Skip to main content

Home/ Van Meter/ Group items tagged coming

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
2More

Barriers to competency-based innovation aren't just coming from above | Christensen Ins... - 0 views

www.christenseninstitute.org/n-arent-just-coming-from-above barriers innovation coming institute cbg competency-based learning cbe vanmeter transformation van meter change
shared by Deron Durflinger on 08 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Districts’ and schools’ organizational structures and long standing policies built around traditional seat-time metrics may be inhibiting their ability to move toward competency-based models. For example, bell schedules, grading policies, academic department structures, fixed sense of course scope and sequence, and familiarity with whole-group instruction may all be exerting the tug of status quo bias. As such, transforming districts and schools to competency-based systems is not a simply policy change: it’s a fundamental reconfiguration of teams and structures inside schools, that allows for students to progress at their own pace and demonstrate mastery in a variety of ways. In New Hampshire’s example, for those schools that have yet to move to fully competency-based systems, getting unstuck from the organizational structures and processes that guide them appears just as potent a barrier to innovation in some schools as the state’s policies are a gateway to innovation.
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 08 Nov 13
       
      Sound familiar:)?
5More

Schools: The Disaster Movie - 0 views

nymag.com/print learning transformation teaching teacher-pay finland vanmeter van meter
shared by Deron Durflinger on 06 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Whereas the best public-school systems in the world—Finland, Singapore, South Korea—recruit all of their teachers from the top third or better of their college graduates, in America the majority come from the bottom two-thirds, with just 14 percent of those entering teaching each year in high-needs schools coming from the upper third. And the numbers may be getting worse. According to a recent survey conducted by McKinsey, a meager 9 percent of top-third graduates have any interest in teaching whatsoever.
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 06 Sep 10
       
      What needs to change to get more of the top-level college students interested in teaching?
  • teacher quality is a national priority: Educators are paid competitively; education schools are highly selective; jobs are guaranteed for those credentialed; and professional development is ample and subsidized.
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 06 Sep 10
       
      What are we doing at Van Meter to make these characteristics part of the culture?
  • “If you want to change public education, you have to do something that feels like a threat to the status quo,” says Canada. “If we don’t fight about this, if we can shake and be friends, we ain’t going to change. And if we don’t change, huge numbers of kids ain’t going to make it. There is no Superman coming to save them. All they have is us.”
4More

Are College and Career Skills Really the Same? | PBS NewsHour - 0 views

www.pbs.org/...er-skills-really-the-same.html college career skills pbs learning common core commoncore common_core life long transformation vanmeter van meter
shared by Deron Durflinger on 18 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Nearly every study of employer needs over the past 20 years comes up with the same answers. Successful workers communicate effectively orally and in writing and have social and behavioral skills that make them responsible and good at teamwork. They are creative and techno-savvy, have a good command of fractions and basic statistics, and can apply relatively simple math to real-world problems like financial or health literacy.
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 18 Jun 13
       
      This is really all that matters. Grit, collaboration and communication. 
  • All students should master a verifiable set of skills, but not necessarily the same skills. High schools fail so many kids partly because educators can't get free of the notion that all students -- regardless of their career aspirations -- need the same basic preparation. As states pile on academic courses, they give less attention to the arts and downplay career and technical education to make way for a double portion of math.
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 18 Jun 13
       
      this is why we need to personalize learning for each student
11More

The Five Dimensions of Learning-Agile Leaders - Forbes - 0 views

www.forbes.com/...ions-of-learning-agile-leaders cpchat leadership learning flipping classroom transformation Competency-Based pd professional development student centered competency based
shared by Deron Durflinger on 10 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • At the same time, we need to have the confidence to make decisions on the spot, even in the absence of compelling, complete data.  The qualities needed at the top—openness, authentic listening, adaptability—also indicate that leaders need to be comfortable with and able to embrace the “grayness” that comes from other people’s ideas or situations that arise.
  • Learning Agility is a reliable indicator of leadership potential because learning agile people “excel at absorbing information from their experience and then extrapolating from those to navigate unfamiliar situations.
  • In short, Learning Agility is the ability to learn, adapt, and apply ourselves in constantly morphing conditions.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Problem Solvers; Thought Leaders; Trailblazers; Champions; Pillars; Diplomats; and Energizers. The researchers wrote: “People who are learning agile: Seek out experiences to learn from; enjoy complex problems and challenges associated with new experiences because they have an interest in making sense of them; perform better because they incorporate new skills into their repertoire. A person who is learning agile has more lessons, more tools, and more solutions to draw on when faced with new business challenges.” (Hallenbeck, Swisher, and Orr, July 2011)
  • Mental Agility
  • People Agility
  • Change Agility
  • Results Agility:
  • Self-Awareness
  • The world of leadership belongs to the most learning agile
  • To succeed in our volatile, complex, ambiguous world, we have no choice but to master our ability to adapt and learn.
2More

Beyond Student Engagement: Achieving a State of Flow | Edutopia - 2 views

www.edutopia.org/...udent-engagement-elena-aguilar
shared by Deron Durflinger on 30 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • This is why every lesson must have clear and laser-focused objectives -- not because an administrator is going to come in and ding you if they're not posted -- but because without an articulation of a clear goal, students can't attain flow.
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 30 Mar 12
       
      It is important to post meaningful learning targets because is helps students learn. Not because we ask you to post them.
18More

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - Anu Partanen - National -... - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...250564 finland Education edreform reform transformation van meter vanmeter jason glass learning
shared by Deron Durflinger on 30 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Instead, the public school system's teachers are trained to assess children in classrooms using independent tests they create themselves. All children receive a report card at the end of each semester, but these reports are based on individualized grading by each teacher.
  • There's no word for accountability in Finnish,"
  • "Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted."
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • what matters is that in Finland all teachers and administrators are given prestige, decent pay, and a lot of responsibility.
  • If a teacher is bad, it is the principal's responsibility to notice and deal with it.
  • And while Americans love to talk about competition, Sahlberg points out that nothing makes Finns more uncomfortable
  • There are no lists of best schools or teachers in Finland. The main driver of education policy is not competition between teachers and between schools, but cooperation.
  • school choice is noticeably not a priority, nor is engaging the private sector at all.
  • In Finland parents can also choose. But the options are all the same."
  • It was equity
  • the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out social inequality.
  • schools should be healthy, safe environments for children. This starts with the basics. Finland offers all pupils free school meals, easy access to health care, psychological counseling, and individualized student guidance.
  • Educational policy, Abrams suggests, is probably more important to the success of a country's school system than the nation's size or ethnic makeup.
  • When Finnish policymakers decided to reform the country's education system in the 1970s, they did so because they realized that to be competitive, Finland couldn't rely on manufacturing or its scant natural resources and instead had to invest in a knowledge-based economy. 
  • is to preserve American competitiveness by doing the same thing. Finland's experience suggests that to win at that game, a country has to prepare not just some of its population well, but all of its population well, for the new economy. To possess some of the best schools in the world might still not be good enough if there are children being left behind
  • Finland's dream was that we want to have a good public education for every child regardless of where they go to school or what kind of families they come from, and many even in Finland said it couldn't be done."
  • Finland's experience shows that it is possible to achieve excellence by focusing not on competition, but on cooperation, and not on choice, but on equity.
  • The problem facing education in America isn't the ethnic diversity of the population but the economic inequality of society, and this is precisely the problem that Finnish education reform addressed. More equity at home might just be what America needs to be more competitive abroad.
2More

Education Secretary: Tech Will Never Replace Great Teachers - 0 views

mashable.com/...education-khan-duncan-tech education secretary duncan tech great teachers personalized vanmeter transformation
shared by Deron Durflinger on 26 Aug 13 - No Cached
  • When it comes to high school, both agreed that the current model is outdated. As Khan put it, "Kids get promoted because they were in a chair for four years." Duncan called it a "19th century model" and "neanderthal." Instead, they suggested a competency-based model for promotion through grades rather than one that is time-based. In terms of content and standards, Duncan suggested adding subjects such as computer science, foreign language and financial literacy to the core curriculum. He adamantly defended the Common Core standards as a way for the U.S. to remain competitive globally and ensure requirements don't get dumbed down "to make politicians look good."
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 26 Aug 13
       
      I like what they are thinking with the CBE talk
7More

Do Principals Know Good Teaching When They See It? Miller-McCune.com - 1 views

www.miller-mccune.com/...eaching-when-they-see-it-36417 Miller-McCune.com principals know teaching
shared by Deron Durflinger on 24 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • conclude that most school leaders can’t identify or explain what constitutes good teaching, much less come up with helpful suggestions for improvement
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 26 Sep 11
       
      Principals need more training than teachers on what quality teaching looks like if we are truly going to moves schools forward
  • If we’re going to improve the quality of learning for all kids, we have to develop the expertise of those teachers we have in our ranks.”
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 26 Sep 11
       
      Improving learning opportunities for students starts with clearly identifying what good teaching looks like
  • hen they must guide, support and nurture teacher learning just like we expect teachers to do for students.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • We think it’s really important for leaders to be clear about why they’re in schools and what they’re intending to accomplish.”
  • It takes expertise to make expertise,” Fink and Markholt say, yet coaching in schools is “still the very rare exception, not the norm.
1 - 11 of 11
Showing 20▼ items per page