Tonight was my final WOW! event with Citizen Schools. (For the record, WOW! doesn't stand for anything, it's just the reaction we want our audience to have when they see all the cool stuff our kids have learned and made over the course of 10 weekly classes...although my students did suggest Watch Our Work, and I think that's a worthy option.) In two years, I helped plan four WOW!s, which showcased a total of 36 Apprenticeships (7 of which I personally led). I also managed a group of 30+ volunteers each semester as the Citizen Teacher Lead. Most importantly, 100+ students had the opportunity to learn 21st-century skills from the volunteers - bankers, lawyers, engineers, accountants, computer programmers, motivational speakers, pilots, consultants, data analysts - and share what they learned to friends, teachers, and their families.
As stressful as planning an event like tonight can be, I'm always so excited to see how the kids light up when they have an audience to teach or perform for. In two years I've seen kids publish their own 'zine, build solar cars, raise over 800 dollars for an animal shelter, perform spoken word poetry, investigate a crime scene, present their personal vision boards, invent new ice cream flavors, teach juggling, and share SO MANY lessons learned about aviation, entrepreneurship, coding, networking...the list goes on.
Tonight was truly the cherry on top of a wonderful sundae, and thankfully I have a few more weeks for goodbyes and end of year celebrations!
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