Opening Classroom Doors to Allow in Community Collaborators

There is an old adage that, “It takes a village to raise a child.” This year, I thought I’d try and grow the population of the specific village raising ‘my children’ (or, in my case, the 174 students I taught first semester) by widening the access my students have with adults in our community.

The First Community Collaboration

Some might assume—because I’m married to a social studies teacher or because I once had a job supporting social studies teachers—that I am well-versed in all things historical. This is far from true. While I love reading historical fiction and I’m well versed in certain literary and philosophical movements, that’s where my historical expertise ends. For this reason, when a colleague of mine pointed out that a local expert on the orphan trains of the early 1930’s was going to be giving a Community Education Class on the topic, I decided to reach out—see if she’d come in and work with my students.
 
My sophomores and I had started the school year off reading the novel Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. Not only do students love the snarky zest of the protagonist who happens to also be in high school, but this character’s world-view ties in well with our Native American Indian Literature state standards. Simultaneously, however, the other protagonist navigates a part of history my students and I knew very little about… So why not bring in a community expert?
 
My students loved Dorothy Lund Nelson’s visit. She had done a lot of research and was passionate about her topic. She had students wear name tags and she talked to them as if they themselves were orphans in the early 1900’s. For the rest of the book, and occasionally throughout the rest of the year, students would reference her visit. Plus, she left a copy of The Home We Shared: History and Memoir of the North Dakota Children’s Home at Fargo, North Dakota behind for our students to share, and when we were still together in the classroom it was checked out often.

The Next Community Collaboration

Working with Dorothy Lund Nelson is what got me started—and it led to a community connection that just keeps on giving: our Mayo High School collaboration with the Rochester Public Library (RPL).
 
We stumbled into this collaboration naturally because every Tuesday, when I would meet one-on-one with roughly a half-dozen students throughout the period to talk about what they were reading, I kept finding myself recommending audiobooks to my more reluctant readers and to my students struggling with fluency when reading aloud. Personally, being addicted to audiobooks, I was surprised by how many students were not aware of the audiobooks they had access to for free via our school library and via RPL. This prompted me to reach out to RPL and see if they’d have any interest coming and getting my students connected with library cards. Sarah Joynt, their librarian who does student outreach, was instantly on board.
 
Joynt spent the day with me and my students. Each period, she shared with students some of the many online resources RPL provides, discussed some of the in-person opportunities that teens often enjoy at RPL, answered a wide variety of questions that students had, and then got those who wanted them set up with library cards (which she delivered to us about a month later). A high-energy presenter, students leaned in and listened to her every word. They ask questions about the Bookmobile and the BookBike, they wanted to know how to get jobs at RPL, they even wondered aloud if there were ways to get overdue fines waved (yes, by the way, there is). In fact, this collaboration went so well, that now all 10th graders at Mayo High School—not just those who have me as a teacher— have had Joynt come into their American Literature and Composition classrooms to share about RPL’s free resources.

Here are a few snapshots of the magic that Joynt brought into my students’ lives:

• I have a student who is in love with books: she reads multiple books per week. A voracious reader, if ever I’ve met one. During Joynt’s visit, it was mentioned that RPL often hires high-school-aged staffers, especially for shelving books. This student perked right up, sat high in her seat, and asked how to apply. Now, she works at RPL, mainly shelving books, and is in love with the fact that she gets to surround herself with books all day long: at school, at home, and now also at work.
• A student of mine who is transgender already had a public library card, but it had on it the name that aligned with his deadname (the feminine name on his birth certificate). Additionally, because his original card was linked to his parents’ public library account, and since his parents have been struggling to navigate life with an openly trans child, he had a fear of checking out books that would help him through his transition. However, Joynt and RPL supported him fully—as they are known to do for all LGBTQIA+ members of our community—and got him a card that reflects who he is today. They also worked with him to ensure he was comfortable checking out the books he needed as a support tool for his own mental wellbeing without having to worry about how certain titles would be perceived by his parents. (On a side note, if you want to learn more about how to support our LGBTQIA+ students, consider reading this former post.)
• Some of my sophomores are also on my Speech Team—and a big part of Speech (depending on the category) can be learning and perfecting accents, along with accurately pronouncing foreign words. Again, the RPL resources came in handy because Joynt had shared with my students the tool Pronunciator: another resource free to anyone with an RPL card. This tool, being one that helps individuals learn the fundamentals of many foreign languages, has been a great support for my Speech Team members this season.
• During this pandemic, many students have reached out wanting ideas for new books to read. Even with our school library and the RPL having to close their doors for a while, this has not been a roadblock for my students because during her visit Joynt had shared with students the benefits of Libby (some may know it as Overdrive)—an app that gives anyone with an RPL card access to eBooks and audiobooks—so that’s a tool my students and I have found ourselves using often during this time of distance learning.
• Also during this pandemic, my students who need creative outlets have found themselves diving into the RPL resource Creativebug. A number of my students are using this tool as a way to keep their minds occupied with thoughts that extend beyond just academics and Covid-19—instead, they are engaging their minds by learning a new technique for sketching, how to macramé a wall-hanging, or how to mend clothing using fun stitching patterns.
• Plus, there are many more! Too many to include in a simple blog post…

Future Community Collaborations

There was a time in my teaching career where I though bringing in community members wasn’t worth the effort it would take. Well, color me a different color now. In both cases this year, reaching out was fast, easy, and simple. The benefits far outweigh any negatives that came with scheduling these visitors. In fact, I’m already making plans for next year—and I’m not just planning to bring back Lund Nelson and Joynt: I’ve already started lining up community experts in the field of writing to work with my Creative Writing students in the school year 2020-2021!

If nothing else has been verified by the pandemic, it is indeed that it does “take a village to raise a child.” I am heartened by, and lucky that, this year I took the time to expand my students’ village this past fall, because it certainly made this pandemic-spring a bit easier for them to navigate. We never know what the future has in store, so why not give our students as many connections as possible? And those connections can easily extend far beyond our classroom doors.

This post brought to you by Heather Lyke, English Teacher, Mayo High School