I just finished spending the day with about 220 students, and 60 adults, representing several dozen schools from across the Metro Vancouver area (including all three secondary schools in West Vancouver).
It was the latest installment in our School Completion and Beyond Series. The program, initiated by a Ministry of Education grant to the BC School Superintendents’ Association, focuses on improving the quality of students’ high school experience.
The basic premise is schools work on a project, or inquiry question led by students, intended to influence the structures or behaviours in their school. Schools and districts meet twice during the year, to be re-energized and track the progress of their work. They also share and learn from each other – something the students love!
Today’s work was framed by John Abbott, who is quite popular right now in B.C. with current conversations swirling around personalized learning. John spoke to the students (including a history lesson on Peter Puget), as well as during the morning table discussions.
Many of the schools’ inquiry topics were built around the following themes:
- Having Our Say
- Real World Learning
- Our Technology – Making Schools More Like Our Lives
- The Teacher and Me
- Why Are We Here Anyway?
What has been particularly assuring about the sessions is the work has been sustained over several years, and now continues with younger students joining on as older students take on greater leadership. For the first time in the three years of the series, students did all of the organizing and logistics planning today – truly owning the process.
The key request from student organizers asked of adults today – dress like us, no suits, no ties, be part of the group.
As for the title of the blog post, it comes from a question I was asked this morning. Students seemed surprised and impressed that the coffee and muffins were not just for the adults – they were partners today – and could drink the coffee.
cultureofyes.ca 
I enjoyed reading your report of the gathering. I think what impressed me the most was what I would have expected from a session of 220 students representing several secondary schools. Perhaps I am slightly jaded in my initial thinking as I know that in the late 1960s when I was involved in Model UN – just as some students are today – we had similar numbers of students from similar numbers of high schools in the Lower Mainland who had some really good thinking skills and were able to debate about the issues of today and what may come in the future. All this without technology for researching facts and helping to generate ideas.
What I think I am saying is that specialized sessions like this give wonderful examples of how our students are learning and able to share. And, what I think I am hoping, is that the ratio of students in this mindset is greater today than it was in the 60s when I was in school due to their advanced access to information and a higher quality of teachers they encounter on a day to day basis.
Thanks Bob for the comment. It is very obvious in which schools the work and projects of the students is making a real difference – you can just feel their pride. At one school in Coquitlam, the students designed a course and took it through the district and ministry procedures and had the course BAA approved. They loved that student involvment was not just “tokenism” – where we have one student on a committee because we feel we should.
It is interesting about technology – we do all the planning for the sessions in a Facebook group – since it s a common tool that everyone has. The next step students want to take is to use Facebook to share projects.
Thank you so much for creating an opportunity for students to be heard. I love this idea as well as the many other things you are doing in your district to include student voice. I had the privilege of attending Vision 2012 in Delta a few years back (as a masters student) and I was very impressed by the inclusion of the voice of students, parents, and community members. What I did not get to do was see the results of the event – was the student voice meaningful? Did it create change that affected students?
So, my question is: Now What? I would love to hear what happens with the input from students and responses to the posed questions. Obviously I realize you have a plan but the ‘meaningful’ part of student voice is something I feel very strongly about and am curious about how we can bring this to other districts. It is definitely lacking in our current system and I am so happy to see this change (my assistant superintendent and I were just talking about this).
Thanks so much for letting others in on this fantastic idea! I look forward to learning and hearing about the directions you go with the knowledge and opinions presented to you from this event.
Hi Chris,
Picking up on some of what I said in response to Bob, the “now what” is quite different depending on the school or district. In some schools I believe the project has had a profound impact. Some of the key commonalities in places that students ideas have turned into real change include:
* students have been given resouces to support their efforts (e.g. access to teacher coordinator in Coquitlam to help them desgin a course)
* students have had the chance to speak and work with school staff (e.g. in West Vancouver at Sentinel the students presented their findings after surveying students around assessment to a staff meeting
* districts have given the School Completion and Beyond work credibility (e.g. in most districts schools have presented to senior management and at Public Board Meetings
* At the regional forums the decision makers attend (e.g. many districts have had their Board Chairs attend the forums (Vancouver and Burnaby) and Superintendents from almost all districts have attended
* teams had at least one committed and keen teacher and had the support of the Principal – I think this is really key – schools like John Oliver are moving along with their project because their principal is so involved
This series is the best example I have participated in where students were engaged in changing learning – not just leadership.