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| Abby facilitating a session on Women's Rights |
Every year Synapse chooses a Changemaker to focus on for the year. This year our Changemaker is Benjamin Franklin. It turns out that Benjamin Franklin formed his own Edcamp style group that met weekly to discuss different topics. He called them Juntos. Using that as a connection, students considered the topics they would like to discuss and our own #EdcampJunto was formed.
“At age 21, with his printing business established in Philadelphia and his circle of friends expanding, Benjamin Franklin formed a weekly discussion group with twelve men who shared his drive for learning and conversation. Named the Junto (derived from the Spanish to join), the club met every Friday evening in a tavern or house to discuss ‘Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy [science].’” -National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox
How
My colleagues Federico Chialvo @federicochialvo, Katie Morgan @fxluvr and Stephanie Seto, @shsetos really took the lead on making this happen. Stephanie put together an excellent lesson plan that steps through the entire process.
Here are the highlights.
- We introduced the concept of Juntos to students in a whole school meeting and then invited them to propose topics that they would like to discuss.
- Using a simple Google Form, students proposed topics and then indicated if they would be willing to facilitate that session.
- Once we gathered all of the topics, we created a Google Form for students to vote on the topics that they would be most interested in talking about.
- Then Stephanie put together a schedule of the most popular topics. We divided the schedule into four 20 minute sessions. We also decided to keep the popular sessions on the schedule that didn't have facilitators and allow the kids in the room to figure out who would lead (if anyone).
- Before we started the sessions, I gave students a little background on Edcamps and explained some of the rules. We decided not to let students leave sessions once they had chosen them (ie - rule of two feet). With middle schoolers that can get complicated.
- There was an adult in each room, but they were not there to lead the group. However, they did participate.
Here is the schedule we ended up with for the day.
Locations
|
Session 1
9:30 - 9:50
|
Session 2
10:20 - 10:40
|
Session 3
10:45 - 11:05
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Session 4
11:10 - 11:30
|
John’s Classroom
Supervising Teacher:
John
[Session 4: Stephanie]
|
Video Games
Facilitated by:
Henry
|
LARP
Facilitated by:
Ben
|
Sports
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Endangered Animals
Facilitated by:
Peyton, Roxie, Danielle
|
Science Room 1
Supervising Teacher:
Brian B
[Session 1: Adnan]
|
The Possibility of Artificial Intelligence
Facilitated by:
Jasper
|
Matching People to TV Characters
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Synapse Conspiracy Theories
Facilitated by:
Beau
|
Hunger Games
Facilitated by:
Cara
|
Science Room 2
Supervising Teacher:
Chelsea
[Session 2: Adnan]
|
What will Earth look like in 10 years?
Facilitated by:
Beau
|
Youtube
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Nature Walks
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Food and Cooking
Facilitated by:
Andres, Kenaan, Zach
|
Brian L’s Advisory
Supervising Teacher:
Brian L
|
World Problems and Potential Solutions
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Is the universe real?
Facilitated by:
Brian
|
Magic Camp
Facilitated by:
Ben, Henry
|
Ideas for School and Ideas for Clubs
Facilitated by:
Ingrid
|
Holly’s Advisory
Supervising Teacher:
Holly
|
Women’s Rights
Facilitated by:
Mady, Abby
|
Star Wars
Facilitated by:
Evan, Corsa, Frankie, Eli
|
Interstellar
Facilitated by:
Tryston
|
Why do things go viral?
Facilitated by:
Bella
|
Danielle’s Advisory
Supervising Teacher:
Danielle
|
Books
Facilitated by:
Phoebe
|
Animal Sciences
Facilitated by:
Ben, Henry
|
Current Events
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Dinosaurs
Facilitated by:
Spencer
|
Jessica’s Advisory
Supervising Teacher:
Jessica
|
Space
Facilitated by:
Tryston
|
Animal Cruelty
Facilitated by:
Abby , Mady
|
Music
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
NFL
Facilitated by:
Eli
|
Federico’s Room
Supervising Teacher:
Federico
|
Physics of the Flying Disc (AKA Frisbee)
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
What is the best book ever?
Facilitated by:
Maleeha
|
The Presidential Election
Facilitated by:
Daniel
|
The Psychology of Magic the Gathering
Facilitated by:
Humza
|
Steven’s Math Room
Supervising Teacher:
Steven
|
The Martian
Facilitated by:
Humza
|
What is the best movie of the 2000s?
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Theodicy
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
SSS
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Quiet Multipurpose Room
Supervising Teacher:
Anne
[Session 2: Katie]
|
Communism, Socialism, Capitalism
Facilitated by:
Eli
|
Will Star Wars 7 be any good? If no, what will be the outcome?
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Patterns in Nature
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Minecraft
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Katie’s Writing Workshop Room
Supervising
Teacher:
Jimmy
|
John Cena
Facilitated by:
Jordan
|
Why do you get socks and clothes for Christmas?
Facilitated by:
Lisa
|
Equality with Humans and Animals
Facilitated by:
Maleeha , Abby, Mady
|
Global Warming and Climate Change
Facilitated by:
OPEN
|
Now What
When we first introduced the juntos for the day, a student asked, "Is the the first Junto or the last one?" I told her, that was up to the students. If they took this seriously we would love to do this again. From everything I have heard, the day was a huge success. My daughter facilitated 3 different sessions (she is in the 6th grade at my school) and this morning she asked me if we could have Juntos every Friday.
We will definitely debrief the experience, iterate and repeat!
Have I mentioned how much I love my school lately? Wow! - the things that my faculty and students do there blow me away everyday. Stay tuned for more posts on all of the great things that are going on in this amazing place.
