Our Educational System
- Current educational system designed over 120 years ago
- Undergone relatively minor changes since its inception more than a century ago
- Students learn in different ways and at different rates
- System was designed to teach content
- Was important because that information was not readily accessible unless it was known
- That information is now at our fingertips
What Students Need
The Business World now needs students who demonstrate:
- Context
- Utility
- Relationships
- Connectedness
- Building Learner Capacity instead of Piling Up Facts
- Opening Doors for Students instead of slamming them shut just for the sake of process and maintaining the status quo
- Ignoring the changes that need to occur
Companies that Failed to Innovate & Adapt
- Eastman Kodak
- Polaroid
- Blockbuster
- Blackberry
- MySpace
- Hostess
- Publishing Industry
- Boat Industry
Personalized Learning
- Actively engages learner in the work instead of doing it to the learner
- Students need to learn how to learn
- Are then set for success no matter how the world changes
- Look at learning through the eyes of the learner instead of through the lens of the curriculum or lesson plan
- Learners should begin to see themselves as their own best teacher
The Changing Role
Teachers move into partner and collaborator role with students
- Co-designers, co-workers, co-investors
- The context in which they are used is what changes
- Kids will feel great ownership of their learning
- It is of greater value to them
Assessments & Activities
Traditional Assessment but also:
- Presentations
- Projects
- Demonstrations
- Building and presenting models
- Collaboration and partnership
- Students teaching Students
- Act of teaching reinforces that which was learned
Change for Student Benefit
- Teachers still need to make decisions
- Possess the knowledge, expertise, and wisdom that students need
- When teachers incorporate choice…
- Students grow into lifelong learners
- Shouldn’t we change our system to adapt to a rapidly changing workplace rather than leave it to our kids to figure that out after they are finished with school?
- The $100,000 Education
- It is our duty to make sure it is
The Pitfalls
- Compliance versus Commitment
- Equity versus Equality
- Equity: fairness, justness, and impartiality
- Equality: everyone is at the same level
- Willful Blindness
- Us versus Them
- Staff versus Administration/School Board
- Not Possessing the Courage or Desire
Those who have the least power have the most accountability. ~Alan Blankstein
I got a crack on my shoulder, not a chip. It’s not to prove to other people I can do something. It’s to prove to myself that I can change lives. ~P.J. Fleck