Twenty-First Century Schools Committee

In a recent blog post, Superintendent Dennis Richards reflects on the world his grandson will inherit.

He concludes that:

“I am convinced, as MIT apparently is, that collectively we have an opportunity to pool intelligences globally in ways we cannot imagine today to answer the questions of tomorrow. We have to claim these opportunities and help our students to claim them. I suspect it may be the only way we will be able to live creatively and successfully in a world that could be very different from the one we are equipped to live in, a world that is rapidly disappearing.”

He shares excellent links to 21st century literacies that various organizations have identified, and asks what mental models we have that are preventing us from making the shift.

Increasingly our world operates on “collective intelligence”– we not only can create or think alone, but work together with others whether in a meeting room or virtually across the globe to create and plan for our schools, businesses, and organizations. The book Wikinomics identifies how that dynamic is changing economies and cultures rapidly.

This YouTube video, which a colleague of mine shared, explores the questions those changes raise.

How will our students find their voice in all the “clutter” of worldwide contributions? How can they make money? How will they weed out what is true and what is not? How will they collaborate as part of their future lives? What literacies will be the most important to them?

How do our policies at our schools reinforce (or not reinforce) changes in mindset that need to happen?

And how do we figure out if the changes we are making are helping us make progress in working on 21st century learning strategies?

Those are questions our committee has asked and continues to ask. What do you think?

Edutopia has an interesting article about creative ways to establish better relationships with students on campus.   Well worth reading as we talk about the ‘relationship’ part of rigor, relevance and relationships.

It’s been so fascinating to sit in our Vision committee meetings and other conversations and start watching a new vision for our campus unfold.   We’ve reached the point in the year where we are already putting things in place that we were just dreaming about in the fall, and it’s really exciting.   New courses are already in the offerings for students, we’ve got a technology plan for the next year or two along with a logo and a motto, we’re addressing bringing guest speakers into our campus, we’re looking at some global focus, we’re redesigning the library space, and more. 

This afternoon I was reading a post on Will Richardson’s blog, Weblogg-ed, about a project he is working on with some schools in New Jersey, redefining a twenty-first century vision for their schools, and he listed the skills they are defining and I thought–that is like what we are doing!   And it made me feel very excited to know that we’re coming together with parents, students, and staff to define our 21st century and also technology goals to address how society is changing.

Take a look at his post and I think it’ll be interesting to follow their progress, but I’m hoping we can also do more to document our own progress, maybe here on our blog?

It’d be a great record of the development of our ideas and perhaps provide some model for other schools.   So share your thoughts or progress here if you would like.

Recently we’ve been discussing the ideas we saw at High Tech High, and Edutopia has an excellent article this month about another new project-based school in Philadelphia, the Science Leadership Academy.    Well worth reading about.

Chris Lehmann, the principal of SLA, blogs about the evolution of the school, leadership issues, technology problems, and more at his site Practical Theory if you’d like to follow the school’s progress.

The Washington Post reports on how difficult it has become for colleges to communicate with their students, because of the myriad of communication pathways.  

Students no longer have land lines in many colleges, change cell numbers frequently, and may not check their campus email often, since they prefer instant messaging or Facebook.

A couple of universities are experimenting with letting students sign up for emergency text alerts to their cell phones, while others are letting them tailor what the college sends to their email, so they’ll know it pertains to them.

I was at a lecture on campus recently and realized how many students in the lecture hall were working on laptops while listening to the lecture.   Colleges are having to address how technologies are changing the classroom in ways high schools are not yet.  But my question is–are we preparing our students to be successful in these kinds of environments?

Mentoring new teachers isn’t something we’ve talked about much yet on our committee, but as we invest more time in developing a vision for the school, retaining teachers will be important.

Edutopia has an interesting feature article on the importance of mentoring programs for new staff.

Guest blogger:  Taylor Watkins, Research committee

I viewed an excellent film on the high school in West Clermont, Ohio on Channel 22.  Even though their student population was much different from Westlake HS, it was still of interest.  West Clermont reorganized their HS from one comprehensive school to 10 small schools.  It was described as a Vanguard School.  The reorganization allowed more communication and encouragement between students and teachers.  Average and struggling students were motivated to improve their academic performance and take new leadership roles.  A higher percentage of students began planning for college.  More information can sought at www.thecollegetrack.com and the film can be ordered at www.films.com or 1-800-257-5126

As I promised my Research Subcommittee I gathered info from the Alamo Heights web site on their Spanish Immersion Program.  My 9th grader, Chris Watkins, was in Kindergarten in Alamo Heights Kindergarten Center when the Spanish Immersion Program was organized.  The Immersion Program began at both their elementary schools in Chris’ first grade year so those students are now 9th graders at Alamo Heights High school.  Chris did not apply for the program because of our planned move to Austin.  The Immersion program was instituted because of the elimination of the Spanish program in the elementary grades as a result of Robin Hood.  The Immersion Program is of minimal cost to AHISD  because a bilingual teacher is hired as a classroom teacher instead of a resource teacher.  A description of the program can be viewed at www.ahisd.net/spanimm/immerindex.htm

I just listened to a fascinating story from a Business Week podcast(if you haven’t listened to a podcast, it’s basically like a radio broadcast, but you tune in and listen when you want, like TIVO for your tv.)

The story was about how Best Buy has transformed their corporate workplace with a concept called ROWE–results only work environment.  Basically employees are judged on the basis of their work productivity, not their hours in the office;  thus, employees are able to work from anywhere at any time of day.  The reporter on the podcast indicated that one of the reasons they are able to do this is that they have such a good system of metrics for measuring the quality and amount of work employees are doing.  

Another thing about the article that interested me is that this was implemented “bottom up.”  The two HR directors who created the idea felt that management might not endorse it, so they started it small and it grew by popular demand until they finally had to bring it to the attention of the CEO.   How many technology innovations in schools also happen this way, and is there something that needs to change about the culture of schools to be more welcoming to innovation?

Read the article from Business Week here.  Or if you want to listen to the podcast, click on the microphone icon to the left of the article title.

What would happen if schools were like that?  And will they be this way in the future?

At our last meeting, we touched on the issue of how to share the vision we are developing with students and the community.

A technology teacher at Arapahoe High School, (which is working on their vision) worries on his blog that staff or students can’t articulate the school’s vision and wonders how to better share it, in his  post What are Your Core Values?  

I think this is an important consideration as our committee moves forward–how to we share the message and values of our vision with the students and staff, and the larger community?  Landon touched on this in the previous post.

Comments?  thoughts?

Since we are discussing Whole New Mind on the committee, I thought I’d post a link to my first effort to create a podcast in case you’d like to listen to a quick review of the book and don’t have time to read it.

http://futura.edublogs.org/2006/11/14/whole-new-mind/

Carolyn