Comments for Twenty-First Century Schools Committee

Comment on Innovation by Linda Rawlings

Linda Rawlings — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 16:55:42 +0000

I like the idea of an innovation group within the vision committee and of an innovation club. So many people have great ideas that never get off the ground and into a development stage. Creating something innovative would serve our students well in their search for finding something that will set them apart in the college application process as well. Harvard has already turned down students with perfect SAT scores this year. Schools are looking for more than just academic aptitude. They want to know that students are passionate about learning. I am sending this from my cell phone as we are on the road so forgive the typos! one other thought. I was just reading the April 9th Newsweek issue about cancer research. Journalist John Alter makes the point that we aren’t making as much progress in some areas of cancer research because we value competition rather than collaboration – yet another indication that we need to emphasize collaboration. It is snowing on the bluebonnets on I 35 near Dallas!

Comment on Weaving a vision by coachnorm

coachnorm — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:49:22 +0000

It is neat to see our school looking at and studying the future, but to the most exciting part is actually participating the changes that taking place. It is great to see that we are not the only school looking at the changes that our students are faced with.
As we visited the schools in California, it was very apparent to me that we are not the only school facing the same issues. We are fortunate to be in a district that is forward thinking and resourceful enough to actively participate in this process.

I am excited but anxious to see what comes out of the entire process.

Comment on Weaving a vision by Joel Adkins

Joel Adkins — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 01:41:41 +0000

I am so thankful that he is posting updates about that project. You are right, Carolyn. This ties in beautifully with what we are discussing in our Vision committee and in other meetings across the campus. Its not only great to read this type of discussion but to see the message being shared in other blogs across the state and nation.

Today I had the priviledge of speaking to several other area district technology coordinators and was able to talk about our Vision committee and the direction we are heading. This was directly after the presenter showed us the Karl Fisch video “Did you know?” (http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/) and had the group talking about Web 2.0 and the 21st century student.

I talked to a few directors who I think should just come in and hear our vision discussions. Perhaps we could film that last Vision committee meeting and post it online…hint, hint.

Comment on Creativity and future students by Not So Distant Future » Designing the future?

Not So Distant Future » Designing the future? — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:43:55 +0000

[...] Related to that, I ran across a fascinating short talk(15 min.)about creativity and education from Sir Ken Robinson, and posted it on the Vision committee blog. If you have a few minutes, I’d highly recommend it. [...]

Comment on The changing nature of college students by VickyA

VickyA — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 06:43:57 +0000

In recent conversations, the site visits team discussed Facebook and the phenomenon sweeping the planet with this online social network that EVERYONE under 25 is addicted to. So, I went to the site … but what intrigued me was the BLOGS (link found at bottom of Facebook homepage) which were enlightening, relevant, and juicy, maybe because I’m still feeling West Coast-ish!
Check it out:
Readership trends of Facebook (popular TV shows effect whose online)
How to explain RSS the Oprah way
Enthusiast Evangelist at Microsoft – “The newly created position at Microsoft … Our jobs are basically to go out and mingle, bond, and touch influential end users and show them all the cool things that Microsoft has to offer” … (you have to read the blog, name dropping like “I got to see Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in person. Ballmer screams loudly like Chris Farley’s motivational speaker character … I got to visit the mother ship. I got to be an insider at one of the most influential companies in the world.”), oh but then her next blog …”9-1/2 weeks: Leaving Microsoft not as sexy or tormenting … I am a creative, right-brainer, and truly passionate lover of the web … (Steph’s life story) explaining, “People are literally creating great things out of nothing because, well, we can, with open source, web-based apps … explaining 2.0 is the democratizing technology making it accessible to anyone regardless of economic status, class, or means. If you have some kind of computer or handheld device, web 2.0 has everything one needs to start their own business … so many thoughts strengths of blogging, Microsoft Office, winning behind the scenes, etc.” Conflicts from within for this idealist, so she resigns … A great read!

Comment on Project-based learning and 21st century skills by Carolyn Foote

Carolyn Foote — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 23:23:17 +0000

Here’s a link to the article on the “unlearning curve” if you haven’t read it:
http://www.weblogg-ed.com/index.php?s=unlearning+curve

I do think we’ll all need scaffolding as we figure it out, but I agree, this sort of passionate feeling about education is what brought many of us into teaching in the first place.

And in a way, I find it very exciting to see students more involved in “learning” activities that are self-driven and finding their own learning online outside of school hours. Because it is so much easier to find information when you are curious about something–I think it encourages all of us to seek answers to our questions.

Comment on Project-based learning and 21st century skills by Linda Rawlings

Linda Rawlings — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 12:11:05 +0000

I just read the article on the “unlearning curve” and it is easy to feel somewhat threatened by the “needs” we have to overcome some of the old ways we have been doing business. On the other hand, as you read the list, you also see an opportunity to re-ignite the passion that brought us to this profession in the first place. There is a lot of freedom for teachers and administrators in acknowledging that (paraphrasing the article):

1) We are not the sole experts in our field,

2) We are all learning all of the time, kids, teachers, administrators alike,

3) We need to move learning outside of our classrooms and WHS and into the community and beyond,

4) Although there is certainly some information that students must know by heart, we need to take a hard look at information that we are asking students to memorize when we know that this is the lowest form of learning and is quickly forgotten,

I am excited that our CLT has approved our focus on 21st Century skills for our students. Our next challenge is to figure out how we incorporate these concepts into our curriculum and how we assess these skills. I know this will be difficult, but I also believe that if we value these, we must teach them and embrace them as a school.

Your thougts?

Linda

Comment on Sharing the vision? by Landon

Landon — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 19:48:06 +0000

All right, here are some thoughts on sharing the vision. The first thought is that we can best share the vision with our community by getting them to help us in building the vision.

As I have been doing my interviews, I have begun asking interviewees if they would be willing to take part in followup interviews in which we invite a number of persons from our community to share in the process of defining a new vision for Westlake High School. Everyone I have asked has said, “Yes!” I have also been seeking to identify community based sites where these meetings can take place. For example, a bank president affirmed his interest in having a meeting take place in the board room at his bank. Three additional sites have also been confirmed as available.

These meetings could be structured under a similar rubric as my individual meetings; that is, participants could be invited to take part in a conversation for the purpose of defining a new vision for Westlake High School. The conversation itself could be structured around the four questions we have already approved, questions which have a proven ability to stimulate productive exchange of ideas. In answering these questions, participants would be given the opportunity to share their perceptions regarding the skills which make for success in the 21st century, and how these skills might be integrated into the process of pubic school education.

Time frame for these meetings would be about 1to 1&1/2 hours, depending on the size of the group. A minimum size would be 3-4 persons, and a maximum size would 15-20 persons. With larger groups, it would be ideal to subdivide into smaller subgroups of 5-6 persons, with a time at the end of the meeting for reconvening and sharing ideas.

Meeting results would be reported by writing up a one page initial review of comments shared during the meeting, and then sending this review by email to a list of all meeting participants, inviting participants to respond through a reply email which could include additional comments as needed. After all meeting participants had been given an opportunity to read through and comment on the initial review, a final review would be prepared and submitted to the Vision Committee.

Those are my thoughts on how we could proceed. There are actually some more issues that will need to be addressed if we decide to move forward with this process, but what is written here should be sufficient to get us started in thinking about how we could proceed in sharing the vision.

This is an exciting opportunity. People are aware that we are living in an increasingly competitive global economy, and that if we want to continue to see America maintain a position of world leadership, then our public education system needs to produce graduates who are confident, capable, and ready to succeed at the challenges life brings their way.

Happy New Year to all.–Landon.

Comment on Sharing the vision? by trends

trends — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 21:00:10 +0000

Another vision statement I liked from the Science Leadership School in Philadelphia:

“”How do we learn?”
“What can we create?”
“What does it mean to lead?”

http://www.scienceleadership.org/mission.php

Comment on 21st century reading by trends

trends — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:22:49 +0000

Landon,

I agree with you about supporting teachers and inviting the community if we want these changes to really be meaningful.

I ran across this post on Karl Fisch’s blog at Arapahoe High School in Colorado, and he is pondering the Time article as well and makes some great points.
Good reading !

http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/12/its-about-time.html

Carolyn