Hold a Film or Art Festival: Celebrate Student Excellence, Encourage Creativity & Build Rapport

Inflexion January 16, 2021

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Two people facing away from the camera look at a wall with three large paintings hung on it.

Part of building rapport with students is finding ways to learn about these hidden talents and showing an interest in what is going on in their lives beyond your class period.

– Dave Burgess

INTRO

Plan a film or arts festival to showcase students’ creativity and original work. Consider developing the projects in a core class that most students participate in.

THINK skills and behaviors are often grounded in critical thinking and inquiry. Examples include: ideation, creativity, innovation, and design thinking. Ultimately, THINK is about approaching situations and ideas with versatile and intentional thinking patterns.

OBJECTIVES

Brainstorm and start planning for how your school/district can host student art and/or film festivals to showcase your students’ wide range of talents

RESOURCE LINKS

BLOG: Where Does Excellence Hide At Your School?

ARTICLE: 8 Steps for Organizing the Ultimate Fine Arts Night

ARTICLE: 7 Tips for Starting a District-Wide Film Festival

ARTICLE: First Steps Towards a Student Film Festival

PDF: THINK

ACTIVITY

Plan a film or arts festival to showcase students’ creativity and original work.

Consider how to engage and highlight the work of students who might not immediately volunteer.

Consider developing the projects in a core class that most students participate in.

Feeling overwhelmed? Check out the resources for tips and guides on how to get started

Check out the blog resource for why these types of activities/events are so important for our students

TIPS

Key Moves are efforts that require a bit of planning, but can be implemented within the next 3-6 months

Like this activity? Check out Inflexion’s full-page THINK document for more ideas.

Categories: Rituals & Routines

Tags: Inclusive Practices, Student Empowerment, Student Experience, Student Outcomes

Inflexion

Resources We Love (And Hope You Will Too!)

During our May Counterpart meetings, we asked folks to share what they have been engaging with recently. Below is a list of all the resources shared by our incredible community, offering a taste of the diverse and inspiring content they’re currently exploring. This list has something for everyone: from thought-provoking articles to captivating podcasts to must-watch documentaries. So, take a peek, pick your poison, and get ready to dive into something fantastic!

Michelle Liebhardt June 5, 2024

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Case Study: Merced Union High School District

Through its work with Inflexion, MUHSD is seeing strong results in student outcomes and in closing the opportunity gap for underserved students. California School Dashboard data show College/Career Indicator scores for African American, Hispanic, English Learners, students with disabilities, students who are homeless, and students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged are 16 to 29 points higher than the state average.

Inflexion June 9, 2020

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Build Unity Through Change: Engage Staff in Continuous Improvement Processes

Continuous improvement should be embedded in day-to-day work, in a systemized, organic way. You can think of the cyclical process as a formative assessment of the ideas being tested.

Inflexion June 7, 2023

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Passion. Pride. Promise. Two Leaders Help Pave the Way for Their Students & Communities

Tucked away in the hills of rural western Oregon, the Vernonia and Gaston school districts defy many of the stereotypes most of us hold when we think of rural schools. Their communities face both common and unique challenges. Vernonia Elementary Principal, Michelle Eagleson, and Gaston Superintendent, Summer Catino, share how their small schools and communities achieve greatness.

Vanessa Brazil October 25, 2022

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Teacher high-fives smiling elementary student as classmates watch and smile.

Celebrate Progress as Excellence: Encouraging Growth Mindsets & Inclusion

This classroom/school activity was inspired by the former principal of Martin Luther King, Jr. Junior High School, Angela Stevens-Stevenson, in a Crowdsource Webinar on November 17, 2022.

Angela spoke to the power and importance of celebrating progress and not just waiting for students to achieve traditional levels of success like the honor roll. With a little ingenuity, these individual classroom activities can be enjoyed by larger groups with larger audiences (such as grade level, or even the whole school, families, and community). School leaders: #8 includes you.

Inflexion February 15, 2023

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Family And Community Engagement (FACE): How To Get Started with Community School Development

So you’re familiar with community schools. You’re interested. But getting started can feel like the hardest part. While your own school/district’s path may ultimately differ from Anaheim Union School District’s, their example can help you begin mapping out where to start.

Inflexion April 19, 2023

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Mature male auto-mechanics teacher answering questions about a machine from three diverse high school students, one is pointing at the machine.

Incorporate THINK Skills for Student-Centered Learning: Use Design Thinking as Your School’s Foundational Backbone

Identify a THINK framework, such as design thinking, to set up as a foundational backbone that can be embedded every period, every day throughout your school. Check out Waipahu High School in Hawaii for examples.

Inflexion January 16, 2021

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Diverse group of community members sit at a meeting together.

Foster Community Engagement: 9 Steps to Establishing a District Family Engagement Team

There is growing recognition, grounded in research, that effective family engagement can contribute to improved student outcomes and to closing persistent achievement gaps among students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and family income levels.

Experts advocate for family engagement as an essential strategy for building the pathway to college and career readiness for all students, as well as an essential component of a systems approach to school turnaround.

Inflexion March 15, 2023

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Your School’s Identity is More Important Than You Think

Like it or not, the cultural identity of your school drives everything else you do. Who you truly are and what you believe about yourself at the core is defined by what you do. In an increasingly competitive climate, it’s more important than ever to clarify who you are and what you value.

Rachel Phillips March 16, 2018

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High school students in blue t-shirts with the word "volunteer" printed on them sort donated clothes in cardboard boxes. One female student faces the camera smiling.

School Projects for Positive Change: Empower Students to Positively Impact Their Communities

Empower students to positively impact their communities, country, and the world. Consider projects from Design for Change.

Inflexion February 9, 2021

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INTRO

OBJECTIVES

RESOURCE LINKS

ACTIVITY

TIPS

Related Articles

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