I don’t know if we should trust that clown.
Strategic Coherence
One of the first texts given to students each year is Ken Robinson’s TED Talk on educational paradigms. It introduces one of the animating beliefs of this makerspace, which is that traditional education does not prepare students for the world they will join after high school. That world demands a different kind of intelligence, and it’s a far cry from the “model of the mind” that Robinson criticizes.
Watch the whole thing periodically to remind yourself why we’re here.
For most students, what the “world” demands is less pressing than what it will take to get into college and/or start a career, which is why we need to look specifically at what colleges and careers value. That list always starts with empathy, but it also always includes the rest of the nontraditional skills and traits we centralize in this course.
Two of those skill and traits are self-awareness and self-efficacy, which we loop together like so:
Student learning depends on an understanding of why we do what we do. As that post on empathy and college readiness notes, we need an answer to the question, “When am I ever going to have to use this?”
That’s what we have here. These explicit connections to college-, career-, and world-relevance break the strange geometry of traditional education. We’re after a sense of purpose.
Part of that is our focus on metacognition and reflection. Tracking the arc of learning over time grants us self-efficacy, and that applies to all stakeholders: My teaching takes shape through the same rigorous metacognition and reflection required of students, and Brewster, as a district, has always reflected on its progress.
Which brings us to the BCSD Strategic Coherence Plan:
This Strategic Coherence Plan has been available to the public for a while, but January 11 saw the formal release through that post. This is, in part, because of an upcoming event: On January 24, 2018, the Tri-State Consortium1 will visit the district for three days to evaluate the SCP.
I want us to help Brewster’s Tri-State efforts by showcasing the extent to which our Humanities makerspace fits the Strategic Coherence Plan. Through the support of district- and building-level administration, we’ve been able to develop a unique and uniquely nontraditional learning environment, and it aligns perfectly with the SCP:
Load a PDF explaing how by clicking here.
Our particular innovations beyond the SCP are just that: innovations particular to our classroom. We have a unique assessment model, grade abatement, based on growth in universal skills and traits; an interstitial model of instruction that improves on the flipped classroom; and makerspace-inspired assignments that reframe the important work of the Humanities.
Students in this course can speak specifically to the district’s vision. It’s why feedback and advocacy are essential. The district values that perspective as much as I do, and a sense of how this SCP is enacted on the frontlines will help to shape what happens next.
That’s something to keep in mind as you complete this Google Form, which you can also access through Google Classroom or the version embedded below:
Fill that form out as completely as you can, paying attention to the framing assignment below and on Google Classroom.
First, recognize this as an opportunity for self-awareness and self-efficacy. It requires the most critical kind of reflection and metacognition, which is why it’s being folded into our work week.
There is also an extrinsic motivation: This form will generate evidence for the top tiers of grade abatement, including the use of “inquiry-based tools and structures” in an attempt to “demonstrably improve the learning environment.” See the fourth tier’s specific language:
This is also an opportunity to “do more than just what is required,” since no one is required to respond. For those of you take advantage of this opportunity, we will set aside time in class over the next few days to reflect and be metacognitive. That will let us finish by the end of the next GAP panel (which is this Friday, January 19) and leave time for organizing and submitting the responses to administration and the Tri-State Consortium.
Look over the questions first, and try to write your responses separately from the form itself. You can answer as many or as few as you like, submit responses at different times, and edit your answers. Like everything else in here, this is about looped feedback and shared understanding.
Ask any questions about this below.
Learn more about this organization here. I’ve been involved as a team member for eight years now, and many of the innovations of this course started with Tri-State. I first heard of Alfie Kohn’s essay on de-grading through one of their study groups, for instance. ↩