Expeditions - Learnings
• DaVinici's 7 principles are Be curious, question EVERYTHING! Learn from your mistakes. Refine your senses. Do not be afraid of uncertainty. Explore the arts & sciences. (mind mapping-whole brain thinking) Stay healthy and fit. Recognize that all things are linked together.• From "Good to Great" Keeping the focus on the objective and not get sidetracked, getting the right people involved (as opposed to convincing naysayers to get on board) and create an environment for success. "Breaking Ranks" reinforced the notion of professional development for staff and the personalization of education for students along with engagement.
• Change in schools is very slow. We need to have schools that work for all of our students. Student achievement is significant when teachers stay with students for more than year.
• Importance of positive interactions with people - fills or takes from your bucket
• Importance of focusing on the positives in people and not the negatives - beginning conversations with positives and need of a 51 ratio of positive to negative interactions
• Discussing a student's good grades first and working towards the failing grades and necessary improvements. Greeting children with positive questions when they arrive home and not looking for all the negatives in the daily lives.
• Positive interactions improve the mental and physical health of a person. Attendance and absences by school employees can be affected by too many negative interactions.
• The key concepts I learned were all based around the questions of what is needed to be done to improve our nation's high schools. The articles I read looked at how high schools could improve to meet the needs of each individual student by possibly offering a wide range of classes necessary for each student to succeed. Students need to see a connection between class curriculum and their future. The academic curriculum should be focused and challenging. The high school curriculum should be preparing students for not only college but for the work force.
• Wisner used a number of dual credit classes in order for students to receive their associate degree. Dual Credit classes amounted to about 50 credit hours of the associate degree program. Students then need to attain approximately 15 more hours. Students needed to stay in high school for one additional year, but when they were done they had the associate degree. There is some stigma in staying in school for the additional year. Students were allowed to graduate with their class which helped to somewhat reduce this stigma. Distance education was used for students to take summer classes which helped to expedite the program and also saved time and money for the students.
• students need to see why they learn and curriculum needs to be taught multiage, wholistic and community connected. Also reading in content and all areas in school are essential
• Positive and negative experiences with people.
• Productivity/positive relationships
• Positive to negative ratios in realtionships
• Health issues
• As educators, we need to implement more constructivism practices in our classrooms and buildings. Students need to be involved in their education. They should have a voice in what they learn, thus giving them more accountability in their education. As educators, we need to think "outside the box" more. Why are we constrained to 50 minute periods with students and teachers reacting to a bell. Also, state tests are pigeon-holing students. Not all students are good pencil-paper test takers. We need to factor in multiple intelligences and provide other means of assessment that fit their strengths.
• Identifying and developing strengths in yourself and also seeing the strengths in others that you work with. Appreciation of everyone's strengths and applying their expertise in the specified areas is something that works.
• Small school size was a factor. Reading and writing needs to be emphasized. School nedds to be an academic experience. Integrated curriculum is essential.
• BPHS focuses on 7 best practices in education real world, cooperative, democratic, student-centered, hands-on, thinking-oriented, and challenging. All students at BPHS spend 2 hours every Wednesday in a "Choice" class
• such as chess, poetry writing, yearbook, mask and dollmaking, etc.
• The barriers in which you would have to break down to pull off such an adventure
• The top 30 successful High Schools in the US had to change b/c they were at the bottom anyway and now are at the top - changes were made in curriculum as required by the student's needs - not all kids learn the same - some kids are very happy with the current curriculum and can complete it in three years and do college work the 4th year; other students need to be "excited" by taking classes to "hook them into high school" like two art classes instead of math, delay math till sophomore year, modified schedule - some classes should be longer or more lab time, more academies - specialized classes for career interests
• Mr. Christensen points out that schools are essentially the same as they were 100 years ago. Courses remain divided up by time periods. Courses remain distinct and discreet and not integrated across disciplinary boundaries. Classrooms remain largely isolated and self-contained. High schools have become larger and larger.
• The same key ideas seem to be repeated throughout the research I read the importance of trusting relationships in schools between students and adults; moving toward a connected and focused curriculum more relevant to where students are and where they are going, a more flexible instructional system, rigorous academic standards especially in the areas of language arts and math.
• How do we get there? There appears to be a movement toward smaller schools or schools within a school; individualized plans for every student; using community resources both as a guide (what employers want in an employee) and as a learning experience; block schedule; input from students, parents, and the community; professional development; CTE seems to have an increased role in student education.
• Thinking through things and sharing your ideas with others to get the best idea. (ideas through multiplication)
• Technology is playing a big part in the plans for future high schools. Students, teachers, and parents seem to respond very well to using more and more technology in the schools. Another twist to the advances was offering more college credit classes to high school seniors, etc. Some students are ready for these challenges.
• Christensen article It's pretty easy the argue that the typical high school scenario, which has remained largely unchanged over the years (other than growing larger), "works for some students and clearly does not work for others." The profession has failed largely in truly reaching those students who "fall through the cracks." Basically, the article calls for the implementation of an IEP for all students (my interpretation) ". . . Students should have a four-year sequence of courses that form the core of the high school learning experience. While these courses may be differentiated for individual learning abilities and interests, each student's four-year program should be based upon a common academic core of basic skills." The article also stresses the importance of having a "connected curriculum" district-wide, meaning that all instruction builds on what has already been taught in the past, and purposefully prepares kids for what will be taught in the future (the staircase analogy
• climbing it from kindergarten through grade 12). Other key points "Connections are foundations of success" (importance of extracurricular activities, student learning communities), "The high school experience needs to be personalized".
• Mintz article The article encouraged parents to seek other educational institutions for their children if they exhibited a combination of ten different signs of distress. I didn't see a lot of value in the article, as the author was far too quick to blame the public school systems for the bulk of society's ills. For example, one of the criteria was "Does your child find it difficult to look an adult in the eye, or to interact with children younger or older than they are?" The article fails to mention that if the answer to this question is "yes", it could very well be due to the fact that the child is glued to the television or locked in the basement in an internet chat room while at home, causing the child to grow to become socially inept. A similar refutation could easily be made for almost all ten signs listed. Nothing in the article was research-based. It seemed to be more of a public school bashing and a wordy advertisement for private and home schooling.
• Elbow article The author attempted to get English teachers to ponder their methods when grading student writing. It highlighted the daunting task we place upon ourselves when attempting to grade student writing using traditional methods, which consists of 13 levels, ranging from A+,A,A- . . . D-. The author's opinion was that it's pretty silly to sit and ponder whether an essay is at a B+ level versus a straight B, etc., and that such decisions are not trustworthy, and "tends to undermine the climate for teaching and learning." Rather, he encourages teachers to adopt the use of "minimal grading" on more writing assignments, especially low stakes writing. Teachers should instead develop easy scales with two or three levels (pass/fail, strong/satisfactory/weak, etc.). Using a minimal grade system easily allows the instructor to raise or lower the bar as needed to match the ability levels of each student, rather than altering the actual assignment.
• The larger schools looked at the excessively high drop out rates and decided something HAD to be done differently. Many of these school districts took their large schools and split them up into smaller schools within the school.
• It is both possible and beneficial for teachers to learn, understand, and communicate each student’s learning profile in order for that student to know more about themselves, understand their learning strengths and weaknesses,
• • Students, in general, will have more success in life if they are aware of their learning strengths, and find careers that allow those strengths to be utilized.
• • It is more productive to build on a student’s strengths than trying to make each student a “jack-of-all-trades.”
• • This program does not require districts to abandon current practices; it does, however, help districts to put their practices in more concrete terms.
• From Breaking Ranks II while there is information on what needs to happen the key is to personalize it to your own community.
• From Management of Organizational Behavior that leadership style has to adjust (be situational) based upon the readiness of the followers (relationship behavior v. task behavior)
• From Developing the Leader Within You that leadership in any process is important but in rethinking the high school experience leadership is critical
• The key idea of the book is to build on strengths. Be sharp rather than well rounded. Your area with the most room for growth is strength.
• What I learned and had reinforced from my expedition were the concepts of Focus - creates shared clarity of thought, direction, and purpose, Reflection - Helps people learn from what they've done in the past and identify better ways of accomplishing their goals, and Collaboration - brings people together to share ideas and knowledge. We as educators do this in miniture everyday - the next step is to apply these three concepts to the building, school, and district. Another concept that struck me was "Pareto Thinking". This principle was first defined by 19th century Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto and is based on the 80/20 principle where people, leaders, educators, etc. spend most of their time and energies concentrating on the 80% of surface items and are not concentrating on the 20% of deep items that can make significant change. Also the use of SMART Goals to help us concentrate our energies on the 20% deep issue items to improve our educational system.
• Technology was a key component
• There are 6 basic needs students have. 3 intellectual and 3 emotional. intellectual- Autonomy, Achievement, and Mastery. Emotional - Purpose, Belonging, and Appreciation.
• The students that took the national survey for the Governor's Assoc. really gave the schools pretty good "marks." We do however; need to look at educational delivery through some new lenses. The three books that I concentrated upon demonstrate that positive change is possible. Building Shared Responsibility stresses that we must rely on a larger community to meet the educational needs of kids. We must develop a clear focus. We must become more reflective and we must become more collaborative. Teaching in isolation is a recipe for failure. They also point to a need to develop "product" goals rather than process goals and we need to develop leadership capacity at the teacher level.
• The key ideas were to develop a core set of beliefs to guide curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices at the high school level. Also to recommend components which best meet the needs of high school students.
• The Talent pool in America is gravitating toward just a few cities. The rest of the country is becoming more depressed. The same thing is happening globally. We are not doing a good job of attracting talent from other countries right now.
• Merely taking college classes and maintaining an adequate GPA does not insure success at the college level
• Although they are in their first year of online course development, they were willing to talk to us about how they were using this technology to develop course options for their students and provide more flexibility in scheduling. They are discovering that students actually need to read their assignments to participate fully in the online learning process. Students did not realize how much they had relied on others for their learning in the past.
• Niobrara has also developed staff learning teams, and spoke very strong about the team attitude it has created in their school system. They feel that the learning teams have been a real force in creating change within the system. These teams are involved in curriculum development, data analysis and planning for the future at Niobrara.
• One key aspect of Christensen's article was the need to get back to an academic experience. As a teacher and track coach it is easy to see the time taken away from the academic schedule for the extra-curricular activities. In the book, "Good to Great" I found it interesting how the research was collected and the practices found in the elite 11 corporations.
• Noddings emphsizes the central importance of improving life in everyday homes. She offers insight and recommendations about educating for home life.
• The school I read about was a "low income", "high minority" school and when the district raised graduation expectations many of the students "rose to the occasion"! I find this interesting because I would have guessed the graduation rate to decrease but it didn't. It actually increased.
• Why schools are doing away with programs that help kids. Not all kids go to college.
• Aaron Falbel is not a fan of education in the way it is being done today. Educators use force and bribes and try to provide information that they think is necessary to students who probably don’t think the information is necessary. The combination results in less learning and turns many off to education. Falbel would like to see leaning take place outside of the normal school yard and into the hands of the students. Students have forgotten how to ask questions or to think because they are so used to a system that tells them what they need to know rather than lets them decide what it is they should know. Life-learning opportunities need to be stronger focus.
• Nordby’s article chronicled the day of a typical student. There was much wasted time, not a lot of meaningful interactions with teachers and little if any learning that was relevant to the student’s future needs.
• Christensen proposed changes toward a more integrated curriculum across disciplines. Students should be given the opportunity to utilize their learning in all the disciplines through an integrated approach that is meaningful & measurable their junior and senior years. Christensen calls for a connected curriculum k-12 that prepares the student for their future. Christensen also explains the need for personalizing the school. Students need to feel connected or they will not do as well.
• Importance of building relationships with students
• High School reforms need to be connected to improving instruction
• Students respond best to high expectations
• We learned that students who take CTE classes experience greater earning ability in the future. Students who participate in CTE classes experience higher graduation rates. Quality CTE programs have connections with the business community and community colleges.
• The importance of student teacher relationships.
• Increasing hte rigor of of our required curriculum.
• create an advisory group for our students.
• Common threads in every article that I read
o increased academic rigor
o involvement of student, parent, business, and educational facilities in decisions on the local level
o small learning groups are the most effective (Don't we already have that in place in our rural schools?)
o personal learning plans
• for students AND teachers
o looping of the students and staff
o team teaching and integration
• Virtually all of the ideas have been talked about or used in the last 30 years of education. The concept of building relationships,looping,integrating subjects, inquiry based education,and team teaching.
• I learned that change needs to come from teachers, not just administration shoving it down the pipe. Learning communities are essential to students and teachers alike. Guidance counseling needs to be started early in elementary and realtionship need to be built with parents, students, businesses, and other educational institutions.
• I didn't really learn anything new on this subject. It did reinforce my beliefs that technology is much more important to our students' futures than any school is currently addressing.
• There will be a greater and greater need for skilled workers and they will be harder and harder to find. Some college or advanced training will be needed for about 85% of new jobs, but only 60% of students will get that far.
• Teachers can't become lazy or complacent. Teachers need to keep learning and growing, in other words, lead by example. Teachers need to teach to their passions. Once children are given an equal opportunity, the ball is in their court. They must produce. Rafe does not believe in No Child Left Behind. He says some children will, but it should be only because it is their choice not to produce. Interesting!
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