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This 23 slide screen-cast features 3 videos and explains Mike McRaith's 2013 Autumn Research as a Rowland Fellow. It can serve as a good starting place for anyone interested in building perseverance and grit into school culture.

The Rural Trust's Global Teacher Fellowship program will be awarding up to 25 fellowships in 2014 to support the professional and personal development of rural teachers. The awards (up to $5,000 for individual teachers and $10,000 for a team of two or more teachers) support teachers' participation in self-designed summer learning experiences and a two-day place-based learning institute in the fall following their summer experience. This fellowship is a stand-alone grant not meant to supplement other grant funds for larger projects. Teachers are encouraged to center their learning in an international travel and study experience, out of which they develop interdisciplinary, place-based learning curricula aligned with their specific state and local content standards.

There are a number of Rowland fellows that might be able to use this to supplement / expand their existing work.

""If you're not standing on the edge, you're taking up too much space." Littky

What an ideal #VTed school should look like according to students from across the state.

"...when we encourage entrepreneurship, we're actually trying to get people to the place where they care enough and where they are confident enough to stand up and try to make things change."

IMHO, the transformation of education isn't about "Innovation" as much as it is about creating Educational Entrepreneurs. And...IMHO, that is what the Rowland Foundation allows for and supports. The question is how do we convince more school and district leaders to do the same? Answer that question first and innovation will follow. Innovation is the Product Of rather than the Means To EdReform

Another piece that puts the focus of Innovation on People rather than Programs. My personal belief is that #EdReform should start and end with empowering PD which is Personal and Purposeful. With that, what if schools modeled their PD on the Rowland Foundation's model of #EdReform? What would it look like if PD were not determined and delivered but instead supported and shared? What if PD were about providing resources and teaching teachers to be data collectors, researchers, developers of innovation? 2 year Action Research cycle? What if every teacher in a school spent a school year coming up with a hunch, collecting data, researching ideas around their hunch...then spent the second year testing it out/implementing it in the classroom, more data collection, presenting outcomes to their peers, and collecting feedback for reflection and refinement?

"What has proved to matter is...the building of knowledge and innovation skills, which are much harder and take longer to get in place and maintain. Leading-edge competency in one's area of practice is indispensable; practice at turning ideas into reality is a must." "...while learning is hard work, and the value is not quantifiable, it is the only way to remain valuable in an economy that thrives on innovation. The more you invest in your people's knowledge, the more innovation you can expect to reap."

The education wide-ranging ideas - presented in snapshots from principals, professors, policy makers, students, and others - really speak toward the Rowland community's drive toward shaking up the status quo in education. My personal favorite: scrap business-as-usual twelfth grade in favor of universal pre-school.

Photos from the first Rowland Foundation retreat with Barry & Wendy, the Board of Trustees, Director Chuck Scranton, and Rowland Fellows 2009-2013.

Thanks for sharing. We look great - and according to one of my breakout groups, we would look even better in Rowland fleeces (although some preferred hoodies).

Keep the digital records coming! I think the video you are taking could become a powerful tool of communication and transformation!

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!

"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!

"...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."

This is my second MOOC; I am already addicted to learning this way. I have been taking ideas on how to move the platform for advisory discussions onto a Google+ Community.

I am completely energized by the MOOC experience. One of my seniors tried it: a human physiology course out of Yale. She was overwhelmed, but grateful to experience the caliber of a "university" course. She ended up dropping after a few months. The pace and rigor were beyond her horizons, but she tried it. We had a conversation about when is it okay to fail. She was finally in a place where she hit the wall. How many of our students hit the wall when they are in a college and paying for it? How many discover only too late that they are in the wrong major?

I can't wait to hear about your experience at our meeting. (Maybe with the extra time I have on my hands now I will give one a try...I've signed up for two, but never got started.) You have my gears spinning about MOOCs and the VTed community. First, I wonder how many schools would be willing to allow students, with oversight and guidance, to participate in a MOOC for credit? Second, what could a Rowland led VTed School Transformation MOOC look like? I see different fellows leading separate sections, sharing ideas and school transformation experiences with class participants who in turn share their own thoughts, inspirations, and challenges. Could have real potential to bring voices together from across the state.

"Chance favors the connected mind." Why the Rowland Foundation Group Diigo can be the keystone to school change in Vermont. How do we create a system where we can allow our collective "hunches" to come together to form something bigger than the sum of their parts?

This reminds me so much of the Rowland Foundation! Tremendous potential in our network of educators...provided we can use technology to sustain ongoing collaboration.

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

I'm looking forward to seeing Sir Ken at the Rowland Foundation Conference this week! In this interview, I like how he debunks some commonly held myths about creativity. Huge implications for teachers and 21st Cent. Skills...

Leading School Transformation (EDLP 380) is a graduate-level course that brings together educators who are leading transformation efforts in Vermont schools. The course will build on the Rowland Foundation Transformation Conference at the University of Vermont through professional dialogue, personal refelection, and related readings. EDLP 380 will help participants develop school-based projects based on the latest research related to school transformation. Participants will read The Big Picture by Dennis Littky and Drive by Daniel Pink and develop strategies to lead change at their schools.

This is the slideshow from my session at the 2012 Rowland Conference on School Transformation at UVM. Even with the minimalist zen presentation style, there are still some concepts, quotes & statistics which may be useful if you're making the case for change at your school.