What do you do with an idea? The second grade class at Borton Magnet School, The Shooting Stars, asked this question and then took on the challenge of helping one of their classmates realize her idea — a sculpture with 100 hearts. Evanee, a quiet second grader, wanted to create a sculpture with 100 hearts to show the kindness of Borton Magnet School.
The Shooting Stars got to work helping turn Evanee’s idea into a reality. Along the way they learned that bringing an idea to life takes teamwork and lots of iterations.
After five months of hard work, The Shooting Stars unveiled their 100 hearts sculpture at a dedication ceremony on February 14! Wondering how 23 second graders brought their idea to life? Tune to our Facebook live interview on Wednesday, March 14th at 2:45pm PST with the teachers who made it possible Kathy Lohse and Sheila Encinas. In our interview Kathy and Sheila will share tips, tricks, and lessons learned for supporting authentic, student-driven learning.
Want to know more about the process, tools and resources Sheila and Kathy used? Follow their upcoming blog series beginning Thursday, March 15. Here’s a snapshot of what they will be covering.
Step 1: Understand the Process
What do we have to do to make this project work? Sheila and Kathy share the tools and scaffolding they used to help students identify and prioritize tasks for their project.
Step 2: Create a Collective Vision
How do we get 23 second graders on the same page? Sheila and Kathy explain how they created a shared vision by helping students synthesize the trends among their ideas and make collective design decisions.
Where does inspiration come from? Learn about how The Shooting Stars looked to their own community and studied the work of experts to inform their own prototypes from paper to PVC.
Step 4: Test & Engage Community
How do we leverage our community to create buy-in and help implement our project? Kathy and Sheila will share how they engaged community members to provide input, feedback, and help in the construction of their 100 Hearts sculpture.
How can we build excitement and energy by getting the whole school involved? Learn about how The Shooting Stars crowd-sourced the creation of the 100 ceramic hearts were decorated and hung on the sculpture frame.
How do we empower students to showcase and reflect on their learnings? Hear about the Celebration of Learning where students shared their process with members of the community, parents, and the school board. Draw inspiration from the reflection tools Sheila used with the Shooting Stars.
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ave questions or comments? Send them to carly@leadlocal.global or pop into our inbox on Facebook or Twitter and we will answer them on Wednesday at 2:45 PST during our live interview with Kathy & Sheila.