Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1081161
At the Oakland Innovation Summit, Salomeh Ghorban, an educator and leader in the Teachers Guild Oakland Chapter, shares her dreams for students. for those that are being bullied?' " says Staley, a Fremont Unified District Teachers Association (FUDTA) member. "I know my students enjoy the freedom design thinking allows them. I work with 12- and 13-year-old kids, and getting them interested in school takes a lot of work. rough the design thinking process, I have gotten more interest than anything else I've tried so far. Design think- ing is here to stay in my classroom." At Fremont's American High School, English teacher John Creger has been finding innovative ways to engage students for 30 years, many of which share core princi- ples with the design thinking approach. Notably, Creger has worked to build empathy in his 10th-grade students, asking them to embark on a yearlong project centered around the question of how a sophomore can help build a caring world. Creger says the empathy step of IDEO's design think- ing process sets it apart from other approaches he's used previously. He says the emphasis on caring works well with sophomores and allows them to focus on deeper needs instead of getting distracted by abstract concepts. With that focus on empathy in mind, he is embarking on a district-level Teachers Guild project to incorporate the developmental needs of each stage of childhood into the district's curriculum, so that teachers have the incentive and guidance to help students develop as well as learn. "e Teachers Guild may well be the most encourag- ing development I've seen come to Fremont in my 30 years teaching here," says Creger, a FUDTA member. "Unlike previous moves from the corporate world, this one does not dictate outcomes or processes, but equips teachers with rich innovation skill sets, trusts us to iden- tify needs, and backs us as we design to meet them." 30 cta.org feature D U C A T O R S D O N O T have to be part of an official Teachers Guild cohort to take advantage of the wealth of resources on design thinking available online, including a free toolkit pro- duced by the Guild (teachersguild.org). The site also provides a collection of plans and projects undertaken by educators in schools across the country, and a forum to share ideas. Paula Mitchell in Oakland says the Guild is a supportive community where educators share ideas and "lift each other up in service of students." "Teaching can be so isolating sometimes. Organizations like The Teachers Guild bring educators together to share and support," she says. "The great thing about design thinking is it really just encourages you to try." Fremont's John Creger says the Guild partnership of many education stakeholders is a welcome change in approach, centering efforts around what matters most. "It was refreshing to convene not in our usual school or dis- trict enclaves, but in the heart of the community, partnered up from Day 1 with community members who care about what we do and who we do it for, and want to be involved." Chelsey Staley in Fremont says that students learn more when teachers work together, and The Teachers Guild facil- itates collaboration so educators approach learning from the perspective that nothing is impossible. "The Teachers Guild has given teachers at my school the opportunity to work together and hear what common goals we have for the staff and students, learning from one another about topics we may never have thought of on our own," she says. "That alone has made being a part of The Teachers Guild worth it for me." d i s c ov e r D e s i g n T h i n k i n g A wealth of resources are available for educators who want to learn more about design thinking. E