256. Youth-Adult Partnerships via UP for Learning with Ana, Jacoby, & Lindsey

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In this episode, we dive into a discussion about youth-adult partnerships with guests Lindsey Halman, Jacoby Soter, and Ana Lindert-Boyes from UP for Learning, an organization committed to reimagining and transforming education through youth-adult partnerships. 

Our conversation highlights the immense potential of redefining educational spaces through shared leadership between youth and adults. The guests discuss the importance of valuing youth voice, fostering systemic changes in education, and embracing non-traditional learning methods to create environments where all participants can contribute and thrive.

The Big Dream 

The vision shared by the UP for Learning team is an education system where equity is not a mere privilege but a fundamental human right. At its core, the dream is to create environments within schools where both students and educators are seen as partners in learning. This involves breaking down existing structural barriers that have been deeply embedded over centuries and fostering practices where every participant's unique background is leveraged as a source of strength.

Mindset Shifts Required

A significant theme in the conversation is the necessity for adults to cultivate a mindset that views youth as capable partners rather than passive recipients of instruction. This includes recognizing students as valuable contributors and reframing their roles to empower them in decision-making processes. 

Ana, Jacoby, and Lindsey each emphasize the need to embrace discomfort and openness to new ideas, dismantling entrenched educational structures, and adopting project-based and personalized learning approaches.

Action Steps  

For educators, leaders, and other adults seeking to strengthen youth-adult partnerships in a meaningful way, our guests suggest the following action steps: 

Step 1: Initiate personal reflection on how educators perceive students. Start by considering students as holistic individuals with valuable insights to offer beyond traditional academic metrics. The mindset shifts that see youth voices as necessary in this partnership is the key piece to any future work. For educators and adults, this is the key place to start. 

Step 2: Make use of practical tools like "64 Ways to Strengthen Youth Voice" to find small yet impactful actions educators and community members can adopt to infuse youth-adult partnership principles into everyday practice.

Step 3: Implement tangible activities, such as classroom circle discussions, to foster reflection and empower students. By redesigning classroom settings to include collaborative discussions, educators can practice and facilitate the integration of youth voices.

Challenges?

The resistance to building youth-adult partnership often stems from long-standing educational models. Many educators and leaders may find it difficult to relinquish conventional roles and embrace new ways of interacting that center equity and shared leadership. This shift demands patience, persistence, and a willingness to be uncomfortable but are crucial for systemic transformation.

Stay Connected

You can learn more about the organization on the UP for Learning website or Instagram. Keep in touch with Jacoby via email at [email protected] or on LinkedIn; and Ana at [email protected] or on LinkedIn

To help you implement today’s takeaways, our guest is sharing The P.O.W.E.R. Framework and LETS ACT Framework with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 256 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript below.

Quotes: 

• 4:55 “One of our core values is that we view educational equity as not just a privilege, but as a human right.” (Jacoby)
• 8:40 “ These dreams that we have about centering equity and justice in our educational systems can be a reality if we have that high level of leadership and vision to do that, and if we have educators who feel empowered to be able to change a system that has operated in a particular way for 150 years plus. And, when there's that support from the community.” (Lindsey)
• 15:03 “The most basic level of youth-adult partnerships … is that adults need to view youth voices as valuable and necessary.” (Ana)

​If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about more tips and resources like this one below:​

TRANSCRIPT

Ep 256 Ana, Jacoby, & LindseyLindsay Lyons: Welcome to the Time for Teachership podcast, everyone. So I am here with Lindsay, Anna, and Jacoby. Thank you so much for being here today. I would love to just open it up to whoever wants to share first. Um. Just sharing kind of what is on your mind today or what people should kind of know about you. Um, the Up for Learning program, I have always been a fan of this program, kind of watching from afar on your email list and knowing you guys are doing really cool things in the student voice space.
Um, and so would love to get your take on what folks should know and what you're passionate about.
Lindsey: Would you all like me to start? Great. Well, thanks for having a flimsy. Um, my name is Lindsay Hallman and I'm the executive Director at Up For Learning, which actually stands for unleashing the Power of Partnership for Learning. But we like to say up for learning because it's much easier to remember and easier to say.
And, um, uh, our work really is, uh, guided by our mission to reimagine and transform education. Partnerships. So our why is that youth and adults need to be together, working together to create systemic change, um, in authentic partnership sharing power, voice, and responsibility in order for us to create.
Changes in a system, educational system, or any kind of in structural system that, um, has, uh, been really deeply rooted in, um, adult ways of being and mindset. So our work is about changing our. Mindsets our mental models and then working together as youth and adults through, uh, youth participatory action research to ensure that we're bringing in the voices of the community, um, to create changes that are gonna benefit all.
I'll pass it on to my colleagues.
Jacoby: Yeah. Um, thank you Lindsey. Um, and thank you Lindsay for having us. Um, my name is Jacobi. I am a youth program specialist with UP for Learning, and I'm currently a senior in high school. I think what's really important to understand and think about our work is that, you know, although our mission is to kind of go into schools and kind of help create youth adult teams in schools, we live that mission in our work every day.
We have youth on our staff, we have adults on our staff. We kind of have like. People in between the youth and adults. We really kind of have everybody, um, of all ages really working together so that we're able to go into schools confidently and understand some of the challenges that they may be facing.
'cause we have probably figured out ways to overcome those challenges ourselves in our organization, which is something that a lot of organizations, um. Maybe cannot necessarily say as confidently as we can, that we really do live and breathe our mission every day, which is super exciting.
Ana: Um, thanks Kuby. Um, thank you for having us, Lindsay. I'm really excited to be here. Uh, my name is Anna. I usually her pronouns. Um, I'm a program associate at for Learning. Um, and I'm also a senior at Boston University. Um, uh. Yeah, I think I'm gonna echo a lot of what Jacoby said. I think that's like one of like the biggest standouts, um, and aspects of OP is the fact that we live our mission.
Um, so I actually started working with Up for Learning when I was, um, a freshman in high school. So it's been about seven years now. Um, and I remember, you know, in high school I would go to like conferences and like be able to like be involved in like the education world and sphere. Um, and you get like a lot of organizations and people talking about youth adult partnership.
But then like you'd go to like a breakout and it was just like adults talking about youth partnership. Um, so I think like what's really, really impactful about up is that there are youth involved in like every aspect of the work. Um. I think just like knowing that and like, like literally like growing up with the organization in that way.
Like so much of like the way that I think and, um, I'm majoring in education right now. Um, so much of that is just influenced by like up and ups values and, um, the way that I've been able to be involved.
Lindsay Lyons: Wow. Thank you guys so much. It is such a cool, unique organization. I love that you've highlighted different aspects of it.
I also think you've started to answer my next question, but I would love to see if you have anything else to add here. So Dr. Patina loves, she talks about this idea of freedom dreaming, using this phrase, dreams grounded in the critique of injustice. And so with that kind of in mind. Um, what do you as individuals kind of wish that school or maybe even learning in general?
Um, could be or would be?
Jacoby: I think we, one of our core values is that we view educational equity as not just a privilege, but as a human. Right. And so we see that when schools aren't working in partnership with young people operating in the width category of restorative practice and really engaging in equitable pro processes to engage young people who come from all sorts of backgrounds to really take charge in their learning.
We see that as an injustice, um, in our dream, um, which we're able to actually really see tangible impacts happen in all of our teams, but we're able to. Create spaces where traditionally like young people who come from certain backgrounds may not be in your typical student council student. But what we're able to do is when we go into schools, like we require that our teams have people from all backgrounds.
And so we're really empowering both, um, people who would be typically involved in a student leadership or a school transformation group. Um, but we also bring in people who you, we try and build a breakfast club, um, of folks to join our team. We, because we understand that in order to change a system, we have to look for the people who experience the system in both the ways that are really positive and some of the people who are, you know, targeted by the system.
And so how can we make that system work with everybody and actually support them instead of bringing them back and preventing them. From learning and taking a really, um, and really taking charge of their own education.
Speaker 4: Um, yeah, I think for me at just like a foundational level, um, just hoping to create like a future where. All people in a school system and community. So thinking about like youth and adults, students and teachers, um, community members and families really feel represented, um, and engaged and excited in their roles in their schools and communities.
Um, so like a lot of what we do, like that Jacobi just mentioned really gets at that. Um, I think a large part of it is like, I'm like a really big advocate for like personalization, um, in education and like curriculum because I've had like really. Probably like life changing experiences with like opportunities to be able to like personalize my own learning, um, in a way that's really special to me.
Um, making sure, you know, that there are like connections to real life, you know, like getting at students' actual interests, um, real life applications, um, and then like structured support from adults. Um, so yeah, I think like personalization and really like getting to know the student and then like making sure that everyone feels really valued in their spaces.
Ana: I would add. So for me, um, my dream, um, I really had the opportunity to realize in many ways what that dream could be. I was a middle school educator, a public middle school educator for 15 years prior to coming to UP for learning. And during that time, um, I had. Uh, leadership that really had a strong vision for, um, how we could ensure that we were addressing every young person's, uh, unique learning styles and needs and, um, and really transform the system.
So I was able to create, um, a school within a school, uh, called the Edge Academy for about a decade of my teaching career. And what I know from that is that you. You can, these dreams that we have about, um, centering equity and justice in our educational systems can be a reality. If we have, you know, both the leadership, so at that high level of like leadership and vision to do that.
And then we have educators who ha feel empowered to be able to change a system that has operated in a particular way for 150 years plus. And um, and there's that support from the community. There's, um, buy-in from the community and that they feel they are a part of it. Um, and that. That communication is really, um, very strong between both the community and the school.
Um, and so when I was teaching with the Edge Academy, um, I was deeply, uh, partnering with the youth that I worked with. It was a multi-age group of young people. We, um, centered, uh, education for sustainability. Um, in our work. So really centering like economic, environmental and, um, social justice and everything we did.
So, um, that involved both young people as really authentic partners. They helped to co-create the curriculum. It was project-based learning. We had many community partners where young people are getting out into the community and engaging in, um. Projects that supported, uh, positive change in their community.
And, um, we also, I have a big, you know, one of my dreams is like the big kind of, uh, slowdown of schools. Like everything is so fast and there's so many transitions and we're always functioning at this, this like, frenetic pace. Um, and so we were able to like really take larger. Blocks of time, personalize it.
As Anna said, um, every young person, um, before really personalized learning plans and flexible pathways were really kind of buzzwords. We were, we were doing that work, um, and really. Looking at each of the different structures that are in place and asking why are these in place and who are they serving?
And then working to dismantle those structures in order to ensure that young people were really centered in, um, in their unique abilities and needs.
Lindsay Lyons: Wow. Thank you, all of you for your thoughtful responses there. I what you were just saying, Lindsay, you just made me think about, you know, the, the. Enduring kind of like 150 year long cycle of this type of traditional structure of teaching.
Um. We, we to transform it, I imagine, takes a different kind of mindset or approach, right? And so I'm curious from each of you what your, your thoughts are around, like what are those really powerful like moments of, oh, someone has shifted their mindset, or this collection of adults has shifted their mindset and they are approaching youth at all partnerships in this particular way, or they're engaging with youth in this particular way, like.
What are those mindsets you could advise the audience members of this episode on? Um, like, if we can think this way, we're gonna have a lot of opportunity open up to us in different ways of being.
Jacoby: Yeah, I think, um, a time for me would be for the amount of time that I've been in high school, um, we've had kind of like our personal learning plan coordinator, um, had assumed that role and. Just in talking with her, she's my club advisor and we do a lot of work together. She is, um, an independent learning for English advisor for me as well, and.
She has told me on multiple occasions before, like getting all, um, her certifications and project-based learning, um, and like the personal learning plan and career pathways. She was an English teacher and she had just taught novels, just really taught like these ideas and would've never allowed like Grammarly or AI or these other things that really.
Kind of suppress a student's ability to take pride in their work because they may not have had a strong foundational level in English. We were taught how to read wrong. Many of us were because of a lot of things, and a lot of times, just because those are some of the harder parts of the language. Um, and she has said on multiple occasions, if she were to go back to being like a regular classroom, a teacher, that she would not do another novel.
She would not teach another novel. She would do an entirely project-based, like backwards design approach to looking at what's the end goal and moving backwards and setting steps for individual students. Uh, she's actually designed a course for next year as an introduction to work-based learning. And in Vermont, every school is required to have flexible pathways and work-based learning is a way for that.
And a lot of people only get access to junior or seniors on a disciplinary route. However, at our school, I'm on it and I'm not on a disciplinary route. Um, and this is gonna be offered for ninth and 10th graders as a way to get their feet wet and a way to really engage in a project-based learning English class, um, with a teacher who has actually like, had a total mind shift in like.
There's no, like, there's no resources that you're allowed to use to help you on this. And instead is now encouraging the use of, um, AI in smart ways and teaching students how to like actually expand their work, um, and grow their knowledge using both AI and, um, research that they come up with. Really doing that in a way where she's a facilitator and a agent of learning, and not necessarily a sho of knowledge into people's brains, but as somebody who's able to really pull it out and help people, um, who traditionally don't succeed, really find belonging and joy in their classes.
Speaker 4: Um, I think for me, uh. Like the most basic level of like youth adult partnership and the mind, the mindset shift that people kind of need to make to feel comfortable in that. Um, what comes to mind first is like adults need to view youth voice as valuable and necessary. Um, they also need to view youth as, um, capable and like agents of their own learning.
Um, and then I think. A large part of it too is just keeping, like, keeping a really open mind. So like being open to valuing different types of learning, um, apart from like the conventional types that we often lean into. Um, and then being open to like Lindsay or was talking earlier about like dismantling structures.
Really being open to like being uncomfortable. Um, because we know is not gonna be like a simple, easy process to change, like structures and things that have been in place for hundreds of years. Um, but yeah, I think the biggest thing is just like. If you don't believe that youth are going to be able to step up into their roles as leaders, then it will not happen.
Um, so I think this, like, this, this sense of like belief and confidence in them.
Ana: Yeah. I really appreciate this question, Lindsay, because um, our work it up for learning, it starts with shifting our people's mental models because you need to change your mindset. You need to have that paradigm shift and really have a different mental model for.
Um, what schools could be in order to do this work, and it's. That's really hard work to change our mental models. We know schools as we know them, right? They've operated in this way. And so to, to start helping people really shift their, um, their mindset around, uh, what it would mean to partner with young people and, um, takes time.
So that's the work that we do, is like we start by. You know, establishing really strong youth, adult teams that are getting, you know, really building their sense of like, what does it mean to work in partnership, exploring their own mental models. And then, um, once they've really developed their own partnership on their team.
It already creates that buy-in, right. So, and often on our teams, we have superintendents, we have principals, we have educators, we have community members, school board members. Of course we have young lots of youth, but it's really important that young people and adults are. Have the opportunity to sit together and have these conversations around, around what school is and what it could be, um, in order to change that mindset.
And I think the, the thing that is really niche about up for learning and important is that there's a lot of, you know, student voice and amplifying student voice and elevating student voice and et cetera is fundamental to what we do. But what is really, really niche about what we do is. The work around partnership that, you know, we really believe fundamentally that youth and adults should be sharing power, voice, and responsibility in their educational journey.
And in decision making. And so that takes a lot of time and tending to relationships and tending to the climate and the culture of the school or the organization. Like I said before, it also requires that the leadership buys in, um, or at least has a willingness because again, when you're shifting mental MI models or mindsets, it might be really uncomfortable, like Anna was saying.
It's, you know, there's this level of discomfort and so we just need a willingness. To begin the work. And then once people start doing the work, they, they recognize that this is, oh, this is the way I wanna be operating. So then we are working with, you know, teams for, for, you know, multiple years as they continue to think about what is the next structure in our school that we wanna change and dismantle so that we really are centering young people in decisions.
Lindsay Lyons: I am just so blown away by all of your thoughtful responses, but also like all of the stuff that I know just prior to hitting record that you all are doing. And so I'm curious now if we can transition to like, what is an example of youth adult partnership or like a, you know, a learning experience or however you wanna interpret that.
Um. It's had like a big influence on either you, the community, both. I think, you know, there's just so much research that youth developed. Partnerships are good for individuals and communities. But I would love to hear like kind of the story behind something that you've worked on and felt is important. I.
Speaker 4: I can talk to kind of my own experience. Um, I mentioned earlier that I've been working with up for a really long time now. Um, and I think like. Originally, like when I was in middle school or even like early high school, I was never like, just didn't talk very much. I was like very shy, like erred on like the, the quiet side.
Um, and didn't really like view myself as any sort of like leader in my community or like any sort of particular advocate for, for a particular cause. Um. But I think that being involved with that and like, yeah, that was 2018 was when I met Lindsay for the first time. Um, and that was like my first experience being like, oh wow, like this is like a completely different way of interacting with adults.
Like we're partnering versus like they're my teacher. Um, that's their sole role. Um, and it just feel, it's like, yeah, I think a lot of it is, uh. Like the mindset. Um, so like, I feel like working with like Lindsay, I really did feel like, oh, like she believes that like, I can do this. Um, and that bolstered me a lot.
Uh. So, yeah, I just feel like that like continued relationship and like growth and support really changed, uh, kinda like the course of my life, honestly. I think like it would be like very different if I had never gotten involved with up. Um, and so now I do view myself as like a, a type of leader. Um, and I would not have said that before, before getting involved and getting, being able to experience like True Youth Digital Partnership.
Jacoby: Yeah, I think. For me, like, um, a big shift has been, I feel like, kind of on the other side of what Ana said, like I, well maybe in a same, a similar way, but I always thought that being a leader meant that you were the one who talked the most and really took charge in a meeting. Um, that's what I strived to do.
And then through my work with up and then just kind of learning from my superintendent and then kind of teachers and principals like. That it's harmful to do that, and you suppress other people's voices. And then the person who's doing that, in this case myself, ended up being the person who had the burden of doing all the work because there wasn't the shared trust, um, and the shared power and buy-in.
Uh, and a big thing that was really changed in starting working with up, at least I hope has changed, um, has been that I have, I feel like. Stepped back, but allowed other people to step up and kind of take more on and be okay with not doing everything, be okay with filling the silence, allowing other people to speak my truth.
And a lot of those are, are meeting norms that we say once a week and we highlight and revisit as a youth, adult, um, team, and. And the school team that I work with, it's really been a good impact and I can feel confident in the sustainability of people wanting to carry on the mission of our school board, our student school board group, and our mission to voice our students' perspectives and our school district.
I can feel confident leaving, knowing that that mission is going to be carried on. Not because I did everything, but because I stepped back and allowed other people to take charge and do their own projects and really feel empowered to do that work. And I think had up for learning outcome to my school.
And had I not gotten to learn from the people at up for learning and then the schools that we work with, I think that, um, I would be in a different place. Um, and the people around me would also be in a different place.
Ana: And I guess to add on, so I've had the privilege of like really witnessing, um, the growth of both, you know, Ana and Jacoby and myself, you know, through my time at Up for Learning. And so I think, you know, they were really speaking to the, um, the power of. The work that we do both internally and externally.
I'm sorry if my wifis going in and out a little bit. It's okay. Um, and, um, so this, you know, everything that we. Is that our, you know, our core values and principles is the way in which we operate internally. You know, shared decision making, shared responsibility, um, shared power. And, and that's, and because we are so, like, that's what guides our work every day, the way in which we approach our youth, adult teams and the communities that we serve.
Um, you know, it's, it's really authentic and it's meaningful and we've developed really deep relationships with our partners in the community. I think what Jacob spoke to define leadership. The student council representative, or the representative to the school board, or the person who talks the loudest or has a lot of social capital.
But we know it up for learning that everyone has leadership within them and that there's lots of different types of leaders. So our work is really to, um. Elevate all those voices, right? To bring the every voice to, to their community to be able to share their experiences. And it's really, really important that young people, especially those that have felt that they have not been as engaged in their educational experience or seen or valued, are really, their voices are really lifted up in our process because that's, those are the changes we need to make.
We keep listening to the same voices over and over again. As much as those voices are great and valued, we're really only listening to, you know, the same narrative over and over again. And we're not creating the changes that we need for all of our students. And, um, and what I, we, some examples of that, we talked to the internal piece.
Um, we've had some really unique, um, like. Like the, the local level, but then state level examples, both in Vermont and in Delaware and in Massachusetts. We've partnered with, um, our state agencies of education, our departments of education on, um. Systemic projects to infuse youth, adult partnership and youth engagement into, um, both state level decision making.
So in Vermont, I would say we did a, a statewide project on school safety. I can tell you as an educator, and I imagine Ana and Jacobi can speak to it as students, school safety, both like. The school safety, like protocols and procedures like, um, and also school climate and culture is not something that young people are often asked to provide feedback on.
So we really shifted that model to make it, to ensure that young people, um, were provided space to, um, share their experiences with school safety, develop recommendations for state teams, and then hopefully put those. Recommendations into practice. Um, and so that's one example. We also have some, um, major, uh, educational transformational transformation work happening in our state.
And our agency of education has been very clear that they want youth engaged at, um, all levels to provide feedback on, um. On both the policy, but also like the, the new structures too statewide. Graduation requirements. We don't have statewide graduation requirements in Vermont. Um, in Delaware through our, um, partnership with the Delaware Department of Education.
We've now been, um, expanding our work throughout the state at, um, districtwide to ensure that every school, um, right now we're in two districts and we're continuing to expand. Every school in these large districts have student voice advisories. And so both from elementary school for, for example, one school district, the Brandywine School District, um, in Wilmington.
Um. There are nine elementary schools, three middle schools, and three high schools. All have student Voice Advisor, where there's youth and adults working together through the YAR process using participatory action research. Looking at the data. Um, of, of their data and their peers data to really create change.
Um, that's been like, so that's what gets to the systemic change, you know, part of it and the sustainability part of it. So, um, and that is continuing to grow. We're now in another school district. Um, so what I'm really, um, encouraged by is the state level partnerships. I'm also really encouraged by our local level partnerships.
All of our partnerships, but I the fact that, you know, Vermont. Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire are really seeking to have youth and adults partnering in, in big systems change work. And they're, they're valuing, valuing this work. Um, and so, um, I guess those are some examples I would speak to. And then I think also, you know, just knowing that many of our teams that we've worked with continue to.
Engage either with us or ultimately our hope is that you don't up for learning, doesn't need to be there to facilitate the process or they've gone to a place where they are, they have created changes in their system where youth and adults are partnering on a variety of different, um, whether policy or practice level.
So we see that, you know, across the board, particularly in Vermont, where we started and have been for a very long time.
Lindsay Lyons: I love those concrete examples and I just wanna make Space Jacoby and Ana, if you wanted to jump in on at any of those, either local or state level kind of policy projects, like any, anything to add in there?
Lindsay kind of opened it up and I wanted to like make sure you actually had space to answer.
Jacoby: Yeah. Um, I would just say that artwork would the Vermont Agency of Education and Department of Public Service School safety work. Has was the first time, um, in the United States where young people were actually asked to provide input, and that was presented in front of state, um, safety officials, including our governor.
And it was a really impactful experience being one of the young people who presented that data of over 1500 young people from around Vermont, which is a really big number for Vermont. Um, and to be able to present that and kind of be a representative of that work and carry that weight was a really humbling experience.
And to just kind of look out over all these adults in this room and be one of the few youth in the room who's actually presenting that work. Was a really interesting process and the process that we did it, you know, talking about school safety is a really hard topic. Um, and through our work in youth adult partnership, restorative practice and then trauma informed, um, practices as well, we were able to take students who didn't know each other and they, um, came in this room and shared really vulnerable stories by the end of an hour and a half meeting, which really shows that this does work.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I would just echo how powerful it was to be involved in that project. Um, it happened over the summer and so we held a number of focus groups that, and I got to facilitate a lot, a number of them. Um, so I think, and I think also like, like Jacobi and Lindsay both already mentioned, it's such. A new topic to include students on?
You know, I, I think like typically when we think about like, focus groups and the work that we do, you know, we talk a lot about like belonging, engagement, youth, adult partnership, but like school safety is like, kind of like an unprecedented, um, thing to talk about with, with students. So to be able to like facilitate and hear like firsthand, like these stories that I've never really gotten to like hear before, um, and experiences that, you know, maybe they haven't really gotten an opportunity to share before was really, really powerful.
Lindsay Lyons: Incredible. Thank you all for sharing about that. That's so inspirational to a lot of people who might not even realize that we're talking about that level of student voice and youth adult partnerships. So thank you for that. We'll do kind of an abbreviated closeout here. Um, we'll do maybe a lightning round where I'll, I'll maybe have two questions and we could each.
Answer quickly. So one thing that you would encourage adults, educators to do like today or tomorrow, once they end the episode, like what's one thing they could do to kind of put this way of being in partnership with youth into practice?
Ana: I can start. Um, I would say just to like, have kind of their own reflection on how do you see your, how do you see if you're an educator, how do you see your students? Do you see 'em just as a student or do you see 'em as a full human? And how can you, um. Work to understand that like there is much more to the teacher student relationship than just, you know, um, content or, you know, structures that, so really starting to explore like, what is it that I think about my, the young people in which I work with.
Speaker 4: Um, I think for me, we actually have a resource set up called, um, 64 Ways to Strengthen Youth Voice, and it's just a list of, um, 64, like very seemingly small, but like tangible actions that you can take, um, in school or in your daily life. So just start thinking about like. Um, now that you have a greater understanding of Del Partnership, um, how can you start to implement it and, um, infuse it into like the way that you live and the way that you engage with students?
Jacoby: I would say whatever the plan is for Wednesday, May 6th, whatever that plan is, I would. Say to rearrange your classroom and do a circle and just invite everybody and just kind of have a pulse check. It's gonna be the end of the school year. Um, and ask us for some reflection about how this went. Maybe pass out some paper so that people can jot down thoughts beforehand and come to the circle with some things to share.
But I would just really encourage that moment of reflection and empowerment of young people, because although that may seem small, it is gonna be really impactful.
Ana: Wow. And Jacoby's referencing our, maybe he already told you, but our power squared summit on May 5th.
Lindsay Lyons: Love it. Alright, last question. Where can people learn more about you as individuals and or the, maybe Lindsay, you can take the, the, the actual upper learning kind of handles or, or say.
Ana: Well, you can learn about all of us at Up for learning. Um, dot org. Dot org. Um, you can find our bios there and then, um, uh, you're welcome to reach out to us at any point. You know, they, people can sign up for our, um, biweekly newsletter. We have an Instagram that we post to regularly to showcase the work that we're doing in lots of different communities throughout the country.
And, um, yeah. And that pass over to Anna and Jacoby to add their, and so.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Um, I think, yeah, my up email, all the up emails are pretty straightforward. It's just first [email protected], so on it up for learning.org. Um, I also have a LinkedIn, just Anna Linder boys. Um, but yeah, however, whatever works best.
Jacoby: Yeah, definitely. I'd say up website. Um, jacoby up for learning.org is my email.
I have a LinkedIn, which is Jacoby Soder. I think that's my LinkedIn. I'm not really sure. It's a little complicated. Um, or just kind of like tune in to like up for learnings Instagram and a lot of times you'll see us on there and we'll be talking or you'll get to see, um, the hundreds of youth that we work with too and just how they're really making impact.
Lindsay Lyons: Amazing. Thank you all so, so much for the work you do and for your time to be here today.
Jacoby: Thank you.
Ana: Thank you.