Give Them a Mic and Watch Them Grow

When putting together SILC (@shhs_silc) one of the promises to the students was to provide opportunities for them to learn how to articulate themselves to compell others to believe. During the Fort Worth Technology Conference the first on-stage opportunity occured. What was meant as an opportunity to talk about how the influence of Student Voice is the impetus for their current project, along with how Student Voice is making a difference on their own campus. However, what ensued was beyond anyone's vision. For 90 minutes, the audience didn't see SILC as a bunch of High School students trying to fight for change, but instead, the audience saw these kids as a wealth of knowlege to help them with their own student issues in their classrooms. Every teacher who asked questions of our students seem to support the notion of Students having a voice, but never gave their students an opportunity to actually speak. So, hearing the members of SILC passionately talk about their learning experiences and the need for educational change in the way students are taught was refreshing.

Teachers begin to ask students for advice on various topics from how to encourage students to speak up, to the impact of technology in the classroom to how to deal with behavioral issues in the classroom. Initially, I was concerned about being able to use the entire 90 minutes, but we actually could have been there for much longer. It got to the point where I just simply sat down, gave them the microphone and the allowed their command of the conversation to drive the moment.

The dissucssion was great. Some questions led to inpirational quotes, while some questions were intentionally asked to trip of the students. However, they responded with poise and class. SILC truly grew up right before my eyes. We didn't get to all the question because of time. We used Poll Everywhere and teachers were able to Tweet or text questions to the screen on stage. So, the questions we did not get to, SILC will answer during their next SILC Voice Presents show on YouTube on February 18 at 7:00 PM. As result of the questions that were addressed, SILC will form Virtual Mentor groups at a few Middle and Elementary schools and will also help a Middle School begin a Student Innovation Leadership Committee on their campus.

There were many lessons learned that day, but the most important according to the students was that they learned empathy for the teachers. They now understand that teachers are under pressure to get things done and sometimes its a bit overwhelming. Knowing that now, when they have future conversations about necessary changes in the learning environment, they'll have compassion that will help them meet the teachers where they are and maybe change can happen sooner than later.