On this episode of TTT, we do our best to help Eighth-grader Kelsey make connections with people like Leah Qusba from the Alliance for Climate Education: and Kyle Ruddick, the founder of One Day On Earth. Enjoy the conversation, and consider ways of collaborating with us on some our plans together.

Paul Allison, Scott and Kelsey Shelhart, Monisha Nelson, Daniel Lichblau and Kyle Ruddick, Leah Qusba, Monika Hardy, and Cristian Buendia

On the previous episode of TTT#325 - Youth Night with Monisha Nelson, Kelsey Shelhart, Cristian Buendia, Jessica Morgan, Tommy Buteau, Jeff Lebow 11.28.12, we asked a few youths what changes they wanted to make happen. Kelsey said that she wanted to start an environmental club in her school. On this episode we do our best to help her! Our guests this week offer ways to help Kelsey — and all of us with something to DO around climate change and taking a global perspective.

Here are some notes added by our guests during the live webcast:

• It's appropriate to be talking about this while the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar http://us.oneworld.net/doha?gclid=CKur-47QhLQCFYuZ4AodxyUA6A

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• One Day on Earth - next event on 12-12-12 http://www.onedayonearth.org/page/participate
  Participation Information on the above link. Together, we are showcasing the amazing diversity, conflict, tragedy, and triumph that occurs in one day. We invite you to join our international community of thousands of filmmakers, hundreds of schools, and dozens of non-profits, and contribute to this unique global mosaic. One Day on Earth is a community that not only watches, but participates.
• Global Song project http://www.onedayonearth.org/group/globalsong
  Download the guide tracks, and on 12.12.12, record yourself on video playing an instrument, singing or dancing along with the guide track and send us your video/audio.
• A facebook event exists for this as well at: http://www.facebook.com/events/178722825599845/

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• Download Trash Bash Action Plan-great questions to guide planning! https://www.box.com/s/l08l15njn9fy5vl0nu4l
  and
  http://acespace.org/waste/projects/trash_bash

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers we talk with Charles Kouns and David Loitz and a wonderful panel of students about the listening sessions Charlie and David create for teens to raise their voices on school change. The student voices you hear on this podcast are Sierra Goldstein, Jay Smith Chisley, Mackenzie Amara, Nikhil Goyal, Kelsey Shelhart

We invite you to be reminded of the importance of starting with youth voices when we consider what to do next as educators.

https://www.facebook.com/imagininglearning
(Quickest way to get in touch with David and Charlie)

Our conversation on this podcast is about how important it is to listen to students, and we learn more about David and Charlie's methods of doing that. David Loitz writes:

Charlie's focus is in helping to bring the voices and visions of youth people to a national stage. He is both a teacher and an visionary. He is a dear friend and mentor. He created Imagining Leaning four years ago, and has traveled up and down the west coast and as far as New Zealand to host listening session with groups of young people.

http://www.imagininglearning.us/
(Many amazing images here, and a place to donate.)

David Loitz [ http://about.me/dloitz ], a passionate lover of education, film, basketball, food and life. He is currently working towards his Masters in Holistic Elementary Education at Goddard College. He writes and organizes at Adventures In Learning [ http://adventuresinlearning.tumblr.com ] and on the Cooperative Catalyst [ http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/author/dloitz ], @dloitz.

Charles Kouns [ http://www.imagininglearning.us/#%21our-stewards], @Penthias, the Founding Steward of Imagining Learning, an educator and the father of three. Imagining Learning [ http://www.imagininglearning.us ] is creating a national portrait of young people’s wisdom on the reinvention of education. Learn more about Charlie's vision on the Cooperative Catalyst.

Enjoy!

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Below the video here are notes and links on some of the threads we weave together on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers (Please subscribe: http://teachersteachingteachers.org/?feed=rss2 ). Participants in this episode’s Hangout are: Monika Hardy, Mary Ann Reilly, Scott Shelhart (and his daughter) , Liam O'Donnell, Paul Allison, Ann Leaness, and Fred Mindlin

We begin a conversation about Margaret Wheatley’s and Deborah Frieze’s book, Walk Out Walk On [ http://walkoutwalkon.net ], and we explore how the Occupy movements and Educamps might reflect some of the principles in this book.

Monika Hardy wrote recently that she is “absolutely swimming in Walk Out Walk On.” She goes on to explain:

We have been working on a quiet revolution the last four years in Colorado [ http://labconnections.blogspot.com ], both outside and in the public school system, in order to create the communities the authors, Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze share and describe so poignantly, so beautifully in their book.

Mary Ann Reilly joins us this week. Mary is also be inspired by Walk Out Walk On, and has been trying to get a group of teachers together to talk about the book. Mary is a progressive educator, artist, photographer, and writer of Deepening Literacy Learning: Art and Literature Engagements in K-8 Classrooms. [ http://infoagepub.com/index.php?id=9&p=p4b917a12e9f4a ] We are delighted when she is able to join our conversations at Teachers Teaching Teachers.

Ann Leaness joins us as well. Ann is a high school English teacher in Philadelphia, and she is a member of the edcamp foundation [ http://edcampfoundation.org ] board. Ann’s team began edcamp in Philadelphia [ http://edcampphilly.org ] in May of 2010. Walk Out Walk On is on Ann’s bookshelf too, and recently she wrote about “The Dissenters” [ http://lifewithl.com/2011/12/04/the-dissenters-part-1 ] in her blog:

I wanted to spark some interest and also to make this unit relevant for my students. To get started, I showed the students these two videos: “UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed” [ http://youtu.be/6AdDLhPwpp4 ] and “UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to car amidst protesters” [ http://youtu.be/nmfIuKelOt4 ] These videos sparked some interesting discussion about non-violence and the violent reaction. Some students were shocked by the violence of the direct pepper spraying on the docile students, and the lack of reaction on the students’ part. Why did they just do nothing? Why didn’t they fight back? They also remarked about the silence on the second video. We talked about the impact of that silence and the effect of the sounds of the heels hitting the pavement. Again, someone questioned why they didn’t get up and get in the Chancellor’s face.

Reading Walk Out Walk On, one can’t help but wonder if the Occupy Wall Street movement might a place to find “Communities Daring to Live the Future Now,” as it’s put in the subtitle of Walk Out Walk On.

One of the authors of the book, Deborah Frieze also wonders in a blog post last month, “Is Occupy Our Opportunity?”

In Walk Out Walk On, we found ourselves often in the conversation about “building the world we want today.” The communities we wrote about were walking out of failing institutions and walking on to experiment with new ways of feeding and sheltering themselves, of creating health and safety, of learning together and rebuilding relationships. This has never been about creating utopia. It’s about confronting the reality of our situation with new eyes, being willing to abandon limiting beliefs about what’s possible and who’s qualified to make a contribution. Walking on is an invitation for a different kind of social order to emerge in community. So, too, is Occupy. Dewey Square [Boston] is in some ways a microcosm of our society—for better and for worse, it amplifies our gifts and diseases. It places our social impoverishment under a microscope and invites us to do something different. It challenges us to re-learn what it means to be citizens who take responsibility for one another. [ http://www.deborahfrieze.com/2011/11/understanding-occupy-as-a-space-to-... ]

Also joining us on this episode of TTT is Liam O’Donnell, an award-winning children's author and educator [ liamodonnell.com/graphic-novels-books ]. He will help us wonder about communities and to talk about his work as an educator in the Occupy movement. He writes:

I’ve been bringing the Occupy movement into my work with Grade 5/6s studying government and protest (with videos, twinke fingers in the classroom, etc) As a member of the OccupyToronto Education work group, I can speak to the curriculum we're developing for schools around issues of social justice, and poverty.

Also, in a recent blog post, “How Twinkle Fingers turned my classroom into a General Assembly” Liam writes:

Instead of shouting out agreement or disagreement, students showed their “Twinkle Fingers” of agreement or their down low twinkles of disagreement. Confusion or questions were shown by making a letter ‘C’ shape with their hand. This “General Assembly Guide” [ http://www.nycga.net/resources/general-assembly-guide ] from the New York City General Assembly shows what each symbol looks like. And to ensure all voices were heard, not just the loudest, a “stack” or speakers list was put on the chalkboard. [ liamodonnell.com/feedingchange/2011/11/how-twinkle-fingers-turned-my-classroom-into-a-general-assembly ]

Fred Mindlin also joins us to reflect on his nine years of “living at Black Bear Ranch, one of the original 60's "back to the land" hippie communes, and perhaps the only one which survives on the same terms on which it was founded: radical free.”

Enjoy and plan to join us for follow-up episodes on Walk Out Walk On in the coming weeks.