Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

If we really want to "transform" education we need to stop worrying about if the initiative is going to succeed or fail. Because, as I've said before...there are no failures...only first attempts.I know I post quite a bit...this article, however, has more to teach than most.

"...the most important insight from design thinking was that you have to make sure you've defined the right problem before you try to solve it. So, you act like an anthropologist to understand human needs and problems before jumping to solutions."

"...this shift in mindset requires a different kind of leadership. ... linear analysis for planning and executing when the decision-making information is known, and a discovery mindset when they must use small bets to create the data."

Really a great post by Vermont Superintendent Dan French. In this he talks about educators from across districts and beyond "utilizing the collective wisdom of their peers." He sees a potential providing an opportunity for educators where "Curriculum development and professional development are 'open sourced' with best practices being identified, implemented, and evaluated much more quickly across a group of schools since teachers are no longer working in isolation within their own schools or districts." I can't imagine that there isn't a person among us that wouldn't agree with the concepts he puts forward here. I think we as a group already have the pieces in place to implement what he proposes. If we were to come together as a true PLC I think that we could not only greatly help with transformation in our individual schools, but could have a profound and powerful impact on education across Vermont.

The experience of a middle school teacher moving away from grading towards comments and her finding that this creates a better environment for all... and more work is being done

Thanks for posting! I have heard this statement come out of more than one teacher's mouth. It will take time, but if we can create common language around proficiency based standards and learning and be consistent in its use, kids will catch on. My hope is that more and more of our classrooms begin to look like the one described.

improving our professional development - as Lauren and Laura's project involves - and creating more student-centric learning opportunities would move educators from behind the desk and students away from test preparation packets

A see a future Rowland fellow!

"A brand that stands for what all brands stand for stands for nothing much." At the first RF conference Peter McConville and Tom Sabo ran a really interesting activity where we looked at schools' mission statements from across Vermont. As a part of this activity they asked if individuals could recall their own. Not many (if any) could. It is too bad really. Coming from a corporate background myself, I understand the power of an organization having a common and driving statement of intent. To me what was striking, and unfortunate, was that it wouldn't be at all challenging to get fairly close if you just said something about students who strive to become life-long learners who are global citizens that give back to their community. Maybe it is just me, but I think that a mission statement should be as unique as the schools, communities, and individuals that are striving to fulfill that mission. It should be a mantra, a way to identify what is truly important to your school, a means of sharing your school's common sense of purpose, to communicate your school's common sense of direction to fulfill that purpose. My sense is that a mission statement should be the keystone for the very unique work that we do in our schools, it should be more akin to Dan Pink's My Sentence. But, read though most and you'll find that they seem interchangeable and ambiguous. I think that it may be better to not have one at all if it doesn't really share the message of what your individual school is about and what it specifically strives to be. Does your school's mission statement really share your school's mission?

Jason Thanks for posting this. Question - how do I copy this post over to another Diigo group I am working with? Jim

Mission statements are pretty generic... NEASC is moving away from asking schools for mission statements but instead for statements of core values and beliefs about learning in the hope of getting more school specific statements.

Look on pages 25-26 for a brief description of a Danish folk high school course "Take the Future." In it, Mette Hojland describes how her class looks at a 'spiritual, individual, and global perspective'; she also talks about a rubric that she has for developing the sense of self-and it's not reductive!

It appears that we are not the only group having this conversation. Here is an article that parallels our own. (It is actually eerily similar in its stream of thought.)

"...it's easy to see why students are disengaged from the learning tasks that we give them. The big question is whether we care. So far, most of our school systems don't seem too bothered by their environmental deficiencies when it comes to fostering internal motivation. Our actions put the lie to our school mission statements that state that we're about creating 'self-motivated, life-long learners.'" "As school leaders and classroom teachers, how long can we continue to ignore core principles of intrinsic motivation?"

I could not agree more and this is a critical topic for the independent schools with which I work.

A Principal's Leadership Principles. VisionRelationshipsClear ExpectationsCommunicationTeam Work and ServiceAccountabilityLearning

An animated highlight of John Seely Brown's Keynote Presentation, "Cultivating the Entrepreneurial Learner in the 21st Century," at the 2012 Digital Media and Learning Conference.

"...some of the most innovative thinking is not coming from above, but from the ground level, where the action is. Teachers and students in local schools are making their own plans on how to meet these demands and tie efforts together to improve student learning. The laboratory is the school itself, and the benefactor supporting the research is Vermont's own Rowland Foundation."

"As part of IDEA'’s efforts to foster dynamic conversations around powerful learning, we invite you to join us for an Innovation Tour in Vermont. Thirty participants will spend the day visiting three innovative schools and programs and reflecting on our experiences together." Rowland Fellow Tom Sabo's work at Montpelier High School will be one of the three stops!

"The field of education bubbles over with controversies. It's not unusual for intelligent people of good will to disagree passionately about what should happen in schools. But there are certain precepts that aren't debatable..."

Expanded conversation around the following: "1. Much of the material students are required to memorize is soon forgotten 2. Just knowing a lot of facts doesn't mean you're smart 3. Students are more likely to learn what they find interesting 4. Students are less interested in whatever they're forced to do and more enthusiastic when they have some say 5. Just because doing x raises standardized test scores doesn't mean x should be done 6. Students are more likely to succeed in a place where they feel known and cared about 7. We want children to develop in many ways, not just academically 8. Just because a lesson (or book, or class, or test) is harder doesn't mean it's better 9. Kids aren't just short adults 10. Substance matters more than labels"

"...draws on interviews and site visits with innovators and the limited literature that has been developed on the topic of competency-based approaches. The first section introduces a working definition for competency-based pathways that hopefully will be the beginning of creating consensus on the characteristics of a high-quality approach to guide policy. The second section explores the driving forces behind competency-based innovations and implementation issues. The last section highlights a number of challenges facing states and districts as they explore competency-based approaches."

Paraphrasing here..."Society & Learning moving from Hierarchical models to Newtork Relationships as a the central organizing principle." ~ R. Elmore

"Can schools as we currently know them ever accomplish the mission we've established for them? This week Richard Elmore, one of the nation's most prominent educational thinkers, emphatically shared his conviction that they cannot. "

"Clinging to dysfunctional models will actually do more damage to our children in the long-run, and so more dramatic shifts of thinking and practice now seem in order."

Looking at our efforts and our work as Rowland Fellows...are we providing "palliative care" to our schools? When we think about what we do, our work must embrace true innovation rather than "fortifying existing institutions that no longer work." I feel we are on the right track and am humbled by the work that is being done through this foundation.

An Odyssey Of Creativity, Innovation and Critical Thinking An Action Research Study By The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board Links to the full report: Unleashing Potential, Harnessing Possibilities, the Executive Summary and the Report At-a-Glance are all worth a look

"Under what conditions do healthy and creative individuals and organizations flourish?"

"...this work will have a significant impact on improving student achievement and well-being. This work is rooted in the belief that the more the organization recognizes, values and taps into the creative and unique capacities of everyone within and connected (to the school), the greater the opportunity to reach and teach all of the students in our care. This is the imperative in fostering a truly engaged and creative approach to learning and to individual and organizational health."

An expansive collection of articles on integrating curriculum from The Small Schools Project.  It is broken into 3 sections: Why Integrate Curriculum, How To Integrate Curriculum, and What Integration Looks Like.  This is a large document, so the Table of Contents is helpful.

Thank you for this post, Tom. We're having integration discussions as we try to work on the complexity of scheduling in a pre-K-12. The "whys" and the sample units are very clear.

Here's a brief description of a 3-credit UVM course to be offered this summer with links to the 2nd Annual Rowland Conference on School Transformation. This intensive, one-week institute will bring together leaders of school transformation in Vermont schools and connect current transformation initiatives from around the state with the latest research. You can choose the time and location by enrolling at UVM's Summer U here (choose EDLP from the drop-down menu): http://learn.uvm.edu/courselistsummer/index.php EDLP 380 (61346) Jun. 18-22 at Rutland H.S. with Adam Rosenberg EDLP 380 (61348) Jul. 30-Aug.3 at UVM with Mike Martin

Interesting read.  Again, we need to question and challenge everything...especially those things we Most believe in.

"The best advice that I have ever been given to help me create good quality summative comments when assessing pupils' work came from Darren Mead. He explained that if the comments made are kind, specific and helpful, the pupil will be able to progress to the next level."