Food_For_Thought

media type="custom" key="1385961" width="151" height="124"

Jay Walking with Jay Leno

_

January 28, 2008 I was fortunate enough to attend Educon20 this past weekend. Fortunate because it was hosted by Chris Lehman from the Science Learning Academy in Philadelphia and was attended by educators who are passionate about education and who wanted to get together and explore ideas for reform in education. The guiding principles of EduCon 2.0 were (1) Our schools must be inquiry-driven, thoughtful and empowering for all members (2) Our schools must be about co-creating--together with our students--the 21st century citizen (3) Technology must serve pedagogy, not the other way around (4) Technology must enable students to research, create, communicate, and collaborate (5) Learning can--and must --be networked. I was very impressed by the Science Leadership Academy, a small magnet school developed in partnership with The Franklin Institute. Three essential questions form the basis of instruction at the Science Leadership Academy (SLA): "How do we learn?" "What can we create?" "What does it mean to lead?" Students at SLA learn in a project-based environment where the core valuess of inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, and reflection are emphasized in all classes. The opportunity to tour the school and sit in on classes was offered and it was a pleasure to walk the halls and sit in the classrooms and reflect on what is happening well at SLA and what is happening well at UMASD. We are also fortunate because we have wonderful, foward thinking members of our organization who understand the value of questions such as the ones above and who continually strive to grow and learn and to create classrooms where true learning is taking place. Chris facilitated one of the workshops on Saturday afternoon and he started with the statement "We do stand on the shoulders of giants" referring to John Dewey and others who have contributed so much to education. He then asked several questions that I believe we all need to think about:
 * 1) What do you think is the purpose of school? Has that changed and how has it changed?
 * 2) What is your manifesto? What is your vision for your school?
 * 3) How do we create curriculum in this model?
 * 4) How do you establish a link between your manifesto and assessments.

As one can imagine, these questions generated great discussion. So, I pose the same questions ....these are the questions that we need to ask and talk about as we continue our journey toward excellence for all students.

You can join some great discussions at the following sites: http://khokanson.blogspot.com/

The Faculty Room, a new blog sponsored by Grant Wiggins' Authentic Education. http://www.authenticeducation.org/wordpress/

Was it taught? Was it learned? media type="custom" key="257243"

media type="custom" key="254011"