How To Participate
What is the Great American Teach-In?
A day to remind ourselves and our students that citizenship means asking questions, finding answers and standing up for what you believe in... and that education must mean that too.
Every classroom, every student, every school... draft a declaration of educational rights.
When it comes to education, what are the truths you hold self evident? Let's make time to talk about these ideas within our learning communities.
Then, let's document these truths, and continue the hard work of making a high quality public education accessible to all who want it.
The Basics:
Classroom Teachers - Plan to have your classes participate in the Great American Teach-In May 10. Use our basic lesson or create your own and share it with the online community of teachers ready to engage their students in conversations of how we can make our schools better places to work and learn.
Students - If your school is taking part in the Great American Teach-In, ask your teacher what you can do to help plan it. If not, suggest they take part. In the meantime, post your story of a positive learning experience at youtube or facesoflearning.net and tag it teachin11.
School Leaders - Poll your teachers on their interest in participating in the Great American Teach-In. Use our basic lesson across classes or draft your own Teach-In plan. Don’t forget to share whatever you create with the Teach-In community. Invite parents and other community members to join in May 10 and help craft your school’s Declaration of Education.
Parents - Ask your children’s teachers and school leaders if your school will be participating in the Great American Teach-In. If they are, ask how you can help participate and recruit other parents to get involved. If not, suggest they participate and offer to help organize the event.
Community Members - Contact your local schools and ask if they’re planning to take part in the Teach-In. Volunteer to help organize or participate in the schools’ events.
Everyone - Find a local business like a coffee shop or restaurant and host a Teach-In Talk event between May 3 and May 10. Like an open mic, Teach-In Talks are community events that ask participants to share the stories of their positive learning experiences and serve as catalysts to deeper, more involved conversations around how to create more perfect places of learning and working. To search for a Teach-In Talk near you or schedule a Talk, use our Event Creator.
The Deeper Details:
Participation in this event will have three general phases.
1. Preparation
The key piece of participating is to talk with your classes and your community, and to create your declarations. These essential questions and icebreakers can help provide a starting point for the conversation. If you are doing this event in your classroom, feel free to share your plans so other people can use them or be inspired by them.
If you are going to participate, add yourself to the participant list.
If you want to set up an event within your community, add it to the calendar.
If you have a blog, write about your thoughts and preparations on your blog, and tag these posts with the term teachin11. Your post will be aggregated into this site.
2. The Teach In
The date selected for the Teach In is May 10, 2011. At the risk of stating the obvious, you should schedule your Teach In for the time that makes the most sense for you and your learning community.
The essential questions and community-generated teaching resources can help get you started structuring your event.
Feel free to add your event to the calendar.
3. Reporting Back, and Next Steps
Once you have held your event, tell the world about it!
If you have a blog, write about your experiences on your blog, and tag them with the term teachin11. Your post will be aggregated into this site.
If you do not have a blog, there are multiple ways for you to share your participation. Choose the one that works best for you.
- Write a Declaration of Education, and share it on this site.
- Describe your event, and your thoughts about it, by adding it directly to this web site.
- Make a video about your Teach In, and upload it to YouTube. Tag it with the term teachin11.
- Upload images to Flickr. Tag your picture with the term teachin11.