Students and Changemakers: How to Get Your Students to Have Agency and Solve Problems

First Book, the largest online community of educators serving kids in poverty, and Ashoka, the largest global network of leading social entrepreneurs, launched the Time for Change: Dream, Act, Change Our World initiative in 2022 to address the opportunity and resource gap that limits many young people from low-income and historically excluded communities from solving the problems they care about. 

Changemaking is a mindset and an approach to life that addresses today’s pressing challenges and injustices by applying four key abilities: conscious empathy, teamwork, changemaking leadership, and changemaking action. Changemaking projects can be far-reaching and complex, like building a powerful social movement, but also local and focused, like reducing food waste in your school cafeteria.Through this session, educators will learn how to become changemaker educators. The session will include guided activities, exploring why changemaking is important for your classroom; how educators and students may already be participating in changemaking activities; and how to encourage kids to come up with unique ideas to solve problems in their school and community. Educators will also be supported in addressing barriers they may face when bringing changemaking ideas to their classrooms, including assisting students in building confidence in sharing their solutions to address problems they see every day.

This webinar is part of Share My Lesson's 2025 Virtual Conference! View all sessions here.