TeacherDrivenChange

Is Imagination Dead?

In the Movie Six Degrees of Separation, Will Smith explains how imagination is an integral part of our individuality.  The film discusses the importance of imagination and how we have lost our sense of purpose and direction.  Many teachers believe that imagination and creativity have been eliminated in our schools and replaced with state mandates.  Watch the film, discuss it with your colleagues, and comment below.

Inside-Outside Thinking & School Gardens

As the school change industry grows and becomes more powerful, initiatives to close the achievement gap and reduce dropouts become more confusing and chaotic.  As reported by many What Works Conference participants, the school change movement has spun out of control and it’s time for those who know the most about our children to take charge.    

The What Works Conferences surfaced numerous possibilities about what can be done to improve our schools.  However, most ideas, were subtle and imbedded in the day-to-day lives and relationships of teachers, parents, and students.    Between and among these relationships are the events, projects, and an ever changing learning environment that sparks insight, curiosity, and innovation in our classrooms. 

One of the most interesting outcomes from the What Works Conference was the inside-outside thinking that described new approaches to school change.  Inside-outside thinking resulted when classroom teachers had serious and authentic conversations about improving our schools with educational researchers, and policy makers.  The What Works Conference was a first step in bringing together parents, administrators, and community leaders with classroom teachers to discuss and identify those patterns that create the conditions necessary for student success – both academically and socially.  Conference presenters and participants found that school improvement does not often manifest itself in tangible ways, but rather takes place by discovering patterns or the way things operate successfully – in other words, what works.

Inside-outside thinking views school change from a system-wide perspective.  Most school change initiatives have generally emphasized either internal or external efforts to improve our schools.  Early childhood education (ECE) suggests a teaching and learning environment that has no boundaries, where all school community stakeholders play an authentic role in the change process.  A close examination of ECE may reveal possible change strategies that can be applied throughout all of public education.

To understand inside-outside thinking and to get a better idea of how this approach works, click on the presentation below.  This sample audio presentation will give you a flavor for the What Works Conference and the rich conversations that took place during the three week conference period.  Panel members for this session included  Linda Fiddler, Teacher/Resource Specialist in Bakersfield, CA, City School District, Delaine Eastin, former Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of California, and  Dr. Alan Daly, Professor of Education at UC San Diego.

In the audio session below you will hear parts of a powerful presentation on how school community gardens are able to bring together parents, teachers, classified staff, administrators, and community leaders to create a teaching and learning environment filled with passion, excitement, and joy.   Presenters, through their conversations, discovered that school community gardens can create a new context for school improvement – one that became obvious through inside-outside thinking.

School Gardens Bring the School Community Together: New Possibilities and Opportunities

School gardens present new possibilities for teachers, parents and students.  Teachers, with all backgrounds and interests can join together to create a healthy and positive environment for their students and school community.  Past garden efforts have included science, botany, social studies, history, geography, art and nutrition. 

The Master Gardener Program has been largely instrumental in implementing school garden programs. You can access its start-up kits online, where there are several informative sites on how gardens can be worked into curricula.  To join its e-mail list, go to the Common Ground Garden Program or e-mail Yvonne Savio at ydsavio@ucdavis.edu

According to teachers, gardens provide students with a multitude of learning experiences beyond the traditional classroom environment. School gardens bring students, teachers and parents together in new ways that can only have positive benefits for the entire school community. School gardens are popping up everywhere sparking new interests in community and creating a climate where students become more responsible and accountable for their own learning.  Continue reading.

Life in the Garden

What connects good health, ecology, environmental issues, vocational education, exercise, systems thinking, collaboration and teamwork, water issues, agriculture, humane education, and critical thinking? A garden! That's right, a garden. Think about it. We have so many students that have no idea where their food comes from, how plants grow, the relationship between good health and the food they eat, and the important role plants play in our lives. As most teachers know, learning is a lot more than standards and tests. Learning is creativity, wonder, excitement, and most of all passion. Does your school have a garden? Do your students see trees and plants each day?  Do they realize that life is precious and that it can begin with a tiny seed? A garden can be as simple as the weight of a petal or as complicated as a solution to our survival. If a major goal of public education is to prepare students for life, what better place to start than in a garden. From P to 12, all of our students need to know that their world is more than cement, blacktop, and plaster.  Click here for more information on starting your own school-community garden. The IFT would like to know what your think. Click the comment section below and record your ideas.

High School System-Wide Change

One example of system-wide change is the early college high school program.  According to advocates of this initiative, the early college high school approach offers students a rigorous academic framework, which combines high school and college. The Foundation for California Community Colleges is participating in this initiative focusing on underrepresented students who historically have been at risk for not attending college.  This combined high school and college program gained national recognition with an interview of the Governor of North Carolina who stated, One way to get the high school dropout rate down is to do away with high schools.  Click here for the Governor’s comments and video.

Partnerships from the Ground-Up

After years of school reform interventions, conventional wisdom suggests that school change initiatives should be collaborative and system-wide.  Unfortunately, prevailing practices and procedures in most education venues continue to lag behind what nearly all educational researchers know and understand.  In fact, most school change initiatives are top-down, based on predetermined outcomes that ignore process and practice. One example of a school change design that separates itself from the crowd – legislators, regulators, and policy makers -- is the System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE). As a broad-based network of educators and researchers, SCALE focuses on improving mathematics and science teaching and learning at all levels. The SCALE partnership expects every student, every year, to experience high-quality teaching of core mathematics and science concepts. The partnership, which brings together mathematicians, scientists, engineers and education practitioners, seeks to improve the mathematics and science achievement of all students at all grade levels in multiple school districts by engaging them from the ground-up in deep and authentic science and mathematics instructional experiences.