We Need Kid Activists Now More Than Ever
Right now, as many of you are grieving and processing and taking some reflective time to look inward and produce outward, I’m digging through some of my own past and hanging on to hope.
Looking back at my work as an elementary engineering teacher, I am hopeful for the students I had the privilege to teach and for their futures. In the Spring of 2018, my first grade engineers and their teacher, Mr. Matt Sheelan, embarked on a journey that seems so relevant today and I hope that by sharing our work we might inspire more youth voices to be heard.
It started out of a desire to collaborate on something real, relevant and meaningful. My teaching partner, Matt, and I aligned our passions of making, art, engineering and social justice and brainstormed many ideas before landing on Kid Activists. Through project tunings with peers, we came upon the realization that while history is vital to teach and the great leaders and activists of our past were worth studying, we realized that there were many kids currently making history and breaking the mold with their actions and their voices today. We wanted to educate our students and empower them to act now about the issues they cared about. We wanted to help send the message that so many kid activists have proven: You’re never too young to make a difference.
We connected our students to the community and invited a parent and jewelry artivist, Sara @ChulaMaiz to help our students learn the power of wearable art to send a message:
1st grade Ss engage in authentic work making connections and learning from parent/jewelry artist in our community! #artivism #htecvkidactivists #hightechhigh #makered #k5engineering @chulamaiz_jewelry @htecvsteam @HTeChulaVista @mjsheelen
We also connected with local activist leaders and Martin Eder from Activist San Diego joined our class to talk about what it means to be an activist and how he has led a life of activism. Students also visited Chicano Park and learned about the Chicano movement in San Diego and met local activists who spearheaded that historic moment.
1st grade #HTeCVKidActivists@HTeChulaVista meet guest expert and Director of @activistsd, Martin! Inspiring #SocialJustice#DeeperLearning#authenticwork! @mjsheelen
We got to work making designs with our art teacher, artist and brilliant collaborator, Ms. Amber George, who helped the students trace portraits of the kid activists they were studying so we could transfer them to the laser cutter to cut the pendants for earrings and necklaces. And we prepared for exhibition!
And then we promoted our student’s work and upcoming exhibition!
Our #pbl website is live: http://beakidactivist.com! Ss designed jewelry ft. 5 Kid Activists: @iammarleydias, @LittleMissFlint, @Malala, Sylvia Mendez, & Iqbal Masih. Purchase on our site & ALL proceeds go to non-profits! Please share/RT! Ss are so excited! @ZoeHTH #BeAKidActivist
We had lots of help in preparation. Thanks goes out to Ms. Leensa Fufa, who at the time was a grad student at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education and now Director of Inquiry and Learning at IDreamAcademyDC, for helping our project along the way and setting up for exhibition.
Students also had an authentic location to hold their exhibition, thanks to Enrique Lugo, his family and community partners for opening their doors at Project Reo Collective, a community coffee house helping to revitalize Paradise Hills, CA.
The following tweets show some of the love and support our students received that day:
Me: What does ‘activism’ mean to you?
First grader: “Fighting for what is right.”
Fight on, kids! Kudos to @mjsheelen & @ZoeHTH for showing the world what high quality PBL looks like in first grade! #BeAKidActivist #useyourvoice
Looking for an amazing example of what PBL looks like in the elementary classroom…check out @mjsheelen, @ZoeHTH, and their rock’n awesome kiddos! @ShareYourLearn@hightechhigh
Reflections from students:
@mjsheelen @hightechhigh “I loved selling jewelry. It makes me feel educated because we are not only selling something like a job but your teaching about activism too.” #BeAKidActivist #shareyourlearning
@mjsheelen @hightechhigh “The most important thing I learned from this project was that Sylvia Mendez used her voice to fight for Mexican Americans.” #BeAKidActivist #shareyourlearning
After the exhibition was over, we had promised to donate our proceeds to benefit the charities and issues that our kid activists were fighting for:
Handmade Kid Activist jewelry coming at ya @LittleMissFlint & @iammarleydias! Thanks for inspiring my first graders – keep on being you! Please spread the hashtag #BeAKidActivist when you get your wearable art! Last day of school so I’m out!!
.@mjsheelen @hightechhigh “The most important thing was about learning about all these activists. Activists are important because we can change the world if something is wrong. Even kids can! We learned about a lot of kid activists.” #BeAKidActivist #shareyourlearning.
When passions and purpose collide, and the community comes out to support you, it is amazing what you can do. My students taught me to not be afraid to teach agency and empower voices at a young age. As more literature and research comes out in the midst of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, we know that kids are not too young to learn about racism. They certainly aren’t too young to learn what it means to be an activist and how to use their voice for change. They are watching us and what we do. Thank you to organizations and people who have supported this work and for supporting us as a community. We are stronger together!
To all the kids and kid activists: Thank you for modeling how to show up, stand up and fight for what’s right. You are our future. I’m sorry we have failed you in areas you are now having to step up: Climate Change, Gun Control, Black Lives Matter, and more. We know we can do better and we will do better because you deserve better.
To learn more about how you can help kid activists, follow @iammarleydias, @LittleMissFlint, @Malala, @GretaThunberg and #BeAKidActivist