Using and storytelling tools such as podcasting, photography, and videography, students recognize their own responsibility to address community needs while caring for and protecting a local forest. By making media and sharing their creations with a global audience, students are empowered to help others become more aware by inspiring the audience to consider their own impacts on the environment. Students engage with Sustainable Development Goals related to ending deforestation and protecting the world’s natural heritage while strengthening their connection to the local community.

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This dashboard of student information was inspired by the need for a more well-rounded picture than what our report card was offering students, parents, and us as teachers. Too much pressure was being placed on our students’ MAP testing data and proficiency-based academic report. Therefore, we attempted to report on the information that the school vision actually stated was important from a student perspective.

Included in the report is a self-introduction, a reflection on our school’s “four bees” moral code, an indication of study skills, a colorful survey based around the Mood Meter which helps students analyze their emotional health, and a futures-thinking exercise. This compact, one page dashboard, was kept in-house during this trial year, and these grade five student profiles will be passed on to their new middle school teachers. We hope this trial is a successful way for students to become more than just numbers as they self-assess some important emotional, dispositional, and core skills needed to be successful in school and life.

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Designed by IC Master Teacher, Adam Pollock, Empathy to Impact (e2i) is a 30-hour unit designed to inspire and equip students to identify a relevant community issue and take meaningful action.

In this video, Adam unpacks his IC MTE journey as well as his students’ personalized Empathy to Impact projects in this thoughtful and detailed reflection. He shares how he adapted the E2I framework, guided his students to find greater vocation, connect to community assets, delve into critical research, apply skills and strategies, and finally take positive action with community partners. Visit empathytoimpact.com to explore the entire bank of student learning and transformative impact.

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My starting point was still with the mission of my school, but I combined it with our school vision centered on Buddhist principles and the 12 Wise Habits. While staying true to this mission and vision, I then focused on enhancing these through one word: Sustainability. This was in part because of my role as Sustainability Coordinator, was am in a position to facilitate change, and through my work in this role I began to look at the word differently. Often individuals think of the environment when considering sustainability, and that is true with many at my school. However, administration is positively making the shift to consider the three pillars of sustainability with a natural focus on society and the environment through a holistic education.

As I continued with my work on this practicum, I focused on one definition: the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level. As sustainability was a vital part of my schools mission and vision, I used this definition as a focal point as I planned.

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Through exploring and identifying problems within their school and communities, students are making connections between themselves and the wider world. By engaging with transformational learning goals centered in global mindedness, students connected with authentic audiences, followed their own passion on how to improve their communities and considered what actions they and others could take. Student agency, critical thinking and use of technology to creatively communicate their ideas underpin this integrated unit.

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In her thorough vignette, unit design, and student video, Melissa illuminates why she is a powerful elementary advocate for student voice and an inspiration in our inaugural cohort.

She created opportunities for young learners to engage with transformative skills and dispositions embedded in futures literacy, imagination, art, language and communication related to concepts of cause, effect, sustainability, equity, and well-being.

In the accompanying vignette, unit design, and in this 3-minute student read-aloud, Melissa maps her journey and thinking while capturing the voices of her learners exploring and communicating futures literacy around well-being and sustainable thinking: future scenarios, compassion, hope, and the power of asking, “imagine if…?”

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As one of the Master Teacher Endorsement pioneers, Ashley has consistently been a model of a professional learner that finds joy the in discovery of innovative thinking, evolution of practice, creative problem solving, and collaboration with colleagues — all for the aim of designing meaningful, transformative learning experiences for students in our complex and ambiguous world. Listen as she shares thoughts and evidence of her growth as an educator, person, and global citizen following her dedicated year, immersing herself into the Inspire Citizens Master Teacher experience.

Congratulations to Ashley on her recognition as a 2020-21 Inspire Citizens’ Master Teacher.

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