Expeditions - Short Term Ideas
• Mind mapping. Journaling.• Staff will take ownership for improvement of themselves and for students if they are directly involved in the process and allowed to take risks for continuous improvement. Cannot expect students to be engaged if teachers are not willing to do the same and create relationships with students. Use of data to asssess whether short and long term goals are having success and sustaining those efforts. Engaging professionals in conversations to look closely at what we are doing and not be satisfied with current state of education.
• We must have a clear and focused curriculum.
• All of these ideas are immediately applicable to our school.
• Some ideas can be used immediately. I feel education should be making sure students are asked to think critically. We as teachers need to use class time wisely and actively engage all students in the learning process. Lessons need to be connected to the student's real life experiences and his/her future.
• Our locataion makes it feasible to look for more dual credit classes with Wayne State College and NECC. The distance education option may also help to fill in some gaps if scheduling conflicts can be overcome.
• Community connected learning is already happening some in the career & technical curriculum, as well as service-learning.
• Treating each other (students & staff) positively
• positive to negative ratios
• Developing and maintaining positive connections & relationships
• I like the idea of learning communities within our school. I believe this is something we can do at Logan View not only with students, but also with our staffs. We could institute a homeroom period where students are clustered in a group with a staff member who acts as an advisor. Students are also given the opportunity to collaborate with other students on group projects that may benefit the entire school.
• We have implemented the philosophy and all staff has read the book, "How Full is Your Bucket". We talk the "bucket filling" and "dipping" verbage. The staff gives drops to each other often and we have small business cards, filled out by teachers, recognizing "Random Acts of Excellence". Students share the business cards with the principal (with their good deeds/actions, get to have a positive interaction with the principal and a small candy treat as a reward. (extrinsic I know but fun!)
• All the above factors are applicable.
• BPHS utilizes grade level teams. All freshmen have the same science teacher, math teacher, social studies teacher, and English teacher. All the teachers on a team have common planning time and develop interdisciplinary projects. At Logan View, a set of teachers have most of, if not all, the freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. If common planning time could be arranged, there would be an opportunity to discuss concerns and to develop interdisciplinary projects.
• Teaming students so that they have a smaller learning community.
• modifying our schedule - possibly looking at block scheduling - move students as fast as possible through curriculum so they can take college courses, internships their 4th year, opportunities for on-line classes
• Mr. Christensen brought up the following critical features the frame the rethinking agenda. The criteria are the high school experience needs to be an academic experience, the high school experience must be based upon a clear and focused curriculum, the common core of academic skills should provide opportunities for the study of in-depth and challenging materials, common core curriculum is a connected curriculum, connections are the foundations of success, high school experience needs to be personalized, successful high schools are results oriented, successful high schools are professional places for educators, successful schools are flexible in the use of time.
• South Sioux City High School has had the block schedule for almost a decade.
• We have a committee working on implementing individualized plans for next year. Students will have same faculty advisors to work with them throughout their four years of high school.
• Our school could have professional development in the areas expected to be implemented in the upcoming year.
• An evaluation tool could be developed to assess the effectiveness of individualized plan.
• As we continue to review ideas for rethinking the high school experience, our district could have dialogue sessions with parents, students, and the community to get input, and help foster ownership in any subsequent changes.
• Good Question
• More infusion of independent study classes (dual credit) offered at the high school level.
• *We have already made large advances in achieving a curriculum that is "connected", filling in the gaps and addressing the redundancies.
• *Since one of our school improvement goals is writing across the curriculum, using "minimal grades" on writing assignments could make the assessment of such assignments much less stressful, especially those teachers in areas outside of language arts who dread having to grade any type of writing.
• Right now we are faced with the state of Nebraska trying to get rid of smaller schools, yet this article and it's sources state that bigger schools have a much higher drop out rate....is this really what we want?
• This program would challenge educators to look at the educational needs (and strengths) that each student has, and to give them a fresh perspective into their roles as educators.
• Using the information from Breaking Ranks I and II as a compass in our process. Detailing the changes we make under the core recommendations. It is important that the steering committee take a leadership role in the process and that while people are at different levels of readiness it is our role to move everyone along in the process.
o Assess personal strengths of students and staff.
o Allow students to explore opportunities in strength area. Examine potential career paths.
o Continue to teach factual knowledge. Students wouldn't be able to succeed without this knowledge.
o Try to focus students thinking about their strengths.
o Teach to fill in for weaknesses
• The use of data to reinforce what we do well and to help us identify what we need to improve upon. Before we begin this process however, we need to be able to successfully interpret the data.
• Online courses
• Composite schedules (block plus traditional)
• As teachers walk into the classroom they need to remind themselves that there is more to teaching then just the subject matter and the more ways we can connect with students the better the education and life long learning the students will receive.
• We are working diligently to assimilate the tenets of Shared Responsibility into our school culture. We want teachers to begin to develop ways and means of giving students more ownership in their learning (especially seniors). We are working developing a common focus and trying desperately to build time into our schedule to become more collaborative. We have taught for far too long in relative isolation. We need (must) develop more of a community setting. We are beginning to plant the seeds of a modified senior year. We hope to share some of our thoughts on this topic in October.
• To provide equal access to all graduation standards for all students and offer equivalent support services for all students.
• The article talks on a national and global level so it's difficult to apply it at a local level. I will say that in 15 years of teaching, I have seen the percent of highly talented students decline in Fremont.
• The concept that whether students are college bound or not a rigorous program is benefitial. Having students write many 5-page papers over 4 years is better than writing one 20-page
• The staff learning teams could easily be incorporated in our school system. Exposure to new ideas is the impetus for change. Possibilities for the use of My-e-learning courses could be utilized in the near term sooner than we can possibly develop courses.
• In the article I could see using the implications of a less structured schedule to help meet the individual needs of students.
• The domestic realm is swiftly becoming an arena of stress and turmoil. Men and women often turn to the workplace as an escape from home, and perhaps this applies to students as well. Something must be done to restore a healthy, creative domestric realms. Schools today, in blind complicity with economic forces, push harder and harder for goals tied to financial success and neglect a rounded education that would foster a full life of participation in public and domestic domains.
• We definitely could look at our graduation requirements. We do have about 50% minority students and many "free/reduced lunch" students so it would be interesting to see what would happen if we increased our graduation requirements for graduation.
• Our school is adding teachers or trying to get more subjects offer to students.
• Trying to make learning relevant is something that I can do to increase student interest and motivation to learn.
• I have tried to integrate writing throughout the curriculum in my 7th grade class, but have not involved teachers in other disciplines in this (eg. Science poems).
• All of the ideas presented would be applicable to our school
• We may want to help students identify their career goals early in the high school experience so that we can better help prepare them at the high school level for the future.
• Some of those listed above.
• Advisory groups.
• change schedule, more rigor, Require 3 years math
• personal learning plans for all participants in the educational setting
• The smaller class size is a reality already. We do enrichment and project based teaching in several academic areas, a building of relationships is part of our school improvement this year.
• I believe that building relationships with students is essential as well as with parents. Trying to integrate business relationships more might be a start.
• We need to get out of the 20th century, adjust the budget, and start preparing our students for their lives instead of their grandparents'.
• Stressing the importance of ALL students going on to some type of post-secondary education ... but only a few to a four-year college. Four-colleges is not where the training will be found for the vast majority of the future jobs.
• ALL of them!!!!! But especially that we value the striving for excellent. He also says the real measure of teaching is where children are in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years from the time you had them in class. It takes more than being smart, it takes hard work.
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