When principal Matt Renwick mentioned “Minecraft” in a flyer about an afterschool computer club, 30 percent of his elementary students showed up. In the first of several reflections on passion-based learning, Renwick considers their high engagement through Dan Pink’s three lenses: autonomy, purpose & mastery.
We choose to move forward and change our schools in this decade, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win!
Primary teacher & connected educator Kathy Cassidy summarizes the first year of one-to-one Apple iPads in her classroom of six-year olds. Cassidy offers a crisp summary of each aspect of the experience, with lots of great photos!
“There should be no one prescribed way to help students achieve their goals,” says elementary principal Matt Renwick. “Yet to refuse to learn more about teaching practices that have large amounts of evidence to support their use, and instead stick with what we feel comfortable with, is at best being obstinate and at worst neglectful.”
As nine-year teacher Charlie Gramatges assumes his first full-time school leadership role, he’s taking his “learner first” attitude with him. In his first post for Voices, Charlie reflects on some of his wonderings about his new leadership position and invites your advice.
In this fascinating account of online learning, Michael Valentine, the director of Hale@home, describes a 21st century solution to a traditional dilemma – how to prepare rural boys for transition to a large urban independent school in Perth, Australia.
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