The summer 2020 Tooling Up for Uncertainty workshop has really challenged and inspired a small group of educators from Highland Park Middle School to start thinking about and utilizing the design process in our teaching lives. We were not the typical design crew: two of us are special education/ESL teachers, with one technology/science teacher and one science teacher. The exceptional design team leaders of Katie Krummeck and Gray Garmon provided an opportunity for our school team to work together to develop a project that would be useful for our school and community. Our project began as a simple wonder as to how we could reach and support more families during Comprehensive Distance Learning to increase access and engagement for our community. With the use of Mural and the Design Process, we were able to develop a concept called the Caring Caravan that would bring technology and assistance during COVID to the community. We wanted to go to them, instead of them coming to us. We began by interviewing stakeholders and making notes:
Next, we began thinking of Prototypes that would give us information about our project and whether we were on the right track:
Finally, we chose a Prototype:
After using the Design Process, Sarah Warren, our Highland Park technology teacher, became so inspired with our idea that she decided to pursue a grant with the Beaverton Education Foundation which, with the help of community donors, was fully funded. With funds, our team was able to purchase a projector, screen, hot spot, speaker and other equipment needed to support this project. We utilized the design process in an effort to promote this project and ensure equality for our community. We were committed to communication in multiple languages and modalities and recruited multilingual staff members to assist us as well as a bilingual parent liaison for our first session.
Our first session with our Caring Caravan Prototype was held in October 2020 where we visited the Fir Crest Apartment Complex in Beaverton. Our team was joined by our awesome librarian, Yasmin Ali, our school monitor Ricardo Alcantraz, and Nicole Safranski, a Humanities teacher. We had masks, gloves, and snacks. We were ready; however, we had very few kids and families. We were slightly disappointed at the turnout, but we were even more motivated to go back to the drawing board and consider what we were missing.
We realized that we needed to rethink our design since we were still navigating uncharted territory with distance learning as well as a pandemic. We needed to consider that some families may be uncertain about attending an event even with COVID precautions. We also realized that we would need to engage in stronger promotion of each event that we hosted.
Our second event was late in October at our school-Highland Park- at 5:00 pm. We sent out text messages and emails to select families including who had indicated that they might need extra technology help. We assured families of our COVID precautions. We had more snacks, water, masks, and gloves to give. Unfortunately, this event had an even lower response than the first. We learned valuable lessons about what not to do with our Caring Caravan regarding promotion, timing (both events had been held at 5:00 pm), and making unfounded assumptions.
Our last event was a virtual Caring Caravan event in mid November. This event was actually prompted by parents who wanted to know more about the school’s online learning platform: Canvas. About five families participated in that event. Sarah Warren took the lead answering questions about Canvas and going over different aspects of the platform. A few parents had many questions during the event while others were invited to speak, but declined. We considered this event a small success.
In spite of setbacks, our small team believes that we are better for going through the design process and that it has helped us as educators be cautious when making assumptions about our students and their families. We have been able to share our learning with our colleagues as well as bring this type of thinking in the virtual classroom. We invite readers who may have any ideas or suggestions for us regarding redesigning out Caring Caravan to let us know; we will do our best to try them out.
We are so thankful to have been part of this project and would highly recommend the Tooling Up for Uncertainty Professional Development!
From the Highland Park Middle School educators,
Julie Fairman
Elise Renning
Sarah Warren