The Power of Kindness through Global Collaboration: Coldwater Canyon Elementary and Carson Street STEAM Academy

The Power of Kindness through Global Collaboration: Coldwater Canyon Elementary and Carson Street STEAM Academy

By Maria Franco, Instructional Technology Facilitator, Coldwater Canyon Elementary School, Van Nuys/Valley Glen Community of Schools, Local District Northeast, Board District 6, and Michelle Swensson, Instructional Technology Facilitator, Carson Street Elementary School, Carson Community of Schools, Local District South, Board District 7

 

The Power of Kindness through Global Collaboration: Coldwater Canyon Elementary and Carson Street STEAM Academy By Maria Franco, Instructional Technology Facilitator, Coldwater Canyon Elementary School, Van Nuys/Valley Glen Community of Schools, Local District Northeast, Board District 6, and Michelle Swensson, Instructional Technology Facilitator, Carson Street Elementary School, Carson Community of Schools, Local District South, Board District 7

When many of the students returned to school after distance learning , they had to re-learn how to connect with their peers. At Coldwater Canyon Elementary School and Carson Street STEAM Academy, we focused on our students’ social emotional well-being and the implications of how students interact with one another in person and online. Using the ISTE Standard for Students, Global Collaborator as our guide, we wanted to provide students opportunities to interact and collaborate with peers locally and globally in a positive and purposeful way. Our goal was to help our students improve their well-being by empowering them to connect with others and know that what they feel and think matters. Taking into consideration the four Social Emotional Learning (SEL) competencies set forth by L.A Unified, we wanted to remind all students that they are agents of change and they have the power to make a difference in themselves, in others, in our school, our community and even our world!

 

 

The four competencies of LAUSD’s SEL program

1. GROWTH MINDSET: The belief that one’s abilities can grow with effort.
2. SELF-EFFICACY: The belief in one’s own ability to succeed in achieving an outcome or reaching a goal.
3. SELF-MANAGEMENT: The ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations.
4. SOCIAL AWARENESS: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports

Art Changes People

Inspired by the #Kindnesstakesflight project, our students learned that art can inspire others to make a positive change. The project began with the quote “Art changes people and people change the world” by musician John Butler. Students were encouraged to analyze the quote and share their thoughts with their peers. Students learned that a group of high school students had previously created 3D birds in their visual arts class and used them as a vehicle to help them spread messages of kindness and positivity throughout their district. The students at Coldwater Canyon Elementary had just participated in Kindness week. The #KindnessTakesFlight project presented a perfect opportunity to not only help our students extend their learning on Kindness, but to also have them use some collaborative technologies like Zoom, Scratch and Flipgrid to connect with students from Carson Street STEAM Academy. Through this project, students were able to broaden their understanding of how art can impact people and how this can inspire people to make a difference in their community.

Creating Kindness

Once the students were presented with the task of changing people through art, they took ownership of the project. Touched by the idea of spreading kindness, students at Coldwater Canyon Elementary decided to create their own flock of birds that would deliver messages of kindness to other students in our district. Since the students did not know where the ‘flock of kindness’ birds would land, they had to consider the types of kindness messages that they would attach to the birds. They leveraged their digital tools and took an active role in researching and creating a 2D prototype of their bird. Students then worked in the school’s lab and utilized the available materials to create a 3D model of their bird. They worked collaboratively as they helped each other and shared ideas on how they could use the available materials for their project.

People Change the World

The Coldwater Canyon Elementary flock of birds took flight and arrived at Carson Street STEAM academy. Since the schools are from two different Local Districts and over 35 miles apart, it presented the perfect opportunity to connect and collaborate with other students from a distanced community. Fifth Grade student representatives from Coldwater Canyon Elementary introduced themselves and led the 4th grade students at Carson Street STEAM Academy through a mini lesson of the Kindness Takes Flight Project. The collaboration started with the students learning how far apart physically the two schools were but that collaboration is still possible using digital tools.

The Coldwater Water Canyon Elementary student representatives engaged the students from Cason Street STEAM Academy in a reflection activity and invited them to share their thoughts on the quote, “Art changes people and people change the world.” This activity was followed by a short animated video on kindness. At its conclusion, the 4th grade students at Carson Street STEAM Academy were given an opportunity to further reflect what kindness means to them. The teachers at Carson Street STEAM Academy displayed the physical birds from Coldwater Canyon Elementary on the student tables. Carson Street STEAM Academy students were invited to engage in a Gallery Walk, where they read and discussed the kindness messages with their peers. Students moved from table to table until all the kindness messages were read. Check out our Collaboration Video on Zoom: Click here

The 5th grade student representatives closed the lesson by inviting 4th Grade Carson Street STEAM Academy students to continue with this Kindness Takes Flight project. They were presented with three different options. The first option was to create their own digital bird with a kindness message using Scratch and create a video message to share it on Flipgrid. The second option was to add to the flock by creating a physical 3D bird with a message of kindness. The final option was to interact with the Scratch projects in the joint Coldwater Canyon Elementary and Carson Street STEAM Academy Scratch Studio by using the Scratch community platform to communicate kindness by adding comments and likes on the projects. Through these options, students were given the opportunity to leverage the various digital tools they had used during online instruction and show how they could be utilized not only to learn but to connect with other students from a distanced community with different backgrounds and experiences from them. The students could use the technology to engage with other students to share their project, inspire, and broaden their mutual understanding of collaborative technologies.

Carson Street STEAM Academy students are currently working on adding the Kindness Takes Flight project by creating their own Scratch digital birds and kindness messages. The next stage is for the Kindness Takes Flight Birds to be able to migrate to another school so that this flock continues to spread messages of kindness to their peers and families, and also to local and global communities.

If you are interested in remixing or creating your own Kindness Takes Flight Project, here are our resources:

• Google Slides Joint Lesson Deck: Click here
• Article on the Kindness Takes Flight Project: Click here
• Scratch Studio: Click here