The Staff at Clemente High School are ‘Fulfilling the Dream’
Roberto Rivera, founder and leader of The Good Life organization, helped to share his insight and guidance with the Clemente staff and teachers this Saturday during a professional development opportunity about relationship building with students. The Good Life organization works with a group of our male students to ignite their inner passion to become “dream chasers” and turn their “pain into propane,” as quoted by Roberto Rivera of The Good Life. Last year our male, Good Life leaders were invited to present to influential, disciplinary figures across CPS at the Student Led Discipline Conference about their experiences with restorative practices and shared strategies on how to create disciplinary change. The Good Life student leaders also created their own T-shirt line in which they have funneled their passion for entrepreneurism to start their own business and bring awareness to their desire to create a more peaceful world. They are creating a positive vision for youth that challenges negative perceptions and perspectives of those who have made generalizations of who they are and what they can do. They are not just Clemente students, they are agents for change.
The Good Life also works with our staff to share strategies on how to connect to our youth through relationship building, create engaging and relevant instruction, and ultimately, share ways to teach our students how to be successful in the world in which they live. Teachers and staff at Clemente are working to help students identify their inner ‘spark’ that may be hidden behind worlds and cultures that are different than their own. We are working to help develop IB learners who understand that “other people, with their differences, may also be right”. With The Good Life, Clemente teachers are working to help students embrace the IB pedagogy and Good Life philosophy of thinking global and acting local. Engaging in professional development opportunities with The Good Life organization is one of the many ways that the teachers and staff at Clemente High School are working to develop students holistically, and prepare them for the post-secondary world.