#AK12DC – Briefing and Windows into Design Summit, March 21-22

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#AK12DC = The Atlanta K-12 Design Challenge

The Atlanta K-12 Design Challenge lives as a collaboration among 11 Atlanta schools – half of them independent in governance structure and half of them part of the Fulton Co. public-charter system. The original grant proposal leapt from a jumping-off point of believing that public and private schools in Atlanta could partner as an innovation nucleus to amplify the trajectory of powerful educational transformation for ALL Atlanta schools.

Through generous funding from the Howard R. Dobbs Foundation and an operational collaboration precipitated by The Center for Teaching and bolstered by connections with Stanford University’s d.School, this inter-school workforce (read “dream team”) is employing design thinking to explore the needs of educational users and to expand the power of iterative prototyping to enhance learning for virtually countless people throughout Atlanta.

The Summit

On Friday and Saturday of this week (March 21-22), the 11 schools gathered as a whole cohort for a second time (the first time was January 14). This mid-stream design summit provided time and opportunity for schools to advance the empathy gathering they’ve been doing at their schools by defining their challenges, developing their POV (Point of View) statements, and iteratively prototyping solutions for the needs of a particular user they met during their initial discovery immersion.

Below are a few links that provide windows into the work accomplished on Friday and Saturday, March 21-22.

What’s Next?

The next stage (“Stage 2”) involves continuing the school-based work through further testing and iterating of prototypes, implementing emerging solutions, and transforming practices.

Stay tuned. It’s exciting times in Atlanta education!

Windows:

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  • Letter Grades Deserve an ‘F’ – Jessica Lahey – The Atlantic

    A really good, quick piece on grading, assessment, and standards-based learning. Contains some worthwhile links and interesting comments to explore and dig deeper. HT @meghancureton

    tags: assessment grades standards sbg grading learning #MustRead commoncore Common_Core learningoutcomes

    • The goal in her classroom is no longer points or grades, but mastery. Students are held accountable not for the maximum points total assigned to a homework set, but for mastery of the concepts it contains.
    • Teaching and learning with an eye toward mastery of a defined list of competencies circumvents many of the pitfalls that points-based grading causes.

  • Playful learning: Where a rich curriculum meets a playful pedagogy | Preschool Matters… Today!

    “The Capulets and Montagues of early childhood have long battled over their vision for a perfect preschool education.  Should young children be immersed in a core curriculum replete with numbers and letters or in a playful context that stimulates creative discovery?  The ‘preschool war’ leaves educators torn and embattled politicians in deadlock.  Playful learning offers one way to reframe the debate by nesting a rich core curriculum within a playful pedagogy.”

    HT @kellyBKelly2001

    tags: preschool play play-based playful learning #MustRead

    • Playful learning is a whole-child approach to education that includes both free play and guided play.
    • It refers to play in a structured environment around a general curricular goal that is designed to stimulate children’s natural curiosity, exploration, and play with learning-oriented materials.[xxii]  In guided play, learning remains child-directed. This is a key point.  Children learn targeted information through exploration of a well-designed and structured environment (e.g. Montessori[xxiii]) and through the support of adults who ask open-ended questions to gently guide the child’s exploration.
    • Guided play allows children to become engaged; didactic instruction helps them memorize but not transfer what they have learned.
    • Guided play helps constrain what children should be focusing on; free play leaves the field too open and does not help children focus on the target outcomes.
    • It is possible to have a curriculum rich in learning goals that is delivered in a playful pedagogy.

  • Design Thinking: Tools to help make thinking visible \ The Lab

    “The British science, technology and arts research organisation Nesta, along with European social innovation experts, have pulled together their top 30 tools for social innovation. Many of them have immediate uses for helping plan and structure design thinking activities in the classroom. We explain some of those that have the most immediate value for learning.”

    HT @jbrettjacobsen

    tags: designthinking design thinking design_thinking innovation social entrepreneurship iDiploma #MustRead

  • The Disturbing Transformation of Kindergarten | TRUTH ABOUT EDUCATION

    “hey are hyper-focused on how students perform, but they ignore how students learn”

    tags: kindergarten play #MustRead

    • they are hyper-focused on how students perform, but they ignore how students learn
    • How can teachers hold all children to the same standards when they are not all the same?
    • Play is essential in kindergarten
    • There is a wide range of acceptable developmental levels in kindergarten; so a fluid classroom enables teachers to observe where each child is and adjust the curriculum accordingly.
    • if we want our youngest to actually learn, we will demand the return of developmentally appropriate kindergarten.

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

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

#MustRead Shares (weekly)

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

#NAISAC14 Archive of My Conference Experience

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In the last days of February 2014 (2.26.14 – 2.28.14), I attended #NAISAC14 – the National Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference 2014.

During the conference, my real-time tweets served as my note-taking and my reactions/responses to what I was learning.

Below, I’m simply archiving the sessions I attended so that 1) I have a snapshot of my conference experience in my ePortfolio, and 2) colleagues at my school and in my PLN can ask me questions about any of the sessions in which I participated.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

1:00 – 4:00 p.m. “My MakerEd Wednesday at #NAISAC14”

NAIS Bo Wed 2.26.14

Thursday, February 27, 2014

NAIS Bo Thurs1 2.27.14

8:00 – 9:00 a.m. “MSA: A Tool to Alter the Way Schools Think About Education”

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9:30 – 11:00 a.m. “The Spark: Igniting the Creative Fire that Lives Within Us All,” Lyn Heward, General Session Speaker

NAIS Bo Thurs2 2.27.1412:00 – 1:00 p.m. “Exploring Homework: Making it Work”

Handouts

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1:30 – 2:30 p.m. “Speed Innovating”

3:00 – 4:30 p.m. “Independent Matters: Dare to Explore,” Mae Jemison, Steve Pemberton, & Jay Shuster, General Session Speakers

Friday, February 28, 2014

8:00 – 9:00 a.m. “Connecting Learning and Value: Zero-Based Strategic Transformation”

NAIS Bo Fri4 2.28.14 #boandgrant

9:30 – 11:00 a.m. “The Power of Education,” John Quiñones, General Session Speaker

NAIS Bo Fri5 2.28.1411: 30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. “The NAIS Teachers of the Future Program” (http://bit.ly/naisTOF14)

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NAIS Bo Fri6 2.28.141:30 – 2:30 p.m. “Risk Taking and Moonshot Thinking: A New Vision of Strategic Planning”

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3:00 – 4:00 p.m. “Creativity and Connection,” Eric Whitacre (one & two), General Session Speaker [one of the BEST keynotes I have ever experienced anywhere!]