[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.] [0:09] Just joining us, please add your new pages of your children or students you work with, and one thing that is bringing you joy. Feel free to react to others in the chat. And this is going to be an interactive book club, so be ready to engage in some conversation. Maybe you want to have your book on hand next to you or your study guide. Thank you again for being here with us. Yay. [0:37] A lot of nine and six year old, 11 year old, moderate class, that sounds wonderful. [0:42] a lot of quality time with family brings special joy, flower arrangements, beautiful, wonderful [0:50] stuff. [0:50] Do you make those flower arrangements if so, I'd love to learn. [0:55] 26 and 23 baking, so being creative brings you joy, a lot of creativity in this community. [1:02] Join working out. [1:03] Awesome. [1:04] Okay. [1:04] Yes. [1:05] And morning walks. [1:06] That's an exercise. [1:07] Thank you, Dan. [1:10] I think with that, I mean, seven minutes after. [1:12] I think we should get started. What do you think, Dan? [1:15] Let's get going. [1:16] Right. Let's get going. [1:17] Thanks, Kim. [1:18] Yeah. And thank you all for taking the time to introduce yourselves in the chat. [1:22] This is the first of our four book club series. [1:25] And so we're going to continue to get to know one another throughout our times together. [1:31] This, you know, fall and winter. [1:33] And as you all know, we are meeting right now at this time. [1:36] And we'll be together till about 745. [1:39] And once again, I had mentioned that we will be engaging in lots of, you know, dialogue and breakout groups together. So just be prepared. [1:49] If you have any issues, I have my site take here right now. [1:53] Superintendent Dan Duguar is in our space here. [1:56] But also you can email me at cakeoffwell at johnsaccess.org. [2:00] I'll have my email up on the side. [2:01] But also, [2:02] you know, ping us in the chat or other ways to get connected to make sure that you have [2:06] what you need for our time together today, including your book and snacks and water. Okay? [2:12] Kim, if I can just add really quick, I know maybe some of you have friends that are pinging [2:17] you right now saying, oh, I forgot to sign up. Where, where is the log in? Just so you [2:21] know, the log in for tonight is on our district website. It's on the calendar. All they have [2:28] do is click on the calendar event and the log in details are there and the more them area. [2:36] Thanks and I know some of our friends aren't able to join today so as you all know these will [2:41] be recorded and we will share them afterwards I'll share them in a follow up email but also they [2:46] will be on your events website for your district and also you know feel free to like continue the [2:53] conversation with your colleagues offline. And yeah, thanks again for being here. And as I, [3:00] you know, think about our times together today, you know, as I mentioned, we're going to get into [3:06] a little bit of overview of, you know, who's challenged us, but also a little bit more around, [3:11] you know, what are the ways in which you see engagement or disengagement happening at your schools [3:16] or with your own children or maybe your own experiences. I'm going to share a little bit of the data [3:22] that we have collected over past 20 years around engagement and then get us [3:27] some time and break out groups to discuss some of the things that we're seeing [3:31] and hearing and feeling in the book. And as we think about our times together [3:36] today a little bit over an hour as of right now I just once again want to you [3:41] know re-ground and reiterate that this is a gift that we all have together at [3:47] this time. I know that there's just so much going on in the world right now and [3:51] in today, particularly in our nation, and so I want to just encourage you all to continue [3:56] to take care of yourself, take care of each other. If you need to step out, please do, please [4:02] do what you need for yourself. I know you, some of you might be doing dinner right now or maybe [4:06] just finished dinner, so just want to continue to reiterate your wellness is important. [4:12] And so we will take no offense if you need to step out or enable to be in any of the breakout room sessions. [4:19] All right, so with that, we're going to get going ahead if you have any questions once [4:24] again for those in the chat and we'll continue to engage with you. [4:28] If you've heard a little bit of the podcast at snippets from my conversation with Dan [4:35] and also our co-founder of Challenge Success, Dr. Denise Pope, you may have heard a little [4:40] bit of me, my introduction, and so if you did it, that's okay, I am the Director of Programs [4:45] at Challenge Success and we are partnering with Belmont Red Ridge Shores District and with great [4:51] support from your PTA to host these four club sessions. I'm a former, I'm currently an educator but [4:59] former classroom educator and you should see I have two daughters of my own. They're an elementary [5:05] school right now and so I'm just really honored to be here with you and I loved reading the book and [5:09] so I'm excited to have a community to dig into that with me. Dan is anything else that you'd like to [5:15] share before I move this for sure I'll just share I'm really excited as I as I [5:20] put the chat I'm a father of two boys 13 and 16 and we actually use the book to [5:27] kick off our year with our staff district wide all of our educators games [5:32] together and I kind of gave a keynote kind of some highlights for me to kick off [5:38] the year all of our staff actually received the book as well and as I was reading it [5:44] but I was flip-plopping between district leader [5:47] and how does this change what we do in our schools [5:51] to I'm a dad and how does this change, [5:53] how I interact with my kiddos at home. [5:56] So I think you'll really enjoy the conversations [5:59] that we all have and just thank you for joining tonight. [6:05] So we were so inspired at challenge success [6:07] with the conversation, no, particularly myself [6:09] in order to hear my excitement. [6:10] When I spoke with Dan and Denise about the hopes [6:14] for this club and the sort of story, [6:16] Dan, that you shared also about your connection [6:18] as a parent but also as an educator. [6:21] And that connects very deeply [6:22] with the Challenge Success mission [6:24] and really elevating student voice [6:26] to improve well-being, [6:27] along being an engagement. [6:30] And so just thinking about this connection, [6:32] I wanna re-emphasize the goals of our time together [6:35] in these four sessions are to continue dig into the realities [6:39] in regards to engagement for students [6:41] in our current schools. [6:43] and really explore what it means to fully engage in schools, not just for academics but also for [6:49] well-being, also for purpose and growth. And once again, the connection, as Dana mentioned, [6:55] with your learner profile, really thinking about how we can support our children to think boldly, [7:00] innovate fearlessly and advocate for meaningful change. So just want to think about these goals and [7:06] objectives as we dive into our conversation together and centering these as a core objective for [7:12] why we are all meeting together today. [7:18] As we engage in conversations, [7:19] and as I mentioned, even in her framing of our agenda, [7:23] there's so much going on in the world, [7:25] also in our individual stories. [7:27] And so once again, I want to continue [7:29] to offer up some agreements that we all [7:32] commit to centering our well-being here, [7:34] commit to centering our belonging [7:36] as a community in our joy, [7:38] and honoring each other's stories in that process. [7:42] Okay, so I hope you will welcome these agreements [7:44] says you engage in these conversations over the next four series. [7:49] So let's start with a quick connector. [7:52] You may have dived into the book if you haven't yet, that's okay, which is curious. [7:57] What does engagement mean to you in the context of learning? [8:02] You might tap on your experiences in the classroom as a learner or maybe if you are currently [8:08] teaching, thinking about how you'd like to design, engaging lessons, or maybe what you're [8:14] seeing as engagement of your own children or child. Take a moment in the chat, you can respond to [8:19] this prompt, and we'll just take a moment, oops, sorry, to see what others are saying in here. [8:49] By music as we're thinking, so that's an instrumental. [8:56] See, engagement means caring and learning and [9:01] finding joy and excitement in it. Not falling asleep during class, yes, that was good Lisa. [9:09] an interest in what you're learning. Feeling excited about a topic, a hobby. These are beautiful. If there are ones that you want to, you know, react to, feel free to use the, you know, emoji reaction you can in chat and feel free to engage with one another in that way, we will get into break up groups a little bit later. See if you can engage in some dialogue that way. [9:32] personal connections to learning, critical thinking, desire to learn something new, [9:40] walking away with more questions and motivation. These are all really beautiful. [9:45] They see some parts and affirmations from others in this space. [9:50] I love these ideas of what engagement means to you, and for me it really connects [9:56] so the values that I see and hear from things that Belmont River shores is really trying to [10:02] promote in all of your school spaces. [10:06] Participation, interaction, and emotional connection. Great. [10:11] Oh, I love it. I love when my girls come home and want to share what they've done at school. [10:16] It's just the best feeling. Or when they're like, you picked me up too early. I just want to take [10:20] have more time and after, apparently, really awesome. That joy is contagious and I see some [10:26] smile in this case too, yeah, definitely fulfilling. So keep it coming in the chat. And most people [10:34] also think about with this connector and I want to make sure this works here. On the flip side, [10:40] what does disengagement mean to you in the context of learning? What are some of the things that [10:45] maybe you felt as a learner I saw someone say maybe falling asleep at the desk was [10:52] disengagement. Maybe what are some things maybe you've heard your own child say [10:57] about school or as a teacher maybe what is something you've seen in your [11:04] practice and something you're hoping to improve for students. [11:13] So maybe students [11:14] saying this is useless. [11:18] The first couple pages of the intro, yes, school was fine. It's okay. [11:27] Papathy, cheating, avoidance, embedded math. I heard that quite a bit when I was in the classroom [11:35] that even at elementary age, young people had a perception of who they were as a learner. [11:42] I'm bored. I hate school. Oh, breaks. Yes. Even my own youngest daughter had a moment where she just actually quite a face where she did not want to go to school and that was really hard. [11:56] Not caring, low confidence. Yeah. So these signs, these examples of disengagement are something that seems like many in the space have seen examples of or felt. [12:11] and seeing some connections with what you are saying in here and maybe also what you've connected with in the book so far. [12:21] So it's important as we're thinking about these connectors as you all have a cat and you might want to work on that, not the dog's cat. [12:30] Great. So to think about once again you are honoring each other's stories. [12:33] these stories are important for us to really think about what we want to [12:37] shape and what we want to be true for the young people that we get to hang [12:44] with and serve and be with. [12:48] So continue to bring these forth and I think these [12:51] will also come through I believe in your breakout groups but holding on to that [12:55] I just want to share a little bit of what we've seen at Charlem success. So if [13:00] If you're not familiar with our organization, we are, [13:03] oh, sorry, I keep doing that with this. [13:05] We are an affiliate of the Stanford grad school. [13:09] And in our work, why is this not working for me, Fred? [13:12] I'm sorry. [13:16] In here. [13:17] No. [13:18] Okay, there we go. [13:19] It wants me to click direct on here. [13:20] If y'all are using Canva, this is what's happening. [13:23] Not my Google sites, but we work directly as an affiliate [13:27] of the Stanford grad school. [13:28] and we survey students for the past 20 years around topics of well-being engagement and belonging, [13:33] as I mentioned before, but also homework, sleep, extra curriculars, and we also survey parent and [13:40] caregivers to really understand the line with school and home. And so what I want to share with you [13:44] is some specific data on our student engagement just from this past year. So I know we do have some [13:53] Elementary families here that have children that are, you know, in kindergarten to third grade, [13:59] our survey only goes down to fourth grade, so I'm sure you're reading from fourth through 12. [14:05] And what you'll see in this chart specifically as a spread, you'll see these different colors. [14:10] And how we categorize engagement is by the categories of disengaged, [14:16] doing school, purposely engaged, and full engaged. And what you'll see in the book, [14:20] and as you get into it, there are very specific ways in which the authors are categorizing engagement. [14:25] And we're actually very aligned, though we might be using some different language. [14:29] When we think about fully engaged students, we're talking about students that see clear purpose [14:36] in what they're learning, and they also find joy in what they're learning, which I saw from some [14:41] of the examples of what you shared in the chat. We also hear students talking about that they [14:47] understand that this is going to connect to their life beyond school. And so in [14:52] that darker green color, which is on the furthest right, that is where we see [14:58] students fully [15:00] It engaged and wanting to be a part of school, wanting to go to school and seeing that connection [15:05] to what school can do for them, not just in their academics, but also in their wants. [15:12] When you go down to, of course, disengage, that is, of course, the opposite end of our [15:17] fully engaged. Doing school, I'd like to prescribe and get into that, is when you're seeing students [15:23] go through the motions, they were behavioral engaged in school, they're turning assignments, [15:27] They might actually have A's in class because they're turning assignments. They're getting the job done, but they do not see purpose in what they're doing, meaning they may not see the connection to their life beyond school. [15:39] They might not understand how to apply the skills in maybe like a real world, and they might actually not find joy in what they're doing. [15:47] And so in that way, they are just doing school and going through the motions. [15:52] And unfortunately, this is what we see the most. [15:56] And you can see in the percentages of our high school, secondary schools. [15:59] We see the most students, actually in this past year, but over the 20 years, [16:04] that are really doing school. [16:06] We also have seen a lot of cases of schools that are majority fully engaged or [16:15] schools are really focusing not just on academic engagement but also on well-being and belonging. [16:21] There's a lot of intersection correlation with how students feel connected to their peers, [16:28] which leads to higher levels of engagement or connected to their teachers, [16:32] which makes them want to engage more, as well as just well-being. If I'm physically well, [16:38] if I'm mostly well, I'm, you know, more capable of coping with stress and then fully engaging [16:46] in the lesson. So, I just wanted to give you all those snapshot of what we've collected in this [16:53] past year, which is, you can see it's over 32,000 students from 4 through 12th grade around their [16:58] feelings of engagement. [17:02] And yes, I see a question that chat on differences in results by gender and [17:06] section. Yes, there are we do collect a sub-group data around engagement and I don't know quite [17:14] know them off the top of my head right now, but I know we did a big study and partnered with [17:19] international coalition of girls schools because we did see girls or those identifying as girls having [17:25] the highest level of stress in school and also disengagement. So I move this forward, hope [17:33] me a cursor will work. So just going along with our agenda and thank you feel free of more questions [17:39] coming along your way and once again this is our last session so we're seeing that I can bring in [17:44] some more data and think about some subgroup data that I can share with you all. So I want to get [17:49] us time to get into our breakout groups and get into some conversations. If you haven't already seen [17:56] the book club study guide, I'm going to put the link in the chat. [18:01] But this is several pages of a study guide and within it you'll find some offerings of questions for different sessions, as well as a note catcher page if you wanted to use it. [18:13] I printed mine out in black and white here and I have some scribbles. [18:17] What I want to offer you, as I start to work on some breakout groups, is for you to think about, [18:25] What are some of the things that you really want to share and connect with other colleagues in this space? [18:33] What are some of the things that you're feeling really drawn to? Maybe some of these study guide questions and maybe it's not. [18:40] So I just want to mention, I didn't have particular questions where I'm like, we all have to answer this question. [18:45] I really wanted it for it to be a chance where you all can, you know, authentically and organically go where you're called to go in conversations around this particular theme in these introduction through chapter two is defining engagement understanding what. [19:06] After the breakout group, what we're going to do is we'll come back and we'll have some [19:11] full groups and we're like processing, sharing any themes that came out from your breakout [19:16] group connections or additional questions. [19:19] And what I love to do as I love like the question that just came through the chat is think about [19:23] how we want to move forward in our next session and continue to dive into some of those questions [19:27] that came up in our session today, some of things that we might still be grappling with. [19:32] And if you haven't read the full book that's okay, so some of those questions will also be like you might see them being answered by the authors later on in the book and through other chapters. [19:45] So I currently have about 11 breakout groups so there's about three to four participants in the room. [19:52] Once you get into your room, I will love if you could please introduce yourself again. [20:00] And, you know, take some time maybe to identify, you know, some of the places you're really drawn to, maybe you can say, like, gosh, I really want to talk about those four modes of engagement and maybe think about like, oh gosh, Kim, just share this data around fifth freighters, my child's in fifth freight and think about these four, maybe that's where you want to go. [20:17] So take a moment to kind of like frame your hopes for your time together and so that collectively, [20:23] you all can make sure you have enough space to address everybody's needs. [20:29] So we will be in there for about 30 minutes and then I'll put a timer for you all to come back. [20:36] A damn nine will be popping in and out of rooms. Please don't feel like you need to stop your [20:41] conversation for us. Please continue to go over there to really be like a fly in the wall and the [20:45] listener and also to, you know, answer any questions if you do. We don't have all the answers. [20:50] I'll show you that. But we just want to make sure we're there to be as support for you all. [20:56] Okay. Any questions before I open the rooms? And Dan, did you want to say mention something? [21:02] Yeah, I was going to ask you before we go to breakout rooms. Are you able to [21:07] pace the study questions into the chat? So if people want to use that kind of as a base for their [21:12] conversation if they don't have the study guide right next to them, maybe that could give [21:18] them a place to start as well. [21:20] Yes, let me just see if I can pull that as you all see me do that in action. [21:25] And I'm going to put in the chat, but the thing is, with the breakout groups, once they open [21:29] up, your chat goes away, okay? [21:33] So what I can do is I could broadcast some of the questions. [21:42] If you are familiar with the broadcast feature, it'll pop up some of the wording on top of your screen, but it'll fade away after a little bit. [21:52] So it might be best if you really want the questions there, maybe try to copy it right now in the chat. [21:58] And or if you can click on that study die link, that will direct you to this PDF right here. [22:04] Perfect. [22:05] Yeah, thank you all. Thanks for navigating our tech space. [22:08] All right. So I'm going to open up the breakout groups. Once again, I believe you have three to four people per room. [22:16] And if you're having any issues getting into room, please let me know. And we can move you to where you need to be. [22:24] Great. So I said, uh, some, we, some of you might have two people per room. [22:28] Okay. Here we go. [22:40] Please let us know if you need any help getting in there. [22:48] and Dan, I did not assign you so feel free to jump in for every like perfect and I'm seeing I'm [22:54] able to do that as well. Make [23:00] sure everybody gets there. Yes folks have fun. I came I'll go ahead [23:08] and start we have 11 I'll go ahead and start I'll start at room 11 and work backwards and you start [23:13] at room one and move forward. Sounds great. It looks like, yeah, let me jump in with room six. [23:21] Looks like she just has one front end right now. Okay. Okay, I'll see you. All right. [23:35] Yes, [23:38] so Jenny, you asked a really great question about. Gosh, we had so many people, you know, [23:43] register for this great club and so many more. I'm assuming even after this, we'll get more [23:47] opportunities for people to sign up and join. And we all know life, life, there's [23:53] like, give us things to keep us busy. And so we didn't have all our friends in this space together [23:58] today, but for those who are here, great conversations. I know that happened in a breakout group. I [24:04] really appreciate the time I had with my friends in my own space. How are we capturing these [24:10] great conversations? How are we sharing these ideas? Is that some of the questions that you've had [24:17] Jenny, want to make sure I kept how are we sharing, how are we capturing these ideas [24:20] and recommending these ideas? [24:22] Right. [24:22] So, as I'm reading through the book, I'm, you know, a lot of my own experiences, and [24:28] then I have two kids who have really had a difficult time in school. [24:33] And I have a lot of ideas, and some of them are fairly easy to implement, but some of them [24:39] aren't, right? [24:40] So, you know, you have a balance between trying to improve the engagement of in school [24:46] to make kids interested to create projects that are more engaging. But then at the same time, [24:52] you have the understanding that you have to teach to the test, right? So those have to be balanced. [25:01] So that means you have to put together a plan, pick and choose, implement things, try different things. [25:07] You can't go at it all at once. But we should try, right? I've seen [25:13] And especially because my kids were in kindergarten and first grade when the pandemic hit, there's a lot of problems that still carry over and a lot of things that we could start working on now to help those kids. [25:26] But I was just wondering how the district is planning on taking our ideas and maybe putting together a task force that might try to implement some things. [25:35] Just wondering what the plan is. [25:39] I certainly want to answer on behalf of the district, but I put the end of this space. [25:44] So maybe I forgot about my Zoom and I was on mute when I was trying to talk there. [25:50] Yeah, thanks Jenny, great question. [25:53] And I don't know that there is a perfect solution quite honestly. [25:57] My commitment personally is to engage like as a community of practice as you read through [26:05] the book. [26:07] And I think I shared this. Initially, I was like, oh, this is all about good teaching [26:11] and learning in classrooms. And then I got to the point I'm like, oh no, this is all [26:16] about what we do as parents to support. So I think the idea of showing up for the conversation [26:25] and being part of book groups like VITS allows us to exert our little sphere of influence [26:33] on each other, which does grow momentum. [26:38] As I shared, this is how I launched our district welcome [26:43] was all around engagement and agency, [26:47] sharing kind of the personal story around my kids [26:51] and how I view it as dad [26:53] and all of our staff members received a copy [26:57] of the book and are engaging at different levels too. [27:01] The other thing I'll mention, you mentioned, it's so much to the question, right, like, I think [27:10] when we think about how we're gauging success, success has got to be more than just a measure on a [27:16] state test or an academic assessment. It is an important measure, and we need to look at those measures, [27:25] I would say that you kind of said teach to the test, right? [27:31] When we develop engaged learning and engage our kids, [27:39] the test takes care of itself. [27:43] The other way doesn't help. [27:44] When we teach to the test, we don't get engagement, [27:47] but I can almost guarantee that when we focus on engagement [27:50] and agency, we're going to get good test scores, right? [27:53] So, you know, trying to help kind of reformat that and, you know, I was sharing with one group, [27:59] our quite honestly, our educational system isn't perfectly set up and moving mountains to [28:08] probably make it perfectly set up. But, you know, there's little tweaks and balances that we can do. [28:14] Kind of my theory of action right now is get the conversation going, get folks talking about [28:22] about what it is that we want for our kids, big picture, [28:27] engage around the study group, [28:30] think about the district's profile of a learner. [28:33] What does it mean when we ask kids [28:35] to think, to innovate, advocate for others in themselves? [28:40] Like, I think that gets us closer to the ideal. [28:44] But again, little spheres of influence, [28:47] each of us doing our little outreach and support [28:51] to really make broader change. [28:56] Jenny, for bringing that question and Dan, [28:58] thank you for being in this space. [29:00] Like, I don't want to answer this person. [29:03] And I'll just say from my perspective [29:05] of working at Challenge Success [29:07] and with the many schools that we work at, [29:09] we are very aligned with Dan and mentioned. [29:11] Our core levers are to center student voice, [29:14] community driven engagement, [29:16] and making sure that our work is equity and research base. [29:19] And so when we think about those things [29:21] in relation to our goals of well-being, [29:23] blind engagement, we really want to ensure [29:25] that all communities are on the same page [29:28] with that school and home together, [29:29] working collectively together, [29:31] and what we can do. [29:33] Those are the small moves that we can impact. [29:35] So I just love in this space, [29:36] there are educators from the district, [29:39] but also parents and from the district. [29:42] So together, you know, really aligning [29:44] on what does it mean for engaged learners. [29:48] Yeah. [29:49] Kim, if I can add to you, you brought up an important point of asking students and [29:57] our kids how they're doing. [30:00] In school, we do that every year through the Youth Truth Survey. We ask parents similar questions and staff as well. And then we do our best to correlate those and use that as data to push our practice. The other thing, and I piggyback that you shared, Kim, in this space today, we have parents, we have educators, we have instructional assistants, classified staff, all wearing very simple [30:29] lower hats and switching hats in between and I think that's a great opportunity for us as well. [30:37] Everyone I also see like lots of love and affirmations in the chat for the conversations [30:43] that you all had and I just want to you know appreciate some of you like I know folks had to drop out [30:48] some people had to do a pickup or maybe had a cook dinner or put their child to bed so I just you know [30:54] as in our remaining time I just want to say once again thank you so much for holding space for our [30:59] community agreements to center our wellness to be in this time together to engage in this dialogue. [31:05] This is so important. And especially knowing there's so much going on for us all in our family and [31:11] our communities for you to be here in this time is truly a gift. And so this is just the first [31:17] conversation. As I mentioned before, we will continue to have more conversations after this. We have [31:23] three more sessions. But also, you know, bring more friends along. As Jenny had mentioned, we have [31:29] a lot of people sign up. We want more friends to come join and hang with us. So feel free [31:34] to like snap this with your photo and text it's your friend for them to register and I'll [31:39] continue to send you all the invites. And after this I'll show the recording. It'll also be made [31:46] available on your events page. And also I'll send just some follow up next steps for our next session, [31:53] session two, which will happen next month, okay? [31:58] Thank you all so much for being here. [32:01] If you want to stay on for the next three minutes, [32:03] please do, but it is 742, [32:06] and I know you might also want to be [32:07] maybe making a hot chamomile tea [32:09] and getting settled into your own bedtime routine. [32:13] So thank you so much. [32:14] We'll stay on if you'd like to chat [32:15] and I'll play some, some little music in the background. [32:19] Thank you all. [32:24] Thank you, thank you. Have a good night. I really appreciate you being here. [32:30] I'm Rina. I'm healthy. Bye, Johnny. Thank you. Bye, Kira. [32:35] Thank you so much.