What School Should Be by Dean Shareski
Feb
1
Written by:
2/1/2010 2:45 AM
I'm at Educon.
If you're not familiar with Educon, it's a conference/conversation hosted by Chris Lehmann and the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA.
I was fortunate to be able to spend Thursday and Friday hanging around the school. Here's what I saw:
- Lots of smiles.
- Loud classrooms
- A principal's office that looked more like grand central with equal numbers of staff and students talking and working, coming and going
- Teachers who discussed personal issues with students
- A brief power outage that didn't paralyze learning despite them being a 1:1 school
- A lack of emphasis on technology
- Kids occasionally off task
- Students excited to talk with adults
None of these things are particularly amazing and are all things you could find in many, if not all schools in North America. I didn't see one thing that couldn't be done anywhere. The teachers are good teachers but they aren't doing anything I haven't seen before. There isn't a magic formula to their success. So what's the big deal?
There are many more observations and insights that one would make beyond the few I've listed but I'm not sure that any additions would tell us that "one thing". It's obvious that leadership plays a significant role and that grows culture over time which is undeniably palpable. While many will continue to deconstruct and analyze how, and if this type of place ought to be replicable, I'm awed at good teaching and caring adults can lead to a really wonderful place which it truly is. But maybe SLA isn't so unique after all? Maybe there are more schools and classrooms like this but we just are telling anyone? I do know of a few wonderful places and classrooms that I work with, perhaps not in a collective sense but still pretty wonderful.
I didn't see any one thing that blew me away at SLA . They just seem to embody the things we think schools should be.
cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski
5 comment(s) so far...
What School Should Be by Dean Shareski
Nice information, many thanks to the author. It is incomprehensible to me now, but in general, the usefulness and significance is overwhelming. Thanks again and good luck! HerbsMD
By jhon on
4/24/2011 6:09 PM
|
What School Should Be by Dean Shareski
Dearest Dean & I mean that seriously I take your opinion very seriuosly. However, I have to respectfully disagree with you about SLA. You ate correct in saying this hsppens in places all over the USA & Canada. I do believe what is rare about SLA is ths fact that all the adults in the building areatching un thse same direction. We speak the same language & we are transparent enough that children feel safe so they can be better students. That is the difference. You can see classrooms in snout every school that has a teacher in control of the self directed student, because that teacher "gets it" & has drank the cool-aid. Here is my question to you... Do you think those one or two classrooms & teachers that are doing right by students is something that is sustaible long term? And I should have prefaced this with mandates like NCLB and the soon to come in America "pay for performance" (everybody get out your tap shoes & let's put on the dog and pony show) Schools need to implode & educators as well as great minds, deep thinkers need to come together to redfine school. Educators need secure stucture for teachin that lived inside a living document, that way curriculum can change with the changing world. NOTHING should be regarded ad a ciookie cutter fix for k-12 Ed. People & communities are so different from neighborhood to neighborhood & block to block. I say put the power back into the hands of the professionals that have master degrees & higher Ed. Qualifications to moe decisions about what is best for the school & the children in their charge. Thoughts? BTW, grat to have you at the school, glad you could make it & grat seeing you in the flesh again! I love you post it really made me think, Thanks!
By ecram3 on
2/7/2010 5:32 PM
|
What School Should Be by Dean Shareski
Marcie, I think we agree but perhaps I didn't make my point clear enough. What you all have is a united effort, that's what makes it special. Not the parts, but the sum of the parts.
By Dean Shareski on
3/14/2010 5:35 PM
|
What School Should Be by Dean Shareski
Who are the participants of this forum?
By AndyMil on
3/7/2010 10:11 PM
|
What School Should Be by Dean Shareski
Wow! Thank you. This was very cool. You for all time write such superior blogs. I am interested in reading more of your work.
By Discount Supplement on
9/6/2011 10:02 PM
|