Global Human Rights Bike Ride
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Now that spring has arrived, our older students can be seen exploring the city via bicycle both before and after school. Kelly Steinhagen’s and Jesse McDonough’s 7th/ 8th grade class recently embarked on a bike trip through downtown Portland as part of their Global Human Rights unit. While biking through the city, they explored a variety of ways that people make their voices heard. The overarching goal: To find local experiences that help students consider issues in other parts of the world. They explored art in the East Bayside neighborhood, the Black is Beautiful street mural, Mother’s Garden in Kennedy Park, the ‘Voices of Community’ mosaic, and the Telling Room wall spotlighting a variety of stories from local storytellers. The exploration sparked conversations between students about what inspired the art, who the collaborators are, and the individual stories connected to the art. Students wrote journal entries along the bike ride reflecting over what they saw, heard, and learned.
“Our rides show students that the world is worth exploring, and that they have the power to satisfy their curiosities, interact, and make connections along the way.”
For our older students, exploring and traveling by bike creates a unique opportunity for exploration and learning that is different than driving to different destinations. Students are able to connect with their peers and teachers through more than just the material they are learning; the shared physical challenges of biking up hills and the time spent connecting and playing during lunch in a local park helps to further build community. Jesse shares, “exploring and learning by bike allows students to experience the community in especially unique ways, in part because we can cover a lot of ground while still interacting easily with people and points of interest along the way. The bicycle empowers students, both physically and academically.” Teachers hope that trips like these will also teach students that there is much to explore just down the street, in their own state, and in the world.
Back at Breakwater, what the students learned on the bike ride will serve as a catalyst for more in-depth studies around global issues. Jesse adds, “this trip allowed them to see how a variety of voices can address similar concerns, as well as the different ways these voices can makes themselves heard.” In a year where we have to be more and more creative in order to stay connected, the bicycle has proven to be a great way to further connect our students to the city of Portland and beyond.
