Public School Choice 4.0 Learning Seminar #3

1. Public School Choice 4.0Learning Seminar #3 Visioning Part II: Toward an Instructional Philosophy that Maximizes Student Learning August 6, 2012

2. Purpose of Public School Choice Learning Seminars/Workshops • Activating and/or expanding existing knowledge • Presenting/sharing new knowledge • Providing frameworks, tools, exercises and activities • Resources • Coaching support • Consultants • Books, articles, research, etc.

3. Vision Statements for Schools

4. Core Values Chart

5. Session 2 Feedback “Deconstructing existing vision statements was helpful in identifying what works and does not work and aided us in re-writing our statement.” “It became clear how important the vision statement is or should be to the instructional program.” “Although our team is comprised of individuals with extensive expertise in this area, we appreciate this time to work and focus as a team. Future topics should include using the vision statement as a living, breathing philosophy.”

6. Vision Statements for Schools

7. Focus for the Day Essential Questions What are our core values? What are our beliefs about how learning happens? How do we want to work together? Session Outcomes • Articulate your collective beliefs and values about teaching and learning and explain how these translate into successful academic experiences for all students • Identify/articulate instructional norms and strategies that will drive instruction and align with your beliefs/values about teaching and learning • Identify agreements that will be central to your work together as a faculty and staff and germane to how you will function as a professional learning community

8. Agenda Welcome and Introduction Icebreaker Activity Defining Our Shared Core Values and Beliefs Developing Congruence Between Beliefs and Actions Wrap-Up

9. Core Values and Beliefs: Why are they important? Helps us to act deliberately and intentionally; moves us to work from the inside out Establishes a standard that enables the school community to decide, case-by-case, the necessity of pedagogical practices, actions, policies, professional development activities, etc. To help institute feedback processes within the school community to evaluate whether actions, policies, practices, etc. achieve the stated values and vision Helps move away from the ever prevalent “do what was done to us attitude” that permeates education

10. Expression of Implicit Values Activity

11. Expression of Implicit Values Activity What was the most significant moment of the story for you as a listener? What core values and beliefs about teaching and learning emerged from the story? What ideas/thoughts emerged about how students learn best? How do the core values and beliefs about teaching and learning that emerged from the story align with your own?

12. SAMPLE: Core Values and Beliefs about Teaching and Learning Students learn best when instruction ensures they are active, self-directed, inquisitive learners and researchers Students learn best when instruction provides students with the opportunity to tackle authentic problems Students learn best when instruction provides students with opportunities to use their skills appropriately across disciplines Students learn best when instruction ensures they have equal opportunities to work alone and to reflect on their learning, to work cooperatively and collaboratively in realistic settings Students learn best when their assessments are varied and allow them to become productive thinkers

13. SAMPLE: Core Values and Beliefs about Teaching and Learning (ELOB) Learning happens best with emotion, challenge and the requisite support. People discover their abilities, values, "grand passions," and responsibilities in situations that offer adventure and the unexpected. They must have tasks that require perseverance, fitness, craftsmanship, imagination, self-discipline and significant achievement. Teach so as to build on children's curiosity about the world by creating learning situations that provide matter to think about, time to experiment, and time to make sense of what is observed. Learning is both a personal, individually specific process of discovery and a social activity. Each of us learns within and for ourselves and as a part of a group. Learning is fostered best in small groups where there is trust, sustained caring and mutual respect among all members of the learning community. All students must be assured a fair measure of success in learning in order to nurture the confidence and capacity to take risks and rise to increasingly difficult challenges. But it is also important to experience failure, to overcome negative inclinations, to prevail against adversity and to learn to turn disabilities into opportunities. Teach so as to join individual and group development so that the value of friendship, trust, and group endeavor is made manifest. Diversity and inclusion in all groups dramatically increases richness of ideas, creative power, problem-solving ability, and acceptance of others. A direct and respectful relationship with the natural world refreshes the human spirit and reveals the important lessons of recurring cycles and cause and effect. Solitude, reflection, and silence replenish our energies and open our minds. We are crew, not passengers, and are strengthened by acts of consequential service to others.

14. The Relationship Between Core Values and Beliefs and Practices • What are the implications for our practice? • How will we operate internally as a school? • What structures must be in place? • What policies will be in place? • What are our relationships like? • Derived from core beliefs and values • Mutually agreed-upon and owned by school community; • The basis of a common sense of purpose; • Explicit in and permeates all we do Adapted from Dr. Julia Atkin From Values and Beliefs about Learning to Principles and Practice

15. PRACTICES • PRINCIPLES We will create meaningful opportunities for students to learn from one another. We will teach, model support and encourage students the skills essential for effective collaborative and cooperative work projects. Ensure that every aspect of the school encourages children, young people, and adults to become increasingly responsible for directing their own personal and collective learning. • CORE BELIEFS AND VALUES Encourage students to compete, not against each other, but with their own personal best and with rigorous standards of excellence. Be sure students have time alone to explore their own thoughts, make their own connections and create their own ideas. Then give them opportunity to exchange their reflections with each other and with adults. Students learn best when instruction ensures they have equal opportunities to work alone and to reflect on their learning, to work cooperatively and collaboratively in realistic settings. Teach so as to join individual and group development so that the value of friendship, trust a and group endeavor is made manifest. Prepare students with the attitudes and skills to learn from and be of service to others. Adapted from Dr. Julia Atkin From Values and Beliefs about Learning to Principles and Practice