Food for Thought: We aren't alone in our educational universe

Dear all,

I hope you all enjoyed your four day week, and made the most of Wednesday to relax and re-energize.

There are days when the constant push for clarity, accountability and data get me down and my release is walking around your classrooms and talking to you. When I do this I remember that what is most important about a school is what you are doing in your classrooms. Every time I visit classrooms I am never disappointed and enjoy observing the captivating activities and units that you are planning and are having such a positive impact on our students and their enjoyment of school. When I see students engaged in such innovative and challenging activities classrooms I stop and think, are we alone in trying to move in a new direction with education?  The answer is no, and in this week’s food for thought I want to share a few examples that I have been made aware of over the past week.

Last April/ May I attended a conference in Singapore which was encouraging an educational revolution. As you know one of the guest speakers Dr. Yong Zhao whose one day master class I attended. If you didn’t have time to read my account of his ideas last year they are posted here.

He is inspirational because he articulated exactly why schools need to change from the 18^th century model and what they need to focus on. IB schools aren’t so far astray providing they take the Learner Profile and AtL skills seriously and don’t just focus on grades. However, to be exactly what is needed to educate children for the 21^st century we need to be going beyond the restrictions of limited subject choices, traditional subject combinations by allowing students far greater choice and the opportunity for individual path ways. If we do this then every child can be successful; everyone has skills, its just a matter of allowing students to discover them.

In this article you can read about Templestowe School, near Melbourne, Australia, and how they have radically transformed their school whilst at the same time saving it from imminent closure. When you watch the short video at the start you will see lots of ideas that many of us believe should be part of our curriculum. The idea that students can create their own courses and teaching them to other student certainly reflects our desire to have students following their passions and being empowered.  To hear that these progressive ideas do not diminish student’s abilities to take formal educational qualifications such as the VCE, but in many cases accelerates their access, is reassuring for the more conservative amongst us.  

 

This second short article was passed to me last weekend about schools at Hobson Ville Point in Auckland, New Zealand, that are focusing on the future to determine the needs and curriculum for their students. Casey has contacted the Head, Brian, and started a conversation about theirs and our ideas. What was wonderful was how quickly he responded and how open they are to sharing what they are doing and what they are discovering about student learning. It’s worth visiting the schools website.



Finally, another example of a school that is doing things differently comes from Mindshift . In this article, “Is School For Everyone? Some Say ‘No” of a school that is successfully approaching education differently but is very much aligned with the ideas being expressed by Dr Yong Zhao, Templestowe and Hobson Ville Point,  

“Several years ago, few people who knew Hannah Noblewolf would have thought that she would turn out to be an outgoing, articulate, self-assured young woman who has successfully completed her first year at her top-choice college.

For years, she struggled with social anxiety, depression and, as a result, school. She had always been bright — she even skipped fourth grade — but her intellectual acuity, paired with being younger than her classmates, made her school life deeply unpleasant. Noblewolf comes from a highly educated, upper-middle-class family where academic success was not up for discussion. Neither she nor her parents would ever have believed that dropping out of school would be what was best for her.

“I couldn’t get out of bed,” Noblewolf said of her junior year in high school. “I made it to school for a full day maybe twice every two weeks.”

 It is clear to me from reading these articles that our vision and mission certainly encourages us to continue in the direction that we are going. In reality many of the ideas that are being expressed are ones that we are either already engaging with in our classrooms, or at least thinking about in our discussions and meetings.

Have a great weekend,

Yours

Adrian