Building Community and Making Students Feel Valued

“In addition to vibrant discussions, Packback has helped some in my class find their voice. A recent email from a teacher in my class summed this up when he said, ‘I can’t tell you how great it feels to be selected as an outstanding discussion entry in your examples to the class. This truly made me feel that I had valuable insights and that I can express them in a scholarly manner. You then went on to select several more of my passages as the course progressed. That showed me that I had something to say that people should hear and that my experience and my openness was appreciated.’ It is exciting to see these teachers opening up and discussing ideas that are important to them and receiving validation from others, who realize these ideas are important in their school.”