We are excited to invite all teachers to apply for one of the most transformative and effective professional development opportunities of a lifetime.
Detroit Future Schools (DFS) needs innovative, passionate, committed teachers toapply. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. The first round of applications will be reviewed in April 2013.
This is an open invitation to all educators in Metro-Detroit to apply for one of a few positions available for a year-long initiative to empower young people in our classrooms and communities by integrating the following into your classroom:
- Digital Media Arts
- Problem-Posing Pedagogy
- Community-School Interactions
- Documentation & Evaluation
Through your participation in this year-long program, you will be partnered with a digital media artist and you will explore several key questions:
- What role can media and technology play in building Detroit's Future?
- How can we ensure equitable access to the tools of information, creation and collaboration?
- How can the integration of media and technology into the learning process increase student agency and connection to community?
For further information, please visit our website. Want to know what DFS might look like in a classroom? Take a look at this classroom visit in our youngest DFS classroom!
Here are some testimonies from the DFS Crew of 2012!
Feel free to share this information far and wide.
Every week, 
Mr. Joe, as he is known to the students, began the class by asking students to recap what they learned the previous week and to brainstorm what the definition of curiosity was. Students chattered their thoughts in response to these questions until Ms. MB said "I'm noticing a lot of side-talking. You know what to do if you have something to say." She makes the gesture of covering her mouth with one hand while raising the other one. This hand signal is one part of an elaborate system of active listening practices that Ms. MB has built into her classroom. Students helped develop some of the hand signals and regularly use them with each other, effectively distributing classroom management to the students themselves.
This happened again later in the lesson, when two students pulled out a book and started reading together, while a third was trying to convey a point to the whole class. A fourth student intervened to ask why the two had started reading a book, rather than paying attention to their fellow classmate. One of them explained honestly, "he was taking too long to talk and I got bored so I took out my book." The other added, "I was curious about what she was reading, and wanted to read too." Mr. Joe thanked the students for their explanations and used the scenario to return to the point, that self-control and curiosity can sometimes work at odds with each other, even though they are both positive things.
As a college-educated, full-grown adult observer of this classroom, I puzzled over the question, struggling to come up with an answer and trying to imagine how second graders would be able to answer this question. Meanwhile, the students wrote or drew their answers eagerly in their journals. When the time came to share their work, each table of students was tasked with deciding who at their table should present first. They negotiated this for a while, saying things like, "Deven went first last time, so he shouldn’t go first this time" or "Khaliyah hasn’t spoken much today, maybe she should go." Noticeably, the students who had the biggest personalities exercised their leadership by directing these conversations, rather than vying for the chance to go first.