Innovating the very foundations of school – who creates the courses!

What if “students” created the courses – at least some of the courses – offered at school? What if those courses were the kind that many people would describe as “the most rigorous” a school offers? This is innovation.

Two members of the Innovation Diploma at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School (and Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation) launched their own AP (Advanced Placement) Language course. Together they collaboratively built the learning targets, educational paths, academic arcs, and assessment strategies for exploring certain wonders and complexities of the English language.

They are both juniors in high school. I don’t think either of them actually drives a car on her own yet.

This is a story I highly recommend that you follow. Here are some posts Pinya and Kat have published to get you started:

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

#MustRead Shares (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

On the journey to why, purpose is the new bottom line.

Connecting with core messages from Simon Sinek and Seth Godin, Casey Gerald implores us to take our journeys to why and choose ourselves. In an inspiring Creative Mornings talk, Gerald explores that space which is not quite entrepreneurship and not quite social innovation…and forever moving the Doing Well sphere into the Doing Good sphere.

There’s no item on a balance sheet for “Give a damn.” But it’s the most valuable thing you’ve got in the business.

– Casey Gerald quoting Dave Schiff

How might we redesign school to be about the work of empowering learners to pursue such purpose as their bottom lines? A veritable army of creatives and learning designers are exploring just such a question at The Teachers Guild.

May these worlds collide and spark something amazing. You can find me at that very intersection.

HT Tina Roth Eisenberg, @SwissMiss

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