Services 4 — Co-Lab

Part I: Exploring Individual and Collective Identities

Mapping Social Identities

When it comes to culturally responsive practices in the classroom, it is crucial for educators to acknowledge and better understand their own identities before building meaningful relationships with students. In this workshop, participants will reflect on their lived experiences through storytelling and mixed-media creations about who they are, where they’re from, and how they see themselves in relation to their students. The goal of this workshop is to foster a positive and inclusive community amongst colleagues and students.

Exploring Teacher Identities Through Self-Reflective Narratives

Sharing personal stories can be a powerful, but vulnerable experience. While students are often asked to share their stories, teachers rarely engage in the process themselves. When we read, write, and compose the self through reflective multimodal storying, we can help create and sustain a shared (con)text between educators and students. This narrative approach to teaching draws on research about multiple literacies that cultivate criticality, care, empathy, and joy in both in-school and out-of-school spaces.

Storytelling & Media-Making with Self as Text

Exploring sour identity through a combination of words, images, and sounds has the potential to disrupt normative power structures that often dictate how we understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. Participants will be invited to reflect on how their lived experiences have “storied” their lives while considering how they might leverage those experiences to create more opportunities for the students, families, and communities with whom they work. In this workshop, we ask: How might we practically, respectfully, and joyfully invite students to share pieces of their lives and experiences in our classrooms?