Bold Moves for Schools
How might we foster an innovation culture? What dispositions and habits of mind should be encouraged and examined? When do we create opportunities for sharing and imagining possibilities? How do we group our colleagues and community? How can students be involved? How do we sustain bold and imaginative thinking?
In order to shape a powerful mission and to take meaningful action, at root is grappling with our views of the role of the learner, the teacher, the leader, and the school. Likely there is a range of beliefs in play at your setting. What pedagogy is driving your choices now? Might you cultivate a look at a new kind of learner? A new kind of teacher? A contemporary school learning environment? How might we involve our education community into this investigation?
How can we create fresh and meaningful mission statements? How do we come to terms to what matters most in the education of our learners? How might a mission come alive in all components of our program from format to curriculum? Who should participate in the drafting of a mission? How can they drive strategic plans?
How might we develop an innovation design team to search new possibilities, examine current models, and generate possibilities? Who should participate in this (or these) team(s)? Should we have a range of teams to investigate different elements in the plan? How might they converge to share their findings and imagine next steps?
Several years ago the Barrington, IL school district began an in-depth study what were optimal conditions for learning by age group. The end result was a complete reversal of student start and end times for elementary, middle, and high school students. The video below is well worth watching.