Lessons Learned

I recently posted How Progressive is Your School? to highlight our school’s effort to measure just how progressive we are. The discussion centered upon the article by Alfie Cohen and the 8 values (Intrinsic Motivation, Social Justice, Collaboration, Whole Child, Community, Deep Understanding, Active Learning & Taking Kids Seriously) that encompass being more progressive in how we “do” school. I am now doing a series of posts about our learning community’s ideas about each value. We are now discussing one value per month and looking at ways to follow through in making the value even more a part of our culture at HIS.

• How to foster a sense of community when kids are at so many places academically?
• How do 1:1 laptops help build and/or hurt community at HIS?
• Define communities first… school, parents, digital, etc.
• How do we build community?
• Morning Gatherings, Advisory…enough structure for community?
• How can we be more involved in Hsinchu and great world community? Connection to goals for citizenship.
• Role of competition
• How do we incorporate progressive educational ideas into conservative and traditional communities?
• How to further foster the connections between old students and younger as well as elementary students?

This is the third post about how to develop a curriculum review system in one’s school. It deals with answering questions about the culture of one’s school and how folks deal with change. Just as the first post on the big picture, these are questions for members of the community to work through before they begin designing their system.

1) How is your school year laid out for natural times to work on curriculum units?

2) When would be the best time to have the “big picture” meeting(s) to look at each subject area K-12 for scope and sequence?

3) How can technology lessen the number of meetings while supporting the strategic big picture planning?

4) What is your PD schedule for the year?

5) How can it be tied in to support the curriculum development process?

6) How can you use time during the day more effectively to support the learning communities working on curriculum?

7) What gets in the way of your teachers having time to share and reflect on student learning?

What other questions (and answers) come to mind?

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