Highland Tech Charter School

PIL – Mentor School 2012

The Highland Tech community is both honored and humbled to share their on-going journey in building a world-class educational system with the Pathfinder Schools they will be mentoring. The journey to transforming teaching and learning is unique for each school, however Highland will be supporting others as they empower Students’ Voice and Choice in their formal educational.

The Microsoft Partners in Learning program is designed to support educators and school leaders to connect, collaborate, create and share their most powerful and innovative practices so that students can realize their greatest potential. Having returned in early November from the Partners in Learning Global Forum we were filled with new ideas and innovations to share with staff and students. Further, we engaged in deep conversation with many schools from around the globe who are doing incredible things with children.

Membership and participation in the network is free and provides the opportunity to engage with educators from across the globe to develop new approaches and material for a new type of learner. The network serves as a global professional development network that connects like-minded educators. Transparency is at the center of the network where learning from and with others is key. Additionally, school leaders work together to develop a culture where innovation is encouraged for both staff and students.

For schools that embrace the deeper level work that comes with transforming traditional education systems, Microsoft Partners in Learning has created the Pathfinder and Mentor School Programs. Highland has been invited to participate as a Mentor School due to many factors. Among these is our belief that shared leadership promotes a high level of Student Voice and Choice where students are active participants and decision makers in their learning and in how their school operates.

Further, Highland Tech is a competency-based school where mastery learning is expected, free of the traditional seat time model of education. Integration of technology devices, software, and web-based programs are integral to student learning. Students move at their own pace while developing 21st Century Skills in a learning environment that promotes innovation through risk taking. Staff is also encouraged to think outside the box in order to provide top-notch teaching and learning experiences for students. Shared Leadership and Continuous Improvement (hallmarks of our school) facilitate a reciprocal relation where all members of our community are active learners.

Tying together our current practice with the resources provided through participation in the Microsoft Partners in Learning Network allows us to reach outside the walls of our school to learn within the growing global environment where our students will eventually be employed.

For more information on Highland Tech Charter visit our website
Highland Tech Charter School – Website

A shift is underway to move from an emphasis on content to an emphasis on “thinking skills.” Skills such as problem solving, creative thinking, communication, and collaboration. This blog will continue to explore and chronicle our learning and innovation.

Richard DeLorenzo of the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition presented the following idea:

Change is never easy, especially in a system that has been in place for over 150 years and we will defend it even if we know it doesn’t work because it is all we know.

Thoughts?

It’s easy to walk into a traditional classroom and measure engagement. Depending on how you defined engagement, you could find several different ways to determine if students are engaged in the learning process. During classroom lectures, you could simply look to see how many students raised their hands and participated in the discussion or whether or not the students were on task. Student engagement could also be viewed by the level of academic challenge for the students, or their ability to actively collaborate with other students and the teacher. Nevertheless, over the last two decades there has been significant growth in the awareness of and the ability to assess student engagement.

Technology and Student Engagement: (Click the link to read more)

A couple of thoughts sparked my interest. I wonder what others think about these:

1. As educators do we function in a system that prepares students for “our past” or for “their future?”

2. New technologies do not necessarily bring on new “habit of mind.”

What do you think?

Schools Without Schedules

At free schools, students choose the curriculum.

Educational programs in which children choose how they spend their time are growing in number, with “free schools” now open in New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, California, and elsewhere. Most free schools base their philosophies on those of England’s 90-year-old Summerhill School, where children have the freedom to make art, garden, and work on the computer in addition to attending class. Democracy plays an important part in school culture, with students voting on issues such as how to structure the school day.

Stateside, free schools have their critics, who question whether such programs can truly prepare a student for college and beyond. “I’m not impressed by the argument that traditional public schools aren’t doing a good job preparing young people for the mix of self-direction and conformity that they will experience as adults,” Aaron Pallas, a sociology and education professor at Columbia University, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. Still, many students are finding their place in free schools. “It’s not just your education that it changes, but your approach to life,” Dan Schiffrin, a graduate of Harrisburg’s Circle School, said in the Inquirer.

If the foundational purpose for schooling is to prepare children to enter the world of work, how would a more free-flowing day (that in many ways mirrors today world of work) look for students? How would it impact the way educators operate in the system?