Reimagining Education Conversation Series

What's on your mind?

Our session opened with an origami activity asking, "What goes?"  "What carries forward?"

Discussion about what's on our minds focused around systems change, specifically in assessment systems.

Examining the construct of school as the heart of the community

Opening Activity: Watch Part Of Cat Biddle's presentation (9:57-12:40 about the heart)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8DgIBebTQY

Question Storm: What questions do we have about the construct?

The Relationship Between School and Community

Opening Activity: 4 Stories We Tell About Rural Schools by Dr. Catherine Biddle of the University of Maine

Discussion Questions:

How can the community support the school?

How can the school support the community?

Imagining the Future

Opening activity:  Visual Thinking Strategy

Discussion:

During this time we’ll be participating in a highly modified and condensed futures protocol. We’ll be describing a ‘school’ where students have significant control over their learning- both content and process.

We’ll be looking into the future- imagining that we have created this ‘school’. (be careful- the word school is loaded- it suggests a physical structure and lots of other systems of teaching and learning) and describing the school.

Whole Community Engagement:  Whose role is it to teach our students?

Opening Activity:  Speed Chatting: Describe the who, how and where of something you learned.

Discussion Questions:

What have we learned about the expectations of teachers, parents, students and communities during COVID?

Have you found new ways to share the load or partner?

What new learning do we want to name and work on?

The Purpose of Education: What do students actually need to know in order to be successful?

Opening Activity: Fishbowl with 4 students talking about the purpose of school

Discussion Questions:

What do students skills and knowledge do young people need to be healthy, happy and successful?

How do schools create opportunities to practice these skills and knowledge?

What are  schools missing?

Opportunities of COVID:  Will COVID-19 be the opportunity we need to reimagine education?

Opening Activity: Visual Thinking Strategy-- What do we notice?

Discussion Questions:

What are the values that have been buried under logistics before and during COVID?

What do you want to talk about in education right now?

What’s important to you? What ideas do you have?