Faces of Learning is a grassroots engagement initiative that kicked off in conjunction with the February 2011 release of a new book in which 50 Americans – from students to social workers to the Secretary of Education – share personal stories about their most powerful learning experiences and/or most effective teachers. It aims to spark public reflection on four essential questions that are, alarmingly, absent from the current national conversation about school improvement:
1. How do people learn?
2. How do I learn?
3. What does the ideal learning environment look like?
4. How can we create more ideal learning environments?
Already, scores of cities are planning public conversations in which people can hear stories, share insights, and participate in experiential learning opportunities with the purpose of seeding or leveraging relevant ongoing local work.
Want to organize an event in your community?
If so, there’s no single way to “do it right” – each event will have its own distinct flavor, venue and approach. However, the following core essentials help provide some consistency across events and cities:
• Share information about the event with www.facesoflearning.net, so we can add the event to the master public calendar and help raise awareness about what you’re doing.
• Make youth voices instrumental in both the event and its planning; these should be multi-age, multi-stakeholder, multi-cultural conversations about learning!
• Make the event free and open to anyone.
• Make the event engaging and experiential, in whatever ways the planning team thinks best.
• Organize the event so that it helps participants reflect on and consider the campaign’s four essential questions — either implicitly or explicitly.
• Provide a forum at the event for people to hear and share personal stories about powerful learning and teaching.
• Make it FUN!
Have additional questions or ideas? Post a comment at the bottom of this page and we’ll respond right away!
Ready to submit an event? Use the form below!
2 Comments in this post »
RSS feed for comments on this post. | TrackBack URL
As someone new to your website and initiative, I am impressed and engaged by it! I am part of a group working hard to open a Charter School in Utica, New York, and I see a strong fit between your work and ours. Any suggestions you can offer regarding the promotion of this movement in our area will be welcome. We will be holding more “town hall meetings” to generate involvement and support for the charter school as the process moves forward; I can anticipate incorporating “Faces of Learning” into our discussion. You can learn more about us at http://www.mvcse.org.
Thank you for the work you are doing! I look forward to learning and growing with you, individually and collectively.
Sincerely,
Ann Maher
Newport, New York
Hi Sam (or whomever may be reading this),
As many exciting ventures often do, our charter school initiative in Utica, New York hit a detour in August, but is now reorganized and heading down an even stronger pathway. We hope to host a Faces of Learning discussion at the end of November, and before I post the event, would like to know if there are any definitive guidelines you’ve developed around use of this website as part of an event. My idea is to use the Faces of Learning questions as the discussion starter, and move into a more targeted conversation about opening our Charter School in Utica, NY. Do you see any conflict with that approach for an event?
I continue to regard this website as a strong whiff of fresh air whenever I need to rejuvenate. Thank you for your commitment to quality learning!
Sincerely,
Ann Maher
Mohawk Valley Community Charter School Initiative
315-717-4257