Transforming lives by instilling and inspiring lifelong learning in every student
The district’s mission statement is typical of many school districts. It’s usually one statement that is designed to attempt to capture the big picture or vision of what our purpose is as a public school system. Therefore, it has to be a lot of things to a lot of people, which leaves it open to a lot of interpretation. I don’t think anyone would argue that life long learning is an important goal, but as we’ve been reading, talking, thinking about brain research in the last year, it seems clear that we are always learning regardless of our circumstances. Which makes the transformation part really the key here. What are we learning? How do we learn best? How does our learning change us in significant ways? What do we do with the learning? If we as an organization are going to “transform” lives, we probably need to dig deeper into what our role is in helping our students become something more.
The district’s mission statement is typical of many school districts. It’s usually one statement that is designed to attempt to capture the big picture or vision of what our purpose is as a public school system. Therefore, it has to be a lot of things to a lot of people, which leaves it open to a lot of interpretation. I don’t think anyone would argue that life long learning is an important goal, but as we’ve been reading, talking, thinking about brain research in the last year, it seems clear that we are always learning regardless of our circumstances. Which makes the transformation part really the key here. What are we learning? How do we learn best? How does our learning change us in significant ways? What do we do with the learning? If we as an organization are going to “transform” lives, we probably need to dig deeper into what our role is in helping our students become something more.
I’m pretty familiar with our district’s strategic plan that follows the mission as the impetus behind what we say we are working toward. It was drafted by our superintendent with input from stakeholder groups. Included in the plan are some references to technology and innovative learning. Under the subheading that “students experience responsive, engaging pedagogy’” technology is mentioned as a way to support students' creativity. Inquiry-based learning and culturally responsive teaching are also mentioned. While I think we have made some progress in these areas as a system, there is still a wide range not only in practice but also in the understanding of what these goals entail. From someone who has been promoting inquiry based learning for going on two decades, it is still a very misunderstood and under utilized methodology in our system. There are pockets of great examples but not a consistent approach across schools. When many of my colleagues harp on everyone using the same curriculum program or tool, I cringe because what we really need to be consistent about isn’t the tool but how we teach and the way we use technology tools and innovative instructional methods to engage and inspire our students. I can feel myself getting on my soapbox as I write this, but it’s so frustrating at times to see that our big picture vision may be noble, but we need leaders to implement and affect change.
The good news is that we’re taking advantage of the opportunity to become stronger voices as leaders of learning in our schools and beyond. Each of us has studied and researched an aspect of innovative learning and now we have the chance to inspire others and hopefully get this big train moving forward in a way that will serve our kids best.
The good news is that we’re taking advantage of the opportunity to become stronger voices as leaders of learning in our schools and beyond. Each of us has studied and researched an aspect of innovative learning and now we have the chance to inspire others and hopefully get this big train moving forward in a way that will serve our kids best.