you in?

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Connecting students with experts so they can do important work

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Connecting students with experts so they can do important work

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We provide targeted solutions for use in every area of the literacy block, featuring a wide range of authentic text and research-based instruction. Our wide variety of programs can be used in conjunction with existing materials or together as an integrated literacy framework.

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Teachers, Profs, Parents: Writers Who Care

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By Brad Currie Black River Middle School in Chester, New Jersey, takes great pride in the wide range of innovative learning experiences that students are exposed to on a daily basis. Focusing on digital literacy and building digital capacity are important aspects that we incorporate on a daily basis.

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CBK Associates works hard to promote service learning projects. The blog and resources contain provocative ideas.

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CBK Associates works hard to promote service learning projects. The blog and resources contain provocative ideas.

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About CBK Associates

2018 SUMMER SERVICE LEARNING AND ADVISORY INSTITUTE is now scheduled - July 16-19 - just outside of Albany NY. Read about the program and register HERE. Cathryn Berger Kaye will always customize this highly engaging institute with you in mind.
Our CBK Associates team is growing with new talent! Our work expands in NYC to lead programming and development of the NYC Mayor's Service Youth Leadership Councils. Our Advisory Programs are in schools all over the world - for grades K-12, We lead institutes, conference workshops and on-site professional development around the globe. Recently, Cathryn led sessions at the Tri-Association Conference in Costa Rica and the MAIS Conference in Valencia, Spain, covering: Service Learning, Advisory, and Engaging Teaching and the BRAIN. Cathryn recently began her three part of series of Service Learning Workshops for the NYC Department of Education. Now, she is on a five week worldwide tour speaking at conferences, engaging with international schools and public school educators in five countries. After leading a weekend EARCOS Workshop in Chang Mai, visiting the International School in Paris, and consulting at the Cairo American College, Cathy is in Valencia (MAIS Conference), and next heading to the ACS Cobham Schools in London for two days of advancing service learning. In Beijing, Cathryn will lead a two day Service Learning Institute for local Chinese primary teachers (with translator), then head to Western Academy Beijing to assist with their Advisory Program in middle and high school for five days. Then another EARCOS Service Learning weekend workshop. Along the way, catch Cathryn's photos at the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Great Wall! Email cathy@cbkassociates.com for details. Where else is Cathryn this year? Visit Cathryn's month-by-month calendar here.
Ideas, innovation, creativity, resources, and more. CBK Associates offers a wealth of professional development opportunities for your schools, universities, organizations and businesses to grow, learn and advance.

Whether you want an inspirational keynote, school consult or in-depth program, CBK Associates led by Cathryn Berger Kaye is known for enlivening your group, elevating effectiveness, and bringing your mission to life. Cathryn is all over the world working at schools and with organizations facilitating leadership conversations, advancing curricular concepts through service learning, and discussing learning theories. She is also delivering a new curriculum, Dynamics for Success, providing unique education experiences for students at each grade level K-12, and has an afterschool program in 57 elementary schools in Guilford County, North Carolina. Schedule Cathryn and her team of consultants to visit your school for onsite customized professional development. We have new Advisory Programs - for High School and Middle School - and Elementary! Inquire at cathy@cbkassociates.com.

We design programs, curricula and events. We facilitate school change-leading conversations for strategic thinking. We offer institutes, workshops, presentations, and ongoing partnerships. We are writers, thinkers, listeners, strategists, and collaborators. And we look forward to advancing your work and providing exceptional results. CBK Associates, transforming ideas into action!

FIND A WEALTH OF ARTICLES at Resources,including Meaningful Reflection.

Interested in knowing about the literature Cathryn recommends for service learning integration? Pop over to the ABCD Books Catalogue HERE. Follow us on Twitter @cbkaye.

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2018 SUMMER SERVICE LEARNING AND ADVISORY INSTITUTE is now scheduled - July 16-19 - just outside of Albany NY. Read about the program and register HERE. Cathryn Berger Kaye will always customize this highly engaging institute with you in mind. Our CBK Associates team is growing with new talent!

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This Ted Talk is inspiring!

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Kiran Bir Sethi shows how her groundbreaking Riverside School in India teaches kids life's most valuable lesson: "I can." Watch her students take local issues into their own hands, lead other young people, even educate their parents.

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This video is an overview of TIGed.

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Earlier this year, our team at TakingITGlobal was thrilled to launch our fourth professional learning course, Education for Social Innovation, with our partners at the Toronto District School Board. The new course, co-designed with a group of lead educators at the TDSB, brings together elements of our Student Voice and Global Citizenship e-courses with new content infusing topics of social change, entrepreneurship, and technology for pedagogical documentation.

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A video from San Paulo showing what students can do 

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A video from San Paulo showing what students can do 

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Service Project on Outskirts of Sao Paulo

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Approximately forty 9th and 10th grade students from an international school in Sao Paulo spent three days in a nearby community. They worked with local children and the volunteer staff at an after-school community center to improve the outdoor environment of the center.

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Encourage students to join important conversations about current issues

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Of the more than 8,000 class periods that I have taught, one stands out as my favorite - not only for what happened in the class but also for how it transformed my teaching. The class took place in the fall of 2004 and what strikes me about it now is how primitive it was by today's technological standards. Indeed, the entire class consisted of the students sitting in a circle, staring at a speakerphone, and engaging in a dialogue about global health with a guest on the other end of the line. Fortunately for us, the guest was Dr. Paul Farmer, a path-breaking physician who co-founded the organization Partners in Health and who is the subject of a book the class had read, "Mountains Beyond Mountains." For forty minutes, the students peppered Farmer with questions about Haiti, about how to best use one's talents to address global health issues, and about how he had worked with Republicans and Democrats to ramp up global health funding.

As soon as we hung up, it was immediately apparent that the talk had lit a fire under the students: they not only wanted to track down the books and films that Farmer had referenced, but they also wanted to form a global health club. I returned home that night and told my wife, "I need to find a way to do this more often." Over the past ten years, I have pursued having students study complex global issues in depth and then engage in discussions with a range of experts. The good news is that teaching about global issues through the use of technology and expert speakers is far easier than one might expect, it has great appeal for teenagers, and it frequently leads to learning that extends far beyond the classroom.

Thanks to the Internet, exposing students to global issues and to experts who work on them has never been easier. When I started my career, finding articles and videos on international issues was an arduous process that required hours of sleuthing and juggling VCR tapes; today it is possible with just a single computer to find and within minutes share information about even the most underreported international news stories. So, for example, if my class wanted to know more about the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, we could accomplish the following within a single period: find articles about it online, locate websites to track the disease's spread, set up Google Alerts to keep us abreast of the latest news, and reach out to experts in public health, journalism, history and government who could help us to understand the issue in greater depth. Since staging a dialogue with Paul Farmer a decade ago, we have been fortunate to arrange dozens of meetings or Skype calls with a wide range of experts that includes Muhammad Yunus, Jim Yong Kim, Laura Bush, Colin Powell, Jeffrey Sachs, Noam Chomsky, Bill Frist, Dan Ariely, Paul Collier, Alan Mulally, Christy Turlington, Adam Hochschild, Peter Singer and many more.

Learning about global issues through the use of technology and expert speakers appeals to teenagers for two reasons. First, it's not "busy work." When students know that they are reading chapters from a macroeconomics text so that they can prepare for a wide-ranging dialogue with Jeffrey Sachs, they are eager to prepare as thoroughly as possible. Students appreciate that when they speak with an expert, they are able to ask critical questions and engage in an intellectual give-and-take with someone who (usually) treats their questions and opinions with respect. In fact, this goal of critically examining the issues and approaches that we are studying is one that is modeled by the experts with whom we speak. So, for example, my students spoke with Sachs and heard his ideas about why foreign aid can provide the big push that lifts nations out of poverty, and we also spoke with one of Sachs' most vocal critics, Nina Munk, whose book "The Idealist" maintains that much of Sachs' efforts have failed. Similarly, my students met with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on the same day that they went to a lecture by one of the Bank's harshest critics, William Easterly.

Truth be told, my students have attended talks by Nicholas Kristof and met with the anthropologist Kathryn Mathers who began a piece by declaring, "I do not want to write about Nicholas Kristof. The sheer banality of his representations of Africa paralyzes me." When students are exposed to these sorts of fierce disagreements, they, too, want to engage. In fact, one of the great pleasures of my job is watching students enter into critical, passionate discussions about the material we are studying - a feat that would not occur if they felt that what we were doing was "busy work."

The second and perhaps more fundamental reason this approach to teaching about global issues works so well is because it taps into teenagers' acute sense of justice. It is the rare high school student who fails to feel angry when she learns about the violence in Syria or the lack of access to cheap, life-saving drugs in many parts of the world. Unlike so many adults who assume that they are powerless to impact these situations, my students believe that they can play a role in righting these wrongs. While the desire to become involved quickly can pose several dangers as many of us saw in the wake of "Kony 2012," this desire can also be an enormous asset for teachers. In my experience, when students feel morally stirred by an issue and want to impact it, they are willing to go to tremendous lengths to understand the issue in all of its complexity.

This past year when my students learned about the struggles associated with the post-earthquake reconstruction of Haiti, they felt angry but, more importantly, they knew that unless they had a deep grasp of the response to the earthquake and Haiti's history prior to 2010, their anger could not be channeled constructively. Once our class had taken the time and effort to learn this history, each student researched an issue essential to the reconstruction of Haiti. On their own, they read widely, wrote critically and arranged their own interviews with experts. They conducted phone and Skype conversations with engineers from Georgia Tech, reporters from The Washington Post, police who have trained officers in Haiti and lawyers who are suing the United Nations regarding the cholera epidemic. At the end of the unit, the students hosted a forum in which they educated more than 350 members of our town's community about the reconstruction process. Watching these students channel their sense of justice about Haiti's reconstruction into a constructive form of action that engaged so many people was deeply satisfying, but what I find even more sustaining is that for many of these students - as has been true of students in previous global issues classes - the work that they did for class marks only the beginning of their engagement with global issues.

By far, the most satisfying element of teaching about global issues is that it has led to clear gains outside my classroom. Students have formed a Global Poverty Reading Group that meets outside of school and reads texts that most students would not encounter until college. Through the global health club, students have raised more than $125,000 for global health nongovernmental organizations whose work they admire. They have presented research at the Haitian Studies Association conference in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Many students who had not previously taken many honors or AP courses have realized that they are capable of succeeding in those courses. This was especially true of a class that I taught last year that had the highest number of racial minorities of any honors class in our school and that had the opportunity to meet with many experts, including World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. These and other students leave high school with a clear desire to work on international issues in the future; in fact, many of them have already started this work by going on gap years, interning for organizations involved in international development, and learning about gender inequality in the field.

Given that the goal has been to get students excited and engaged on global issues, I would consider this work to be successful regardless of whether these students' occupational plans change.

Having said that, it is encouraging to see that so many former students in their mid-20s pursue careers that are directly influenced by their high school global issues experiences. Last month, I had lunch with Ashish Premkumar, who was in the room when Paul Farmer spoke to us in 2004. Although he is only 26, Ashish has worked in Zambia, Lebanon and South Africa, graduated from medical school, and begun his medical residency at University of California, San Francisco, in the field of obstetrics and gynecology. Ashish traces his interest in this work to the experience of being 15 and speaking with Farmer, but notes that Farmer gave him more than mere inspiration when they reconnected five years later. While an undergraduate at Boston University, Ashish had the opportunity to introduce Farmer at a campus event and the two spoke about Ashish's plans to work abroad as a physician and medical anthropologist. Struck by Ashish's abiding passion for global health, Farmer offered to guide Ashish through the residency application process and wrote letters of recommendation on his behalf. While Ashish's experience with Farmer is undoubtedly a bit out of the ordinary, it illustrates the larger point that when high school students are exposed to global issues and experts, the impact can be transformative.
Matt Cone is a global studies teacher at Carrboro High School in Carrboro, N.C. He can be reached at mcone@chccs.k12.nc.us.

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Engaging in Global Issues in the Classroom and Beyond

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Of the more than 8,000 class periods that I have taught, one stands out as my favorite - not only for what happened in the class but also for how it transformed my teaching. The class took place in the fall of 2004 and what strikes me about it now is how primitive it was by today's technological standards.

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Good video about having students do work that matters

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Thought starters

1. How do you see students collaborating and learning from each other?

2. What are the benefits of creating work for an authentic audience?

3. How are students supported to develop passion, skills, and content knowledge?

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A great blog that is a "must read" for me

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A great blog that is a "must read" for me

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That's an especially frustrating reality for me because in my travels to schools around the world I see lots of examples of "work that matters"; high school kids in Philadelphia designing solar panels for hospitals in the African bush; middle school kids in San Diego writing books about their local ecosystems and selling them in local stores; primary school kids designing a new classroom wing being built at their school outside of Melbourne, Australia. And more.

The growing access to knowledge, information, people, and tools that our students are getting demands a shift in how we think about the work they do in school.

"Work that matters" has significance beyond classroom walls; it's work that is created for an authentic audience who might enjoy it or benefit from it even in a small way. It's work that isn't simply passed to the teacher for a grade, or shared with peers for review. It's work that potentially makes a difference in the world.

And while we've always been able to do "work that matters" in our classrooms, our growing access to the Web and the tools and technologies of the modern world can certainly amplify the potentials for audience and for real world application of whatever it is our students are doing. Suddenly, our students have a potential audience of 2.5 billion people who could become readers or collaborators, and they've got all sorts of tools and apps in their backpacks that they can use to create really beautiful, meaningful work in ways that most of their teachers couldn't imagine doing when they were in school. I would argue, in fact, that the growing access to knowledge, information, people, and tools that our students are getting demands a shift in how we think about the work they do in school, one that moves them away from traditional, institutionally organized "assignments" and toward more student-organized projects that are centered on the intersection of their interests and the subject or standard at hand.

That argument becomes even more compelling when you look at the work some kids are doing on their own, outside of school, around their own interests and passions. Like 16-year-old Sean Fay Wolfe, whose 422-page book Quest for Justice (a novel set in Minecraft) currently ranks in the top 1 percent in sales of books sold on Amazon. Or like 12-year-old " Super Awesome Sylvia" Todd, who designed and helped to create a water color replicator that now sells in kit form for $295. Or 15-year-old Jack Andraka, who used his after school time to work in a Johns Hopkins laboratory to invent a cancer test that obliterated the current gold standard.

Are these kids outliers? Sure. But they are also examples of what is now possible for every child and, I would add, each one of us as well. And those examples and the thousands more like them should compel us to rethink what's possible in our classrooms if we begin to open up to the potentials. Instead of passing paper, digital or otherwise, back and forth between students and teacher, what if we allowed students to do real work for real audiences that can read and interact far beyond the limits of the school walls, schedule, and curriculum? What if we let our students do work that they actually cared about and wanted to create, not for a grade but because of its potential contribution to and effect on the world?

No question, this kind of work is harder to manage and to assess; there is very little if any "work that matters" that happens when students sit to take state assessments. Even though this type of work might tell us much more about what a student has learned and can do with that learning than any traditional test, it's not as efficient or quantifiable or rankable.

Still, we can start small, can't we? What if we took 10% of what we're currently doing and handed it over to our students, asking them to meet the standard or the outcome we've set for them in a way that they care about and that had a purpose beyond the classroom? What if we created opportunities for them to educate, entertain, inspire, or connect with people from all over the globe who might be sincerely influenced by the work they're doing? And what if we asked them to assess their own work in ways that matter to them, ways that inform them what worked, what didn't work, and how they might do it differently down the road?

Schools and classrooms should support a deep culture of "doing work that matters," where the adults in the building serve as models for the type of creating and learning we might expect from kids. And there should be a clear vision that everyone understands and works toward, one like the vision at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta which states: "We are a school of inquiry, innovation, and impact." Impact, as in the work that students do carries more weight than just a grade.

The reality of this moment is that every one of our students can create and share and connect in ways that didn't exist even a decade ago. I can't imagine what it's going to be like a decade from now. But I know this: if our students look at the work we're asking them to do today and say "It doesn't matter," we're missing a huge opportunity to help them become the learners they now need to be.
Will Richardson will be the opening keynote for the July 28-30 EdTechTeacher Summit in Chicago.

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For Students, the Importance of Doing Work That Matters

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That's an especially frustrating reality for me because in my travels to schools around the world I see lots of examples of "work that matters"; high school kids in Philadelphia designing solar panels for hospitals in the African bush; middle school kids in San Diego writing books about their local ecosystems and selling them in local stores; primary school kids designing a new classroom wing being built at their school outside of Melbourne, Australia.