Student Voice, Professional Development, Coaching, Actions

 

Critical Thinking Pedagogy

“Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.”
—June Jordan

Critical thinking pedagogy and strategies for equity consciousness are across all content areas, for all grade levels (PreK, elementary, middle and high school) and a foundation for life long thinking.

  • Collaborative Processes
    Students, Teachers, Leaders
  • Visual Tools
    As a Language for Organizing Our Thinking
  • Frame of Reference
    Our Cultural Frame of Reference is Our Identity
  • Inquiry Models
    Powerful Questions for Priming and Shared Inquiry (Socratic Seminar) for Depth and Understanding 
  • Thinking Environments
    Belief and Belonging, People, Materials, Objects
Educational Support Professionals share about their collaboration with Robert as a Senior Scholar for National Urban Alliance.
Osseo Area Schools, Minnesota

Q U I C K   L I N K S

BMS University, Sri Lanka, Critical Thinking Workshop, 21 July 2023. Video, still photos and editing by Nirmani Wickramanayake.
BMS University website.

Click on the PowerPoint above to advance the slides.

Gateway College (K-12) Workshop – Colombo, Sri Lanka • 13 July 2023 • Gateway College website
Click on the image to download the guide.

Critical Thinking Guide
Critical Thinking Tools are the core, and grounding, of what supports and develops authentic student engagement. Student engagement is what keeps us as educators motivated in classrooms and our learning communities. This should be an environment for all students, in all schools, and in all places. Equity consciousness is grounded in belief and belonging for and of all students. Culturally validating pedagogy.

Download the Critical Thinking Guide

“In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.”
—Audre Lorde

Interviews with teachers and students in classrooms at Clifford School about their successes implementing Pedagogy of Confidence with National Urban Alliance where Robert is a Senior Scholar.

Whole School Collaboration 2020-2025
Fair Oaks Elementary School
Osseo Area Schools, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota
“Our partnership with Robert Price and the National Urban Alliance over the past three years has been pivotal in developing sustainability with the High Operational Practices that are embedded throughout our curriculum and daily routines. Fair Oaks staff have been on an NUA journey that began with a monthly cohort to both examine and increase our capacity to ensure equitable learning experiences for all students.”

“As a result of this work, our teachers recognize that NUA is not about isolated strategies for teaching particular concepts, but rather, we have had a philosophical shift in how we activate student voice and create equitable instruction that is purposeful across the curriculum.”

“Through this work our staff has made monumental gains in focusing on student outcomes, including our students’ use of schema to make connections and think critically about curriculum.”
—the paragraphs above and the complete reflection are from the Fair Oaks Leadership Team.

Innovating —> Building —> Sustaining

Robert is always interested in new collaborations that bring our gifts together to innovate, build and sustain change for equity consciousness with critical thinking tools. Robert’s system approach is about bringing the whole community into the ‘choreography’:  from the board members to faculty to support staff to students to parents to bus drivers. The whole community. Contact Robert to schedule a visioning session.
Robert Seth Price CV

‘What is Student Voice’
Amplifying Student Voice
Redwood City School District, California
Amplifying Student Voice – students create videos to tell the lived stories

Technology Expertise 
Computer
Microsoft Word and Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premier and Acrobat, Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Google Workspace, ­Filmic Pro, Keynote, WordPress, HTML, Ecamm Live, ESRI, and Zoom

Video
Video cameras, mirrorless cameras, and microphones

Animation
Vintage animation with zoetropes, pfanakistascopes, flipbooks and thaumatropes

Early Childhood / Elementary Expertise
Phonics, writing, reading, mathematics, sciences, community

“We claim what we feel we deserve.”
—David Whyte

First Graders Talking Schema. The video is filmed by Robert while documenting the school in Long Beach, CA with Thinking Maps creator David Hyerle.

Frame of Reference and Schema

Schema – Part 1 (4 min)
Text to Self; Text to Text; Text to World.
Schema – Part 2 (4 min)
with Frame of Reference and Visual Tools.
Yvette Jackson: Personal Frame of Reference and Schema.



Frame of Reference: Emotions and Personal Experiences.

James Baldwin on the Frame of Reference.

“Even the most political poem is an act of faith.”
—Martin Espada

International

Addis Ababa Education Bureau Model School’s Leadership Teams • Thinking Schools Ethiopia Training
Thinking Maps™ and community. Tokyo, Japan.
SNNPRS Education Experts Training in Yirgalem SNNPRS, Hawassa, Ethiopia
Ethiopia Education Strategy Center training with university professors from across Ethiopia


Collaborations

Robert Seth Price is an independent consultant with a focus on critical thinking pedagogy and methods for equity consciousness. Robert’s breadth and depth of experiences and projects, nationally and internationally, inform his wide ranging personal interests and professional approaches with all collaborations. His professional collaborations past and present include pre-k, elementary, middle, secondary, and college levels. Additionally he has collaborated with foundations, non-profit organizations and NGOs. Many examples of Robert’s collaborations including video, qualitative research, methods and strategies, guides and more can be found on this website, and website’s he has developed in partnership.

“Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves, and be free.”
—Cesar Chavez

Robert facilitating/collaborating with students from multiple schools part of Amplifying Student Voice using The Pedagogy of Confidence High Operational Practices.
Redwood City School District, California

National Urban Alliance (NUA)
  • Facilitate professional development for whole schools and districts
  • Focus on equity consciousness, critical thinking, visual tools, collaborative models, and literacy across all content areas with PreK, K-5, middle school and high schools
  • Developing and implementing Amplifying Student Voice model
  • Implemented wrap around whole school hybrid model now used with the whole organization
  • Serve as Senior Advisor to the president and management team
  • Create online modules and strategies for educators
  • Collaborations included South Bronx, Harlem, South Harlem, Indianapolis, Dayton, Seattle, Prince Georges, Osseo, WMEP, St. Paul, Newark, Elizabeth and more school systems.
Recent whole school implementations include with the Redwood School District, CA and Osseo Area Schools, MN.
“Our partnership with Robert Price and the National Urban Alliance over the past three years has been pivotal in developing sustainability with the High Operational Practices that are embedded throughout our curriculum and daily routines.” (2023)
Read the complete leadership reflections on our collaboration at Fair Oaks including video

The CLEAR Model™ with School Site Implementation – Consultant

  • Collaborate on exploring ideas as a thinking partner with the founder Dr. Rev Hillstrom
  • Design and mediate the implementation of High Operational Practices (HOPs, Yvette Jackson)  and Thinking Friends (David Hyerle) with Fresno Unified School District (2024/2025) as part of the CLEAR model initiative
    Examples of my collaboration includes:  choreographing on-site visits, virtual and on-site implementation, website development, video clips of classroom demos, documentation, and more can be seen at Fresno Unified, Sunnyside Region Field Guide Page created by Robert
  • Website design and implementation
  • www.theCLEARmodel.com
  • www.IMPACTi3.com
The Pedagogy of Confidence™ – Dr. Yvette Jackson, Consultant
A collaboration with Dr. Yvette Jackson developing an interactive website as a companion to The Pedagogy of Confidence. 
  • Create online modules and videos used by educators
  • Developed and created the website
  • Development of the High Operational Practices interactive rubric
  • Collaborate with Yvette on trainings

www.pedagogyofconfidence.net

The Thinking Foundation, Thinking Schools International, Dr. David Hyerle, Consultant

Thinking Schools Ethiopia, Consultant
Founder of grass roots student centered project with over 100 schools

Touching the Spirit™ – Consultant
  • Advisor and thought partner Augusta Mann CEO Founder of Touching the Spirit™ including with online content
  • Developed and created the website including extensive video library
  • www.successfulteachers.com
St. Paul’s Millennium Medical College and Hospital • Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Professional development part of whole region 36 school initiative
Tigray, Ethiopia

Thinking Design Healthcare Ethiopia, Consultant

Hoffer Elementary School, Banning, California
Opening of Hoffer Elementary student’s exhibit at the University of California, Riverside Photo Museum
Robert Seth Price and Joya Baker’s students
Banning, California

University of California Riverside Photo Museum, Consultant

  • Facilitated teacher trainings on vintage animation and video in the classroom – elementary and secondary


Ansel Adams Photo Museum, Consultant

  • Facilitated teacher trainings — Low Tech, High Tech — on vintage animation and video for students


California State University Fullerton, Adjunct Professor

  • Teacher and designer of the Clear Credential Technology Class


Teacher in Public Schools
Robert has taught in self-contained elementary classrooms as a credentialed teacher. In addition to his strengths with equity consciousness, critical thinking, literacy, mathematics, science and project based approaches, he started school gardens at multiple schools, inclusion pilots, cultural mural projects, photography, amplifying student voice and more. Schools and districts Robert has taught in include:

  • Lynwood Public Schools, CA
    Wilson Elementary School;
  • Banning Unified School District, CA
    Hoffer Elementary School;
  • Brea Olinda School District
    Laurel Elementary School;
  • New Haven Public Schools, CT
    Lincoln Bassett School;
  • Indianapolis Public Schools, IN
    George Buck Elementary School;
  • New Haven Public Schools, CT
    Cooperative Arts HS.

Hot Fudge Productions, Co-Founder

  • Co-founder/owner of record label including production of flexible picture records with Dan Polhamus.

Globe Associates, Manager, Marshall Islands in Oceania

  • Manager and sales of retail audio, music and cameras on Marshall Islands

 

Examples of Collaborations

Models and Methods
Video, Documentation, Film, Text

“No matter what accomplishments you make,
somebody helped you.”
—Althea Gibson

“Access your resources”
I often share to students,
and educators.

Recent focus interview groups Robert facilitated in May 2024 that were coded for analysis and written by colleague Regina Seabrook for  National Urban Alliance. The qualitative study evaluated the effectiveness of a school-wide implementation of High Operational Practices (HOPs) for the 2023-2024 school year. Specifically, we sought to understand the effectiveness and impact of High Operational Practices on student learning and teaching efficiency. Robert designed and prepared the final document (Nov 2024).
One page overview PDF
Complete document PDF

Read about a current collaboration of Robert’s in a recently published book (October 2024) from Columbia Teacher’s Press. PDF of the ‘Vignette: Illuminating An Instructional Equity Lens That Benefits a Diverse Socioeconomic Title I School’

Interactive documentation I use with educator teams at site visits. It includes educator reflections on the pedagogy model, video clips of my demos, and supporting documents to access. It is both an interactive document for educators to use and documentation. It is created on Apple Freeform and outputted as a PDF document (Nov 2024).
Download the PDF
See more at Fresno Unified, Sunnyside Region Field Guide Page created by Robert.

Peer to Peer Coaching is an important part of my collaborations. This online video is an example of short videos developed to support ongoing implementation of the Peer to Peer Coaching model.
Who Am I, Who I am, a multi week module on student identity and cultural frame of reference while learning the Thinking Maps™

The examples below include a media component with a brief caption, and weblink in multiple categories:

  • Amplifying Student Voice
  • Professional Development with Whole Schools
    Certificated and Classified
  • Writing, Phonics, Vocabulary, Reading
  • All Content Areas
  • Video for Learning
  • Documentation with Schools
  • Film Director, Video, Editor and Producer
  • Website Development for Education
  • View Robert’s Media Portfolio

Amplifying Student Voice

Amplifying Student voice is a focus of their own cultural frame of reference with critical thinking tools with students acting on their potential to produce the high intellectual performances that can motivate self-directed learning, self-actualization, and self-transcendence.  

High School
Student Voice Social Justice high school explorations with school wide installations.
Newark Public Schools, New Jersey
Elementary School
Second Grade, Amplifying Student Voice.
Osseo Area Schools, Minnesota
Middle School
Amplifying Student Voice – middle school students create videos to tell the lived stories
Redwood City, California

Professional Development with Educators and Education Leaders

Four grade 4-5 teachers at Clifford School (K-8) that Robert collaborates with as a Senior Scholar with National Urban Alliance, in Redwood City School District, CA, share their reflections on the collaboration and implementation.
—more on the  collaboration.
The Fair Oaks Elementary, Osseo Area Schools, MN leadership team share their reflections on our collaboration including all teachers and support staff with virtual and in person Pre-K, K-5. (2022)
—more about the collaboration.

 “Our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging,” “Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. . . . I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society.”
—Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Professional Development with Students and Educators Observing

Phonics with Bridge Maps (Thinking Maps™), USA
Demonstration with students using visual mapping, Ethiopia

Director, Videographer, Editor, Producer

The HeArt Project
Robert Seth Price: Director, Videography, Producer; Charles Jones film editing
Los Angeles, California
The Minds of Mississippi (2013)
Robert Seth Price is co-producer for the Thinking Foundation funded documentary film

Students Create Mini
Documentary Films

Roosevelt School, Long Beach, California

Mapping the ideas with Thinking Maps™ and storyboarding the sequence
Documenting the students modeling the documentary process
Student Films

“We all must live our lives always feeling, always thinking the moment has arrived. ”
― Tracy Chapman

Filmmakers filming and acting problem solution video in second/third grade classroom.
Banning, California
Classroom stop action. Second/third grade student team.
Banning, California
Thinking Schools Ethiopia: Addis Ababa, Tigray, SNNPR
Aksum, Hawassa, Hosanna, Yirgalem, Mekelle, Shire