Second graders listening to the owner of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing.

My second grade students are currently working on a PBL in which they are to create a business that they think would thrive and add value to our community.  They have been working as teams to brainstorm, create a name, slogan, logo, and write a plan to pitch to potential investors on our Market Day.  Students have done fishbowl activities in which they pitch their plan to a small group of “sharks” consisting of students and teachers.  They received constructive feedback about what we liked about their business as well as what we think they could do to improve their business and any concerns we had about them being successful. As we enter the final phase of their PBL where students are creating a model of their business, good, or service, we took a break to hear a presentation from a local business owner about what it is like to own and operate a business in our community.   Like any good teacher I prepped my students by showing them the business website for Benjamin Franklin Plumbing. We had a great discussion about their location, slogan, what we thought it would be like to be an employee/ employer and then they wrote a list of (at least 2) questions to ask the owner.  We. Were. Ready.

Then the owner walked in.  She’s a girl?  My students were surprised. I told Michelle, the co-owner of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, that my students were surprised to see her and she so fabulously said to them, “Why? Can’t a girl own a business?”  What happened in the next 45 minutes is what teacher’s dreams are made of; they were on the edge of their seats, fully engaged and inspired listening to Michelle talk.  They asked their questions and more and eagerly wrote the answers down.  But when Michelle left and they were back with their teams sharing what they learned with each other Claire came up to me and said “Mrs. Cridland, I thought you were just teaching us all this stuff for our project.  I didn’t really think that girls can have a business.”  After I choked back my tears I asked her what she thought now and her response has made my year, “I think girls can do anything.”

As I watched Entrepreneurial Learner by John Seely Brown, I was reminded of Claire when Seely Brown said that students build conceptual lenses through play.  That play gives them permission to fail, fail, fail until they get it right. That moment when they get it right is their epiphany and that when a student has an epiphany it will stay with them for the rest of their life.  Now Claire’s epiphany happened not directly through play but because she was able to tie together what she had been creating for her business (C & C’s for Dollies) with what she had learned listening to Michelle speak to the class.  It was a moment for her wrapped in a brilliant message, that she will undoubtedly take with her moving forward, that nothing is impossible.

I chose to read Chapter 2; Peer-Supported Learning from Teaching in the Connected Learning Classroom and felt inspired by the story Wanna See the Movie?  In the story the teacher reflects on work she has done on urban literacy issues as part of the National Writing Project.  Her school, like so many, has mandated weekly assessments, data tracking, and a scripted literacy curriculum. One aspect of the project required the teacher to loop with her students through their next year of schooling and it was during the second year where she decided she wanted to learn what it would be like to be a first grade student in her class and to see how literacy might fit into their ordinary school lives. So, she added the job “videographer” to her classroom job chart and the students were off and running collecting short documentaries throughout each school day.  Together the class would watch and reflect on each documentary and it became an integral part of their day.  If we want to see how the role of a learner is changing with the context of connected learning then this is a perfect example.  Traditionally, students are receivers of information and the teacher is there to transfer knowledge to students.  In this context of learning we (teachers) have very tight control on student voice and choice.  Now, students and teacher learn together.  By putting a camera in students hands and allowing them to choose what they feel is important and giving them an opportunity to be the narrator of their lives in school.  They aren’t sitting in their seats completing worksheet after worksheet.  Students are making things, tinkering with their learning.  This avenue of connected learning allows students to demonstrate their learning in a way that has never happened in a traditional learning classroom.  What intrigues me the most as a teacher is what happens next.  Sitting with students and analyzing the video, connecting with peers.  I think that would be so powerful for them but also as a teacher to learn what their day is like from their perspective and how students are making decisions about their learning by looking at when and what they record.  Clearly, there may be challenges along the way such as ensuring that students are videoing and narrating appropriate content but with the challenges would come opportunities for learning to occur.  As teachers we are used to having the privilege of being the decision maker for what and when activities occur and I think for this to be successful we must be comfortable with the uncomfortable feeling of allowing students to have that privilege as well.