Community Partnerships
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"Ms. Waite was literally one of the best teachers that I have ever met... She has helped to shape the person who I am and where I am now. I still remember when I first came to her class and she came to help me."
- Ahmed a former student |
It is important for my students to understand how what we're learning matters in their lives. This is why connecting students and our units to the community has been profoundly important in my classroom.
A few of the instances where I, or my colleagues and I, brought community members or organizations into my classroom or school are described below. Design Connect
I connected with DesignConnect, an organization whose mission is to provide career pathways in creative design for Detroit students through experiential learning, mentoring and financial assistance. We worked together in my creative writing class, where students were given the goal to describe a product that would make life easier for someone with a disability. Students came up with their ideas and wrote out their plans. Some students were selected by DesignConnect to move forward and partner with a design professional who mentored them and helped them think through how this product could be made in real life. The product designs were submitted for a scholarship competition. This program was for students across multiple Detroit schools and two of mine took first and third place, getting to present their designs to an audience and receive scholarships.
Anlyn Addis, David Walton, and Lamonte Card
My Project-Based Learning unit on freedom began with discussions on the justice system after reading Walter Dean Myer's Monster. I brought in a variety of speakers over the years: attorney Deborah LaBelle and Jackson County Jail nurse Jeanette Friedrick spoke with students the first year. Succeeding years included attorney Anlyn Addis and her colleagues David Walton and Lamonte Card who had been previously incarcerated. Their talks had students engaged and discussing important topics, truly bringing our class material to life. Their contributions to the unit were invaluable. David brought his own self-printed book he had written about his experience to share with students and Lamonte even returned as a volunteer to sit with students and help them revise their writing for publication. Pages Bookshop
My tenth grade project-based learning unit on freedom had students writing with the goal of publication. The strongest pieces were selected, published in a book, a sold at a local bookstore. For four years, Pages hosted us and our launch parties, open to the community, where students did readings, answered questions, and signed books. Seeing their book on the bookshelf made the writing process very real for students. Community Health Fair
Ben Carson High School held an annual community health fair. Community organizations were brought in to share services they provided, included yoga and mma lessons, health screenings, and many more. Students clubs like Garden Club and National Honor Society had tables to discuss what they were working on and it ended with a raffle. Both students and community members came to the fair and learned more about health and Detroit resources.
10th Grade Launch Parties
The tenth grade team had cross-curricular project-based learning units and partnered with organizations and speakers each year, based on the project we were doing. Each year we would hold a launch where the students spent part of the day listening to speakers related to the project's topic, reading related materials, and building community among each other. |