Empowering Student Voices

Using Flipgrid, Podcasts & Social Media to Showcase Young Voices

When building platforms for student voice with our learners, there are many aspects educators must focus on. Not only should we create opportunities in our classrooms for our students to find and express their authentic voices, we must empower them to think beyond those spaces.

Out in the world, their voice is power and with it, our students can be an agent of change.

Teacher Session

In my session about empowering and amplifying our students’ voices, I show how I use Flipgrid, podcasting and social media as platforms to develop and showcase young voices. In my role as an EAL (English as an Additional Language) teacher, I have built and used these platforms with the intention of supporting all students, including ELLs (English Language Learners) as they find their authentic voice in a language that is not their own.

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Photo credit @yhgrace via Twitter

Emma's Speech

Watch how Emma Gonzales delivers a powerful speech the day after she and her classmates are victims of a mass shooting.

When watching an excerpt of this speech in my session, I ask educators to reflect:

What is Emma doing as a student during her speech?
How might her learning experiences empowered her to deliver such a brave and powerful message?

There’s much responsibility on us as teachers to make sure we’re building platforms for our students’ voices to develop. We model by taking our own risks, and we ask students to take a journey into exploring their own stories, beliefs and convictions; and to be bravely vulnerable in sharing them with various audiences.

Click on the icons below to see how you can use these tools to empower and showcase young voices. Feel free to borrow, use, edit, remix, share any/all resources on this site.

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