September 2, 2022
“Would a field trip to a ninja gym satisfy your wish?” I asked, unable to take it anymore.
Heads turned toward me, the random lady in the back. I saw a few faces light up, and a few eyebrows furled, presumably wondering if it was a joke. Then one of the field trip wishers looked me square in the eye and offered an emphatic “yes.”
By this point, several students had shared wishes for field trips because they hadn’t ventured outside of their school environment since elementary school. Several others said they wanted a field day, and a third said they wanted to swing on swings in an indoor playground. Mr. Martin and Mrs. Carmichael initially invited me in to listen, but as I stood on the side of the room and took notes, visions of the Movement Lab danced in my head, and the question about a Ninja field trip rushed right out of my mouth.
Laughing, Mr. Martin and Mrs. Carmichael introduced me as a person who could make wishes come true, eventually connecting what I do each day to the anthropological title of “culture broker,” a term for someone who bridges gaps between groups. Excited to find a way to make it happen, I immediately repeated back what I had heard all of them say, justifying the logic for my question, the one about the Ninja gym.
“During the 2019-2020 school year,” I told them, “we planned an idea festival with over 120 workshops and 40 field trips. And unfortunately, because school closed down three weeks before our event in 2020, we had to cancel everything. One of those trips was to the Movement Lab,” I said, “and we already paid.”
A room full of eyes that had been denied so many “rights-of-passage” adventures over the last three years looked back at me in shock. They missed the 8th grade Washington D.C. trip, the yearly shadowing days, and every other opportunity in between. These students finished middle school and half of high school without guest speakers, often sitting in rows, staring at the backs of heads, masks across their faces, three feet apart. I had no idea whether or not a trip to the Ninja gym was the right answer, but it certainly felt important to ask since so many of their wishes would come true if we went there.
“I was being serious,” I told Martin and Carmichael in our weekly planning session, while shifting around printouts of the student someday submissions, discussing how best to proceed. “This would be an easy thing to do. Can we make it connect? Can we make it more than a token field trip? What's your through-line?”
“So far, all of our texts are about marginalized communities,” Martin said, and Carmichael agreed, listing several ethnographies, Martin mentioned novels. They pin-balled ideas back and forth like that, and I sat delighted by the gift of seeing—in real time— two masterful teachers weaving a web of intersections and meaning, reveling in how the challenge of using student voice as a gateway for instruction drove them to discover even more connections than they had already made.
“What is our why?” I asked. “What could this experience teach them? What could they learn by doing, by watching the experience unfold authentically? Would something with accommodations make sense?"
“We are already talking about Universal Accommodations,” Martin responded.
"That’s something the Ninja gym does really well,” I said, recalled on-the-fly accommodations during a 4 year-old birthday party."
"That would be perfect. Could we partner with Kim and Nicole? Could we include their students on the field trip?” Martin asked.
I took down notes.
"Maybe they could use the design process to prototype a field day experience that not only includes everyone in the school, but welcomes everyone in the school?”
“And they could do it by practicing questions to create their own ethnographies,” Carmichael added. “It would be a really interesting lens for them to explore.”
We listed other teachers who work with students who have individual needs, and we pondered perspectives those teachers might share. We named student groups who might not always feel a true sense of belonging, and wondered how we could lift their experiences up in a way that might lead to better understanding and inclusion.
When the bell rang, Martin and Carmichael had to teach, so I ran over to the Individualized Needs Center (INC) to talk to Kim Wilson and Nicole Holder, the INC teachers Sean had mentioned. I shared a bit about our discussion that previous period, and let them know our ideas were raw and fresh. We hadn’t had time yet to punch out the details or iron out logistics, but in true rapid design fashion, we wanted their input before we got too far ahead of ourselves.
What were we missing?
How could we do this in a way that would respect learning and leadership for all students?
As two of our most creative, on-the-fly thinkers, Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Holder shifted into planning mode immediately. They left potential pitfalls for a later conversation, and went right to the heart of the idea, considering the various experiences or perspectives offered depending on which mix of students attended. When I asked if they would be open to teaching the LABS group about universal accommodations, Mrs. Holder connected that request with the Peer Collaborator curriculum she introduced to UAHS this year.
The pieces were all coming together, and once I knew it all was possible, I reconnected with the Movement Lab to discuss open dates, then followed up with all four teachers to share options. Miraculously, we found a Monday that worked for everyone, and initiated our plans. Martin and Carmichael continued to find articles, ethnographies and connections, and Holder and Wilson planned to welcome students into their classroom for training and discussion.
Despite the excitement brewing, students still didn’t know it was happening; it was too early to share, but without even trying, other wishes started to fit into the picture, while other wishes hovered , a bit too vague or a little too individualistic to magnify on the scale we wanted. Curious about how to create next steps, we realized it was time to go back to the wishes themselves, and to the wishers.
It was time for some systems thinking, some empathy and a whole lot of discussion…