A Brand New school #IMMOOC
This past year I had the opportunity to meet students from the Inspiring children foundation located in Las Vegas Nevada.(I know most people go to Vegas to do other things I pursue my love of tennis and education). They are students who are exceptional athletes who run individual study projects to support their dreams and the quest for happiness. Kids had passion for life and were learning subjects on their own while committing to individual study projects. They were very inspirational many of them living far away from home. Students were close knit and had adult mentors for support. The kids seemed confident, happy and determined to be successful.
CORE VALUES: If I had to design my own school, I would want to design with the end in mind. There would be core values that would be created by creative inspiring and innovative educators and students. These values would revolve around the power of knowledge.
INDEPENDENT STUDY PROJECTS: Students would select courses by interest and not by age. Students will work on independent study projects along with taking courses. Their projects should solve a problem, investigate a phenomenon and make a difference.
CURRICULUM: Curriculum should indicate specific expectations. Currently the Ontario science curriculum is so vague. For example here is one for Grade 11 Chemistry: analyse data related to the properties of elements within a period (e.g., ionization energy, atomic radius) to identify general trends in the periodic table [AI]
I believe that the expectations need to be more specific. It should give clear direction to teachers what the prerequisites are to move to the next course. Students would master subjects through collaboration and creative constructive lessons. Educators would design learning goals to support learning.
MASTERY: Courses will be assessed not by writing tests but by showing mastery of skills of their learning goals. Students will defend their grades. Show learning process through blogging or journaling.
DITCH that textbook. Information is accessible everywhere. Encourage more reading of content that interests kids. Delve into what they are curious about. Feed the curiosity with more reading. Support courses with questions students have and learning goals that will excite them.
TECHNOLOGY will be available to every student. Students should be given opportunity to learn 21st century skills. (Utilising sheets and analysing data through graphs)
NO BELLS - There is nothing that rattles me more than the bells every 75minutes. I know we can do better there are so many other alternatives. We all have phones and can tell time, honestly do we need a nerve wrecking reminder. Ask any retired teacher what he loves about retirement.....NO Bells.
INTRAMURAL SPORTS everyone makes the team. I believe that working together on a sports team allows students opportunity to lead and to follow. It gives kids a sense of belonging. I coach field hockey and more then often I struggle to get students to try out, but once I get a student in the game most kids love it. But I don't know that it is the sport that they love but the belonging and the closeness with their peers. Opportunity to kinestetically collaborate.
NO HOMEWORK: Like Alice Keeley said, homework causes such a back log of extra work. Checking that it is done, assigning it taking it up. Students should have more time to collaborate and get help from peers to complete tasks.
PARENTS ROLE: Home life is the foundation for our students. It is imperative that parents are "in the loop". Parents will have access to student learning not only Marks. So parents know what their students are learning. Parents have a need to know what is happening in their child's day. So that questions from parent to student can change from: "How was your day?" to "Tell me more about your project on...."
I love the the Marty Hennesey foundation for inspiring children. It is about time we inspire our future to become passionate, kind, empathetic individuals with a sense of drive and purpose. I have to confess that these are not original ideas but an accumulation of I have read about or seen in my quest to become a better educator.
CORE VALUES: If I had to design my own school, I would want to design with the end in mind. There would be core values that would be created by creative inspiring and innovative educators and students. These values would revolve around the power of knowledge.
INDEPENDENT STUDY PROJECTS: Students would select courses by interest and not by age. Students will work on independent study projects along with taking courses. Their projects should solve a problem, investigate a phenomenon and make a difference.
CURRICULUM: Curriculum should indicate specific expectations. Currently the Ontario science curriculum is so vague. For example here is one for Grade 11 Chemistry: analyse data related to the properties of elements within a period (e.g., ionization energy, atomic radius) to identify general trends in the periodic table [AI]
I believe that the expectations need to be more specific. It should give clear direction to teachers what the prerequisites are to move to the next course. Students would master subjects through collaboration and creative constructive lessons. Educators would design learning goals to support learning.
MASTERY: Courses will be assessed not by writing tests but by showing mastery of skills of their learning goals. Students will defend their grades. Show learning process through blogging or journaling.
DITCH that textbook. Information is accessible everywhere. Encourage more reading of content that interests kids. Delve into what they are curious about. Feed the curiosity with more reading. Support courses with questions students have and learning goals that will excite them.
TECHNOLOGY will be available to every student. Students should be given opportunity to learn 21st century skills. (Utilising sheets and analysing data through graphs)
NO BELLS - There is nothing that rattles me more than the bells every 75minutes. I know we can do better there are so many other alternatives. We all have phones and can tell time, honestly do we need a nerve wrecking reminder. Ask any retired teacher what he loves about retirement.....NO Bells.
INTRAMURAL SPORTS everyone makes the team. I believe that working together on a sports team allows students opportunity to lead and to follow. It gives kids a sense of belonging. I coach field hockey and more then often I struggle to get students to try out, but once I get a student in the game most kids love it. But I don't know that it is the sport that they love but the belonging and the closeness with their peers. Opportunity to kinestetically collaborate.
NO HOMEWORK: Like Alice Keeley said, homework causes such a back log of extra work. Checking that it is done, assigning it taking it up. Students should have more time to collaborate and get help from peers to complete tasks.
PARENTS ROLE: Home life is the foundation for our students. It is imperative that parents are "in the loop". Parents will have access to student learning not only Marks. So parents know what their students are learning. Parents have a need to know what is happening in their child's day. So that questions from parent to student can change from: "How was your day?" to "Tell me more about your project on...."
I love the the Marty Hennesey foundation for inspiring children. It is about time we inspire our future to become passionate, kind, empathetic individuals with a sense of drive and purpose. I have to confess that these are not original ideas but an accumulation of I have read about or seen in my quest to become a better educator.
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