On Sunday morning I was preparing for an upcoming presentation about our district’s journey toward the Energetic Learning Campus and educational change in general. I was scanning through some “old” keynote presentations (rather than re-invent the entire wheel) when I found one that I’d presented to our District Parent Advisory Council back in 2007. This was before our community consultation conversations (“Today and Tomorrow”), the BC Education Plan, and certainly long before we came up with the idea of putting a campus of our high school into the Pomeroy Sports Center.
The presentation referred to the practical needs and challenges that our district was facing due to a lack of space and our growing numbers. However, it also mentioned the opportunities that this challenge provided. It asked how we could build on our current successes to meet the needs of a new century as well as change the way many students viewed their school experience.
Below is one of my favorite slides. Sally (Charlie Brown’s little sister) and Linus are considering a dilemma:
The slide also included an audio clip of “Little Becky” calling to ask what it would take to have her school demolished. Click for a quick laugh: Little Becky – Demolition
The next slide asked, “How can we, as a system, change this way of thinking?”
Some suggestions were on another slide titled… “From the 20th Century to the 21st”. (… way too much text for a slide these days, but it is a pretty good “from-to” list):
From “conforming”… to “ingenious”, from “stable”… to “agile”, from “one to many”… to “peer to peer”, from “retaining”… to “critiquing”, from “curriculum centered”… to “learner centered”, from “delivered wisdom”… to “user generated content”, from “individual”… to “community collaboration”, from “subject based”… to “project based”, from “one-size-fits-all”… to “personalized learning”, and… from “teaching”… to “learning”
(I find the list reaffirming.)
One of the last slides asked the following:
“Can we shape something that we may not live long enough to see happen?”
I wasn’t sure at the time, but I grow more optimistic every day.
