Big Day-Celebrating Student Success

Tomorrow I will share two sessions at our local teacher's convention on our work in room 157. The first is a look at multimodal composition and how we utilize this art form in the classroom to help students respond in various ways.

The second presentation will highlight #ProjectSpeak. A multigenre inquiry project that provides students an opportunity to think about what they feel is important, research it, build their presentations, and then share with the world (or at least their classmates).

Both of these presentations are showcases of the work Room 157 explores. It will be an opportunity to grow and work on stretching myself. Presenting has always been nerve-wracking for me. I had a student explore Social Anxiety as their topic for Project Speak. It was interesting reading her essay and listening to her "TED talk." A large amount of what she shared resonated with me. An additional project piece is to create multimodal compositions to amplify the message, an ad campaign.

When I first looked at this submission, I was taken most by the reaching of the faceless people. Presenting very much used to feel this way. Locked in a cage with folks watching. There was a level of discomfort that prevented me from taking that step. However, with great support and a nudge from many, including my students, I started taking the steps online and now in person. I think a big piece is just sharing their brilliance. I want people to see it. I want them to understand their students can do it too. So tomorrow, we will share. We share the work of room 157. We share their brilliance. We ask teachers to extend these invitations to their students. Here is a little preview.

As a final point, I think sharing the words of Dr. Gholdy Muhammad is always the right way to go.

Genius will emerge—every single time.