Thing 1

Reading the article by Lippincott was at first quite intimidating to me. She talks about the need to "prepare students to be content creators within their disciplinary or professional specialities". We are no longer just dumping information into our students' brains. This is a major change in thinking for many teachers. We need to give more ownership of learning over to the students. As I reflected on this, I was reminded of integrated curriculum. CMSW has been striving the last couple of years to teach in this way. Lippincott talks about integrated curriculum in higher education and yet middle school philosophy has been pushing for this for years. I really liked the example she gave of all the types of knowledge and higher order thinking skills that go into designing a web page for a class. With authentic assessments such as this, we will be able to coach students through various tools that they need for future success. I think our Design Team was very aware of this need for 21st century skills and hope that the core teams will follow up on these ideas.

I certainly understand the need for information literacy. However, my lingering question is this: How do we give kids the skills they need when so many adults don't have these skills? There are certainly teachers who are willing to learn, but what about those who refuse to keep up with the times? As someone who just finished my specialist degree in admin, these are the kinds of questions that haunt me. What is the role of staff development?

This is where I think collaboration comes in...Schools need to be better at using the resources that we have. Chaska has some great technology staff throughout the district. Wouldn't it be great if these people were offering courses to share their expertise?