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"While the projects had wildly different end products, they both had a similar starting point: focusing on how to ease people's lives. And that is a central lesson at the school, which is pushing students to rethink the boundaries for many industries. At the heart of the school's courses is developing what David Kelley, one of the school's founders, calls an empathy muscle. Inside the school's cavernous space - which seems like a nod to the Silicon Valley garages of lore - the students are taught to forgo computer screens and spreadsheets and focus on people."

First of all, I'm typing this comment from my new iPad! Secondly, here is my favorite line: one emphasis is to get students to leave campus and observe how people deal w life's messy problems. Finally, I think we could write this article about MVPS I design lab.

Very powerful read about how VTR and design thinking can empower learners as agents of change. HT @Deacs84

Mary shared this with me. Great language: Students will learn and work in RE-DESIGNED LEARNING SPACES that include THINK SPACES and CREATION LABS designed to allow students to exhibit their learning through hands-on experiences. Students will work through CROSS-AGED CONNECTIONS allowing students to engage with students outside of their traditional grade level and ENHANCE SOCIAL AND ACADEMIC GROWTH. Students will EXHIBIT LEARNING of state standards through multiple avenues. In addition to traditional standardized tests, authentic PERFORMANCE BASED EXHIBITIONS will be used to measure learning.

"The Capulets and Montagues of early childhood have long battled over their vision for a perfect preschool education.  Should young children be immersed in a core curriculum replete with numbers and letters or in a playful context that stimulates creative discovery?  The 'preschool war' leaves educators torn and embattled politicians in deadlock.  Playful learning offers one way to reframe the debate by nesting a rich core curriculum within a playful pedagogy." HT @kellyBKelly2001

Important new pilot @altschool of differentiated learning? via @Kschwart http://t.co/S5nS0yLmAx @Design39Campus @boadams1 HT @grantlichtman

Learning by an original and personal process of discovery is a trend on many US university campuses, like Stanford University, MIT, and Arizona State University. It also shows up in middle school, high school and after school programs. Discovery, as intriguing process, has become a powerful theme in contemporary culture and entertainment. In art and design galleries, and many museums, artists and designers...

Wonderful can drive idea for combining creativity, designing, making, and service to others.

"Our kids learn within a system of education devised for a world that increasingly does not exist." HT @MeghanCureton & Greg Todd Jones (two colleagues in significantly different worlds who sent me the link at exactly the same time.)

"Circulasticity. A combination of the words circular and elasticity, it is an organizational condition that generates contexts or situations in which high levels of activity are noted, but any discernible long-term change is not."

We don't give grades... because we give more descriptive feedback. I think it would be interesting to see of we notice any increase in learning since we switched - or if kids' attitudes/beliefs about learning changed. I think standards-based grading has increased teacher understanding of learning outcomes and allowed more flexibility in designing learning experiences and assessment.

A post by Grant Wiggins, stressing the importance of of how to use hands-on projects and rich experiences to properly frame learning: "If you were going to learn carpentry to build a chair, then "The learning is not the chair; it is the learning about learning about chairs, chair-making and oneself."" The questions Grant would ask at the end of his Socratic Seminars are powerful ones to consider asking in other learning events.