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In today’s episode, I’ll be breaking from our normal format just a little bit. I had hoped to record a roundtable discussion about our application to share our ideas at the Teach to Lead Summit in April. Unfortunately, I was cleaning up a classroom rather than setting up the recording equipment. Instead of editing after recording, We’ve decided to share with you the main pitch of our idea, some of the highlights of the discussion, and how we thought through the question “What exactly are we trying to do here?”
Here’s the pitch:
We believe that an empathic civilization naturally leads to a more equitable one. Our formula is simple: welcome diversity + cultivate community → grow empathy → achieve equity. We seek to develop a teacher leadership program that fosters self-awareness, empathy, and systems thinking. We want to equip teachers with practices that cultivate an environment in which all students can be seen as valuable members.
We envision an academy of teachers who grow mindsets, develop toolsets, and create experiences, environments, and systems that have empathy at their core. We’ve piloted this program as a group called Guerrilla Teachers Academy (GTA) under the mantra: a nimble wisdom taskforce for taking on the evolving challenges of our institution and education at large. Members work on initiatives including: developing a human-centered design conference, instituting restorative justice, redesigning school schedules, and establishing a student government. GTA is a teacher-powered initiative that engages the people who work directly with students in the design of systems that impact their learning communities.
