Podium for Positive Change

This interactive workshop introduces teachers to a new classroom resource built around the short documentary King’s Court, which explores masculinity, friendship, and identity through the lens of basketball. Participants will watch the 20-minute education cut of the film together, then experience excerpts from the King’s Court Playbook for Success—an interactive digital resource that uses basketball plays as metaphors for key socioemotional and life skills.

The Playbook invites students to reflect on identity, self-awareness, communication, healthy relationships, resilience, and what it means to “win” in life—on and off the court. Designed for students 12+, the resource blends sport, storytelling, and structured reflection to support meaningful classroom conversations that connect directly to social studies themes such as identity, citizenship, belonging, and personal growth.

Teachers will leave with practical strategies for using documentary film and interactive tools to support student voice, discussion, and goal-setting across social studies, health, and language classes.

Workshop Learning Outcomes

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

Explore how documentary film can be used to teach identity, belonging, and resilience in social studies classrooms

Experience and evaluate the King’s Court Playbook for Success as a student-centered learning tool

Identify concrete ways to integrate socioemotional learning into social studies instruction

Adapt at least one activity from the Playbook for use in their own classroom context

Understand how sport and storytelling can support discussions about success, relationships, and self-awareness