ABOVE THE TURBULENCE

Class of 2024Prime working

years: 2030-2070

Just some Background...

• 1994-1997 Classroom teacher

• 1997-2003 Curriculum Resource teacher

• 2003-2006 Principal

• 2006-2009 Director, Elementary Schools

1,800 students5 schools: HS, MS, 3EL

65% free & reduced meals

35% minorityPopulation: 15,600

GREETINGSfrom Danville

THE GLOBAL ACHIEVEMENT GAP

Seven Essential Survival SkillsThe World is Flat

OUR GOALSPOWERFUL LEARNING EXPERIENCESGLOBAL PREPAREDNESSGROWTH FOR ALLEXCELLENCE IN COMMUNICATIONAN INFORMED & INVOLVED COMMUNITY

What is our signature?

What can students get here that they can’t get in just any other school district?

“Average is over.” Thomas Friedman,

2010

What does this mean for schools?

Daily Spanish K-5

•COMMUNITY FORUM

•THINK TANKS

•DAN BROWN: AN OPEN LETTER TO EDUCATORS

•COMPETITION

A NEW LENS...

ASKING QUESTIONS

• Why do snow days keep us from having an “instructional day” in this time of technology?

• Why do we keep talking about preparing for the 21st Century when we are 10 years in? Now 12...

• How does the way we do business at school differ from what is now real life?

• Do we have situations in schools in which we know kids won’t be successful, either behaviorally or academically or both...yet we continue to leave them there?

• Do we take learning far enough, or do we generally stop where the learning should start?

• Does every student need 175 days in each grade level? Is there something magical about this amount of time?

WHAT WOULD RIP VAN WINKLE SAY?

What does the learning experience look like when those seven essential skills

are priority?

WHO IS READY?

“Ladies and Gentlemen,

we are experiencing TURBULENCE

.”

KCCT

ACT

NCLB

What can we control?

... this class, Pathways to Creativity, is not an elective. It’s a requirement, part of UK’s new general-education-studies program, known as UK Core.

The vast, multi-year undertaking has completely revamped undergraduate requirements in an effort to better prepare students for a different world than the one students faced in the 1980s, when the last general-education-studies plan was designed.

“Our culture changes, and career opportunities change, so we have to look and see if our requirements are really meeting the needs of our students,” said Ben Withers, chairman of the art department, one of many professors involved in the redesign.

UK Core is organized around four main requirements:

■ Intellectual inquiry in math, science, humanities, arts and creativity, and social and behavioral sciences.

■ Competent written, oral and visual communication skills.

■ An understanding of quantitative reasoning, including basic statistics.

■ An understanding of citizenship in a diverse world. ...

Exploration Emphasized in UK’s New Core Courses

December 19, 2011

AP BIOLOGY 2012-13 COURSE REVISION KEY OBJECTIVES:

Reduce the breadth of content to promote conceptual understanding.By reducing breadth, the revised course shifts the instructional emphasis from content to skills, empowering teachers to explore complex concepts, conduct inquiry-based lab investigations, and tailor instruction toward diverse learning styles and interests. Emphasize scientific inquiry and student-directed labs.Inquiry-based labs allow students to be at the center of the learning process, encouraging them to pose, develop, and experimentally investigate questions (self-generated or supplied). Teacher-directed labs generally provide not only the questions for investigation, but also set procedures and data collection strategies for student use.

RETHINKING ADVANCED PLACEMENT“The College Board is partnering with expert educators to revise several AP courses. The revisions focus on promoting such 21st-century skills as critical thinking and analysis, effective communication, and innovation — within the context of high expectations and a supportive classroom.”

A place where aspiring artists, musicians, doctors, entrepreneurs and scientists come together to learn about technology and how it is taking their fields to the next level. Fortune magazine says nine of the 20 fastest growing professional jobs in the next decade will be found in the field of informatics. At NKU, you can learn everything from protecting businesses from computer hackers to producing a highly advanced digital newscast. In the fall of 2011, over 1,900 students took control of their futures by enrolling in the college. Soon, they will be shaping our world, developing new technologies and improving our communities.

Meet the College of Informatics

Expertise in Data MiningFaculty at the University of Louisville are leaders in the field of Data Mining, Data Warehousing, and Data Analysis. Their expertise spans the use of text, web, numerical, and image databases. They have worked in application areas such as medical, e-commerce, security, military, institutional, and financial research.

The 21st Century EducationLawrence H. Summers

Education will be more about how to process and use information and less about imparting it.

An inevitable consequence of the knowledge explosion is that tasks will be carried out with far more collaboration.

New technologies will profoundly alter the way knowledge is conveyed.

In the face of all evidence, we rely almost entirely on passive learning. Active-learning classrooms will ask students to use the knowledge they are acquiring.

The world is much more open, and events abroad affect the lives of Americans more than ever.

Courses of study will place much more emphasis on analysis of data.

HT

What is

High Tech High?

High Tech High or a Creative Arts and Design School?

NY

School of One

iSchool

School of the Future

Text

Was it just the San Diego effect?

Turbulence tamed

Project- or Challenge-based Learning

Personalized and decentralized learning

In-depth, meaningful work

Student-drivenQUALITY OF WORK

Essential Success Skills

Public Presentations

Happy adults. Happy students.

“Their learning starts where ours usually stops.”

Project-based learning

Drawing plans on a napkin during dinner?

Coming to School on Saturdays? Voluntarily?

“This is the first time I’ve ever gotten to do the kind of work I love

at school.”

Results: EXPLORE

Authentic Assessment

CELEBRATION OF LEARNING

TextCore Content/Interdisplinary

ConnectionsSeven Essential Skills

Presentation SkillsK-12

EXPERIENCE DANVILLE

• An opportunity for teachers to try new approaches in a risk-free environment

• Free for students

•Summer, 2011: 89 students, K-9

• Experience Danville STEAM, Summer 2012: 500 students, K-12

CREDIBILITY

Centre CollegeFoundations

Kentucky Department of Education

University of Kentucky

Student ownership

INTERSESSION or

INTERCESSION?

STUDENTS TAKE THE WHEEL...

DHS INTERSESSION 2011

DID IT WORK?• One discipline referral.

• Better attendance.

• Students arriving EARLY.

• Questions like, “Do we have to go back to regular school next week?”

• Eighth graders already making intersession plans for high school.

PROGRESS

KCCT

ACT

110th

104th30th

24th

GETTING ABOVETHE

TURBULENCE.

Looking for ‘game changers’

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

• The Danville Diploma• Additional PBL classes/Student Demand• PBL team projects, X Days• Using blended learning to tame the

turbulence• Competency-based learning• World Language Immersion• Transition Presentations of Learning• College-like Common Application,

Grades 5 and 8

CREATING INNOVATORS

• Fed Ex Days

• Districts of Innovation

• Intersession...the Sequel

• College and Career Readiness or College and Career SUCCESS?

QUESTIONS NOW...

• Does our current model for accountability lead to success for students? If not, what will?

• Should we play more to students’ strengths rather than spending so much time on weaknesses?

• Does school need to look more like Experience Danville STEAM with intentional doses of test prep boot camp when needed?

THINK BIG!