imagine if we brought Benjamin Franklin
back to life how would he react to
modern American society he’d be confused
by iPhones and social media he’d be
fascinated by our politics and
frightened by cars or maybe fascinated
by cars and frightened by our politics
to put it simply he would feel very
uncomfortable because these are all
changes and developments that he could
have never imagined in his lifetime but
there is one place where Benjamin
Franklin is guaranteed to feel
comfortable and right at home in that
place is the classroom with death still
lined up in rows a teacher still
lecturing at the front of the room while
students listen and taking notes a
whiteboard to replace the old blackboard
nothing much has really changed with
this image so now as the world around us
is shifting with new technology we are
starting to change classroom dynamics
and schooling so that students are
prepared for world that Benjamin
Franklin never saw coming with all these
changes occurring we can’t possibly
expect students today to be the same as
students in the past today I’m going to
talk about how to be a 21st century
student so let’s get a raise of hands
how many of you attended Pleasanton
middle school
awesome and how many of you how many of
you have ever run on the track at
busselton middle
so when I’m the student of Pleasanton
middle school three years ago this is
what the track looked like a lot has
changed with this image chances are if
you raise your hand the only track
you’ve ever known at Pleasanton middle
is this one in seventh grade I noticed
my peers getting injured on the school’s
track which had sharp pieces of gravel
covering the surface students who fell
ended up with awful cuts on their knees
and elbows and gravel stuck in their
woods I was just an ordinary student but
I decided that something had to be done
so I gather my nerves together and
convinced the secretary that I had an
important issue to discuss with mr.
Whitney who was a principal at the time
our meeting asked mr. Whitney if I could
fundraise money to renovate the tracks I
learned from mr. Whitney that the track
had actually been on the facilities
improvement list for years but nothing
had been done about it and I also
learned that the track to renovate it
would cost sixty thousand dollars
now there are a lot of things that it
could have thought at that point I could
have thought there’s no way I can
fundraise that amount of money I could
have thought it’s time to pick an easier
project but instead I thought I better
start now with fundraising so with the
help of other students I organized my
first school-wide fundraiser in the
spring of my seventh-grade year we knew
that’s a fundraising dollars this would
be like all of you purchasing 90 songs
on iTunes right now it’s a lot of money
so we worked hard we found up flyers all
around campus to publicize our
fundraiser we even organized pizza
parties to award the classes that’s
under race the most money we worked
before school during lunch and after
school so I felt confident that we would
fundraising at least $5,000 in the end
we fundraised around $1,000 though I was
very disappointed at the time it’s now
clear to me that even a little bit of
progress is meaningful on the path to
achieving a big goal by successfully
fundraising $1,000 I had finished the
first lap of a 60 lap marathon I move
forward by working at the school and
community to organize a fun run event in
November of 2013 I persuaded for
businesses to sponsor so we decorated
the track with balloons played music
provided wristbands and popsicles to
every student and awarded cakes to the
students who ran the most laps it took
place during the school day so every
student participated even students who
typically find every excuse possible to
avoid running a PE ran during the fun
run
after all the donations were counted I’d
fundraise nearly $20,000
but I was still around $40,000 short
from my goal but then great news came
the school district heard about my
efforts and offered to fund half of the
$60,000 if I could fundraise thirty
thousand and then in the spring of 2014
the para Faculty Association contributed
around five thousand dollars so now I
was only five thousand dollars away from
reaching my goal one last hurdle to jump
but it wasn’t going to be an easy one
because I needed to find an entirely new
source of funding then I had an idea I
would go to Safeway headquarters in
Pleasanton request to meet the CEO and
ask him for a five thousand dollar grant
surprisingly it didn’t exactly go as
planned when I arrived at headquarters I
ran around in the rain looking for the
right building and tried several before
I found when I was looking for then I
finally walked up to the front desk and
asked may I meet with the CEO of Safeway
mr. Edwards and the lady replied I’m
sorry but he’s in a meeting right now so
I asked her if I could schedule a
meeting with him and she looked at me
and saw that I wasn’t kidding so that
day though I didn’t get to meet with the
CEO of Safeway I did have the
opportunity to present to the director
of the Safeway foundation and weeks
later I obtained a $5,000 grant
[Applause]
I had finally reached my goal a
fundraising $60,000 and the track was
renovated over the summer of 2014 as I
was moving on to high school
what I hope my story illustrates is the
idea that students in the 21st century
are no longer just passive receivers of
information we are change makers in our
schools and in our community effective
change makers have resilience
collaboration skills and community
consciousness but we cannot learn these
skills from a lecture or a textbook we
cannot develop these skills if we are
satisfied with being passive receivers
of information the best way to develop
the skills we need to make change is to
do exactly that make change because we
take actions to make positive change in
our schools and community we are
guaranteed to have experiences that will
develop our resilience collaboration
skills and community consciousness
resilience is the ability to adapt to
change sheryl sandberg CEO at Facebook
once said you are not born with a fixed
amount of resilience it’s a muscle you
can build it up and draw on it when you
need it in a world that’s changing
rapidly the ability to adapt to change
is critical let’s say you’re interested
in changing this image and
revolutionizing our classrooms so that
Benjamin Franklin wouldn’t be able to
recognize them after all we need 21st
century classrooms to support 21st
century learning
then imagine a classroom with a device
for every student to access internet
imagine using it to connect students in
the classroom within experts in various
fields imagine having mobile desks and
chairs so you can easily rearrange its
table groups to promote collaboration
maybe you’re interested in making all of
this a reality then consider meeting
with administrators at Amador to discuss
your thoughts you would develop
resilience because after talking to
administrators you may find that the
original plans you had in mind aren’t
going to work and you’ll learn to adjust
those plans consider fundraising money
to bring this technology to our
classrooms you would develop resilience
because the first fundraise are you
organizing may not be as successful as
you would like it to be but you’ll
recover from disappointment and realize
that all progress is meaningful consider
learning more about the school bond that
was passed recently and how you could
influence the way those funds are spent
on our classrooms through all of these
actions you would develop resilience
collaboration this means people working
together to reach a common goal
collaboration was not an expectation of
students in previous generations but in
the 21st century it is necessary for our
success let’s say you’re interested in
changing this image and reducing
students stress here Amador after all
students need to be mentally healthy to
be successful learners
and imagine workshops that teach
students time management skills and help
students select an appropriate course
schedule to reduce stress imagine
working with teachers to implement
classroom practices that would decrease
test anxiety imagine using social media
platforms to provide tips to students
about stressing less throughout the
school year maybe you’re interested in
making all of this a reality to consider
starting a group here on campus that
works to reduce students dress you would
develop collaboration skills through
working with other students and learning
to utilize everyone’s strengths help the
whole group succeed consider meeting
with your teachers to discuss classroom
practices you would develop
collaboration skills through having
these conversations and learning to see
the situation from a different
perspective and consider reaching out to
other schools nearby to see how they’ve
had success with reducing stress levels
because through all of these actions you
would develop collaboration skills
lastly community consciousness is a
defining characteristic of a 21st
century student it’s important that we
understand local and global issues and
recognize our role as individuals in the
community to develop community
consciousness during your next four
years in high school I challenge you to
find an issue that you’re passionate
about and do something to make a
difference there are no limits to what
you can do you can improve the quality
of food served in our school cafeteria
you can help students build
relationships with their teachers you
can volunteer for a nonprofit
organization raise awareness for a
global issue fund raise money for a
cause
tutor your peers the possibilities are
endless and found only by your
imagination as 21st century students we
shape our futures by shaping the world
around us
so ask yourself what do I want to change
about this image and how am I going to
do it thank you
[Applause]
back to life how would he react to
modern American society he’d be confused
by iPhones and social media he’d be
fascinated by our politics and
frightened by cars or maybe fascinated
by cars and frightened by our politics
to put it simply he would feel very
uncomfortable because these are all
changes and developments that he could
have never imagined in his lifetime but
there is one place where Benjamin
Franklin is guaranteed to feel
comfortable and right at home in that
place is the classroom with death still
lined up in rows a teacher still
lecturing at the front of the room while
students listen and taking notes a
whiteboard to replace the old blackboard
nothing much has really changed with
this image so now as the world around us
is shifting with new technology we are
starting to change classroom dynamics
and schooling so that students are
prepared for world that Benjamin
Franklin never saw coming with all these
changes occurring we can’t possibly
expect students today to be the same as
students in the past today I’m going to
talk about how to be a 21st century
student so let’s get a raise of hands
how many of you attended Pleasanton
middle school
awesome and how many of you how many of
you have ever run on the track at
busselton middle
so when I’m the student of Pleasanton
middle school three years ago this is
what the track looked like a lot has
changed with this image chances are if
you raise your hand the only track
you’ve ever known at Pleasanton middle
is this one in seventh grade I noticed
my peers getting injured on the school’s
track which had sharp pieces of gravel
covering the surface students who fell
ended up with awful cuts on their knees
and elbows and gravel stuck in their
woods I was just an ordinary student but
I decided that something had to be done
so I gather my nerves together and
convinced the secretary that I had an
important issue to discuss with mr.
Whitney who was a principal at the time
our meeting asked mr. Whitney if I could
fundraise money to renovate the tracks I
learned from mr. Whitney that the track
had actually been on the facilities
improvement list for years but nothing
had been done about it and I also
learned that the track to renovate it
would cost sixty thousand dollars
now there are a lot of things that it
could have thought at that point I could
have thought there’s no way I can
fundraise that amount of money I could
have thought it’s time to pick an easier
project but instead I thought I better
start now with fundraising so with the
help of other students I organized my
first school-wide fundraiser in the
spring of my seventh-grade year we knew
that’s a fundraising dollars this would
be like all of you purchasing 90 songs
on iTunes right now it’s a lot of money
so we worked hard we found up flyers all
around campus to publicize our
fundraiser we even organized pizza
parties to award the classes that’s
under race the most money we worked
before school during lunch and after
school so I felt confident that we would
fundraising at least $5,000 in the end
we fundraised around $1,000 though I was
very disappointed at the time it’s now
clear to me that even a little bit of
progress is meaningful on the path to
achieving a big goal by successfully
fundraising $1,000 I had finished the
first lap of a 60 lap marathon I move
forward by working at the school and
community to organize a fun run event in
November of 2013 I persuaded for
businesses to sponsor so we decorated
the track with balloons played music
provided wristbands and popsicles to
every student and awarded cakes to the
students who ran the most laps it took
place during the school day so every
student participated even students who
typically find every excuse possible to
avoid running a PE ran during the fun
run
after all the donations were counted I’d
fundraise nearly $20,000
but I was still around $40,000 short
from my goal but then great news came
the school district heard about my
efforts and offered to fund half of the
$60,000 if I could fundraise thirty
thousand and then in the spring of 2014
the para Faculty Association contributed
around five thousand dollars so now I
was only five thousand dollars away from
reaching my goal one last hurdle to jump
but it wasn’t going to be an easy one
because I needed to find an entirely new
source of funding then I had an idea I
would go to Safeway headquarters in
Pleasanton request to meet the CEO and
ask him for a five thousand dollar grant
surprisingly it didn’t exactly go as
planned when I arrived at headquarters I
ran around in the rain looking for the
right building and tried several before
I found when I was looking for then I
finally walked up to the front desk and
asked may I meet with the CEO of Safeway
mr. Edwards and the lady replied I’m
sorry but he’s in a meeting right now so
I asked her if I could schedule a
meeting with him and she looked at me
and saw that I wasn’t kidding so that
day though I didn’t get to meet with the
CEO of Safeway I did have the
opportunity to present to the director
of the Safeway foundation and weeks
later I obtained a $5,000 grant
[Applause]
I had finally reached my goal a
fundraising $60,000 and the track was
renovated over the summer of 2014 as I
was moving on to high school
what I hope my story illustrates is the
idea that students in the 21st century
are no longer just passive receivers of
information we are change makers in our
schools and in our community effective
change makers have resilience
collaboration skills and community
consciousness but we cannot learn these
skills from a lecture or a textbook we
cannot develop these skills if we are
satisfied with being passive receivers
of information the best way to develop
the skills we need to make change is to
do exactly that make change because we
take actions to make positive change in
our schools and community we are
guaranteed to have experiences that will
develop our resilience collaboration
skills and community consciousness
resilience is the ability to adapt to
change sheryl sandberg CEO at Facebook
once said you are not born with a fixed
amount of resilience it’s a muscle you
can build it up and draw on it when you
need it in a world that’s changing
rapidly the ability to adapt to change
is critical let’s say you’re interested
in changing this image and
revolutionizing our classrooms so that
Benjamin Franklin wouldn’t be able to
recognize them after all we need 21st
century classrooms to support 21st
century learning
then imagine a classroom with a device
for every student to access internet
imagine using it to connect students in
the classroom within experts in various
fields imagine having mobile desks and
chairs so you can easily rearrange its
table groups to promote collaboration
maybe you’re interested in making all of
this a reality then consider meeting
with administrators at Amador to discuss
your thoughts you would develop
resilience because after talking to
administrators you may find that the
original plans you had in mind aren’t
going to work and you’ll learn to adjust
those plans consider fundraising money
to bring this technology to our
classrooms you would develop resilience
because the first fundraise are you
organizing may not be as successful as
you would like it to be but you’ll
recover from disappointment and realize
that all progress is meaningful consider
learning more about the school bond that
was passed recently and how you could
influence the way those funds are spent
on our classrooms through all of these
actions you would develop resilience
collaboration this means people working
together to reach a common goal
collaboration was not an expectation of
students in previous generations but in
the 21st century it is necessary for our
success let’s say you’re interested in
changing this image and reducing
students stress here Amador after all
students need to be mentally healthy to
be successful learners
and imagine workshops that teach
students time management skills and help
students select an appropriate course
schedule to reduce stress imagine
working with teachers to implement
classroom practices that would decrease
test anxiety imagine using social media
platforms to provide tips to students
about stressing less throughout the
school year maybe you’re interested in
making all of this a reality to consider
starting a group here on campus that
works to reduce students dress you would
develop collaboration skills through
working with other students and learning
to utilize everyone’s strengths help the
whole group succeed consider meeting
with your teachers to discuss classroom
practices you would develop
collaboration skills through having
these conversations and learning to see
the situation from a different
perspective and consider reaching out to
other schools nearby to see how they’ve
had success with reducing stress levels
because through all of these actions you
would develop collaboration skills
lastly community consciousness is a
defining characteristic of a 21st
century student it’s important that we
understand local and global issues and
recognize our role as individuals in the
community to develop community
consciousness during your next four
years in high school I challenge you to
find an issue that you’re passionate
about and do something to make a
difference there are no limits to what
you can do you can improve the quality
of food served in our school cafeteria
you can help students build
relationships with their teachers you
can volunteer for a nonprofit
organization raise awareness for a
global issue fund raise money for a
cause
tutor your peers the possibilities are
endless and found only by your
imagination as 21st century students we
shape our futures by shaping the world
around us
so ask yourself what do I want to change
about this image and how am I going to
do it thank you
[Applause]
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