Twenty-First Century Schools Committee

Coincidentally, I just discovered that a principal from Saskatchewan whose blog I read is wanting to start an online book group for the book Whole New Mind. 

If you’d like to be part of the “online” book discussion, you can post a comment on his blog and let him know you’d like to be a part of it.   They are figuring out what type of website or tools to use to communicate online about the book, as it is a brainstorm he had and he hasn’t done one before.  So…if you want to be in on the ground level of this experiment, let him know!

http://kwhobbes.edublogs.org/2007/02/19/literacy-the-book-club-way/

After our Vision Committee meeting today, I was reading a blog, think:lab, that I frequently check out, and ran across something I had to share.

Christian Long, who writes Think Lab, is preparing to interview Daniel Pink tomorrow and was soliciting questions on his blog to ask during the interview.  

One of his responses came from a 17 year old blogger, who had this excellent list of questions for Daniel Pink.  His questions resonate with so much of we have been talking about and are explained so beautifully by this high school student who has obviously put a great deal of thought into what schools of the future would be like.

It was one of those moments online when I just get chills thinking about the opportunities that web tools like blogs provide all of us in terms of sharing ideas across space and place.

If you haven’t seen Karl Fisch’s “Did You Know ” (or his 2020 Vision presentation), I have posted the links to them on my library blog here.  They both pose much to think about.

On her blog, Cool Cat Teacher, Vicki Davis challenges businesses and educators to work together to “be the textbook”.  

She encourages teachers, CEO’s, visionaries in business or in education to make those connections, and explores using technology (like Skype) for connections outside the campus.

She throws out a fascinating challenge to businesses and to educators to think about the opportunities involved.

Any ideas for how we could spearhead a project like that here?  Should it come from the classroom teacher’s own connections?  Is there anything the campus can do to support an effort like this or are personal connections(which she suggests) better?   What university connections could we develop?

What do we need in terms of technology support to try something like this?

Food for thought….

Another interesting article in Edutopia profiles project-based learning, and gives examples of how schools are using it to teach 21st century skills.   It has several specific examples of schools using interdisciplinary projects, internships, and thematic projects.

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.

As a followup to the post about the Spanish immersion program, I ran across this tidbit on Fischbowl about a school district in the Denver area.

“Beginning next fall, Douglas County Schools will begin implementing a K-12 World Languages program. . . . The basic idea is that students will receive instruction in a particular world language for every one of the thirteen years they are in Douglas County Schools, with the stated goal that every graduate from a Douglas County high school will be proficient in reading, writing and speaking a second language (in addition to English).”

Karl Fisch goes on to talk about how this will be delivered to students (teachers will learn languages along with students) and comments,

“So, the question for my school district is, “Are we looking at something like this?  In a flat world, in a globally interconnected economy, in a 24/7/365 business cycle, in a world where understanding all the people and all the cultures of the world is terribly important for economic, political and social reasons – our students need this.”

Food for thought for our committee?

There is an interesting conversation running among several blogs the last couple of days on teaching, the structure of schools, and what types of assessments we do.

It’s interesting reading.

A few of the links:

David Jakes’ blog comments on “covering content.”

http://jakespeak.blogspot.com/2007/01/aerial-photographs-coverage-and.html

 He links to Wes Fryer’s blog on assessment and the structure of schools:

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/01/17/assess-schools-on-a-happiness-and-engagement-index/

Some hard questions….

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?