5 Reasons Your School Needs a Student Tech Team. Now.

I know what you’re thinking, because I’m thinking it too: where do I find the time?   Yes, I guess I’m asking you to add one more task to your over-flowing plate.  I promise you, it will be worth it.  When I started what became the Oak Hill eLeaders three years ago, I had no idea it would take us all on a path I could have never imagined.   Did I ever think I’d have an 11-year-old keynote speaker at a tech conference?  Did I ever imagine I’d see 10-year-olds traveling the country on a mission to teach teachers how to effectively integrate tech tools into their classrooms?  Did I think I’d see my eLeaders present to teachers on a college campus?  Not in a million years! 1. Your students need opportunities to be heard.  Loud and clear.  They need the opportunity to work on a project and a purpose that is bigger than they are.  They want the chance to make the world better with their contribution.  Daniel Pink discusses this in his book, Drive.  I believe it is a must-read for all teachers.Your students are going to blow your mind.  They want to follow Kid President’s advice to “make the world more awesome.”  Give them that chance. 2. You and your students can use your right brains!  You can CREATE.  You can get messy.  You can take risks.  You can imagine.  You can think outside the box!  No one is collecting data on this process!  Yippee!    Daniel Pink tells us that right brainers will eventually rule the world, and I believe him! (If you haven’t read this book, you must!)  We are educating students for jobs that don’t yet exist!  How do we do that?  We do that not by teaching to the test, but by providing opportunities for them to collaborate, solve problems, and lead! 3. Autonomy! You don’t have a curriculum map to follow!  Nothing about your experiences with your tech team is prescribed for you!  You will love the freedom this brings.  If you’re a rule breaker and a disruptor like I am, you will cherish this.  It will fuel your passion to keep going, despite those days when exhaustion is getting the better of you.You can create opportunities for students to choose what they learn.  When do we ever get to do that anymore?  (I will describe how I did this with my eLeaders in an upcoming blog post.) 4. Your students need the chance to become masters of their own learning. Angela Myers teaches us all about helping kids find their genius.  They need the freedom to figure out what they care about, and what they are good at. They need the time to ask lots of questions of you - of each other - and of themselves.   For some, they will be Minecraft masters.  For others, they may become the stop motion animation experts.  Some may create awareness of social justice issues by developing web sites to do so.  Some may become the techies who help teachers fix their computers!  Others may take that 3-D printer and create something miraculous!  It’s all possible! 5. There’s no pre-test.  There’s no post-test.  What you and your students will create cannot be measured on a standardized test!  Your journey will not be able to be “standardized,” because nothing about it will be “standard.”   As Peter Reynolds says, Create Bravely.  That’s what I’m going to do.  I will be starting new tech clubs in two different schools next month.  I’ll share my journey and I look forward to hearing about yours.

Contact me.  I’m on a mission to give students a voice. My mission is not to see you recreate what my Oak Hill eLeaders did, but to forge a new path and see where it takes you!  If you have started this journey, I’d love to hear from you.  Let me know how I can help.  I can’t wait to learn from you and your students.  Let’s do this!