{"id":269,"date":"2015-11-11T18:05:40","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T15:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.aas.ru\/director\/?p=269"},"modified":"2015-11-11T18:05:40","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T15:05:40","slug":"newsletter-november-11-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zimplicity.hopto.org\/techtied\/?p=269","title":{"rendered":"Newsletter – November 11, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weekly update includes this week one additional administrative announcement. \u00a0I’m happy to report that we have concluded an agreement with Michelle Alzamora to move into the lead chair at the Elementary Division as the new principal. \u00a0Over the last 5 years, Mrs. Alzamora has held various roles at the school including teacher, Literacy Coordinator, and Assistant Principal. \u00a0We are excited that she has committed herself to honoring the work of the division and reaffirmation of the path they have set for growing and learning as a team.<\/p>\n

On the more educational side of things, I wanted to share with you some nuggets that I gleaned from the recent IB Regional Heads Conference in the Hague. \u00a0David Perkins, one of the keynote speakers, shared some insight into their work in instructional planning. Like our work on personalized learning, he talked at length about “Life Worthy Learning!” \u00a0His work at Harvard Project Zero<\/a>\u00a0has led to a new initiative referred to as Learning that Matters<\/a> (LtM). \u00a0This is a leadership initiative in partnership with the\u00a0Independent Schools Victoria (ISV), Australia. \u00a0Of particular note is a white paper<\/a> discussing the conceptual framework for leadership in the context of LtM. \u00a0It starts by understanding the trends in the expanding universe of what’s worth teaching. \u00a0This is referred to as the 6 Beyond’s:<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. Beyond content \u2013 21st century skills, competencies, etc., such as critical and creative thinking, collaboration, communication, self-management.<\/li>\n
  2. Beyond local \u2013 Global perspectives, problems, and studies, as with our global economy or worldwide problems of energy or water supplies.<\/li>\n
  3. Beyond topics \u2013 Content as tools for thinking and action, for instance with regard to some of the big issues above.<\/li>\n
  4. Beyond the traditional disciplines \u2013 Renewed and extended visions of the disciplines, for instance broader views of history or studies of contemporary communication technologies.<\/li>\n
  5. Beyond discrete disciplines \u2013 Interdisciplinary topics and problems, such as the roots of intergroup human conflict or poverty.<\/li>\n
  6. Beyond prescribed content \u2013 Learners as choosers of what they learn well beyond the typical use of “electives.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    His argument is that there is a growing importance in looking at a combination of deciding what needs less focus because of its declining degree of importance and coupling this with a look at how other things can be combined and expanded to grow deeper understanding and applicability to new situations.<\/p>\n

    I couldn’t help but notice some of the parallels of this work with our work on personalized learning descriptor<\/a>s. \u00a0The current cornerstones definitions speak to student learning that crosses disciplinary lines, and provides a\u00a0deeper understanding that is tuned to interests and passions. \u00a0Beyond #6 is particularly focused on this type of “chosen” learning.<\/p>\n

    While we work hard every day considering how to increasingly articulate curriculum and outcomes through standards and assessments, we are also defining and understanding the plausible futures that 21st century thinking demands. \u00a0We all struggle with trying to predict what the future may hold for our youth, it is clear that some elements of the future are fairly easy to predict. \u00a0We know our students will face significant challenges that will test their ability to innovate and learn. \u00a0We know that technology will continue to grow as an influence in their lives. \u00a0We know that they will increasingly face the challenges of scarcity and the essential need to reevaluate their partnership with the planet.<\/p>\n

    And we can also hope that they will reap the benefits of their collaborative spirit when issues of peace and prosperity are achieved through the efforts of an enlightened generation. \u00a0I have every faith that our globally aware graduates of AAS will contribute significantly to that accomplishment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Weekly update includes this week one additional administrative announcement. \u00a0I’m happy to report that we have concluded an agreement with Michelle Alzamora to move into the lead chair at the Elementary Division as the new principal. \u00a0Over the last 5 years, Mrs. Alzamora has held various roles at the school including teacher, Literacy Coordinator, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimplicity.hopto.org\/techtied\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimplicity.hopto.org\/techtied\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimplicity.hopto.org\/techtied\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimplicity.hopto.org\/techtied\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimplicity.hopto.org\/techtied\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zimplicity.hopto.org\/techtied\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimplicity.hopto.org\/techtied\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimplicity.hopto.org\/techtied\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimplicity.hopto.org\/techtied\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}