Acton Academy in Austin. Their website states "Find a Calling, Change the World". Their mission is:
"The Acton Academy mission is to inspire each child and parent who enters our doors to find a calling that will change the world. room schoolhouse. write their own rules, no grades, badges, someone guides them. online learning. portfolios. Business fair uses talent to make products."
We had an interesting conversation about the pros and cons of this system and how we could take some of their philosophy and move the vision of our school forward.
Drew talked about a presentation he saw on expeditionarylearning.com . He was so inspired by the presentation that he immediately emailed his team and got them on board with his idea to do a PBL unit on Life Cycles with each class choosing a problem that related to an animal that students could come up with solutions for. His idea is that this TEKS driven project would span the rest of the year. The presenters used simple booklet.com to create the final product. Kelly shared her independent research format for projects. The challenge: Turning facts into a narrative.
Kelly asked teachers about their ideas for PD on our campus and here are some of their thoughts.
1. Radford suggested picking an app that the entire campus could focus on for the year.
2. Elisse said that teachers liked the February Tech Training format of having 6 options to choose from.
3. There was a request for more trainings like the one that Elisse did on the Socratic Seminars last August.
Another common theme was the mixed messages that we receive about the importance of test scores. Radford was saying that all of the App start ups that he talked to always led with the fact that their app was creative and collaborative, etc. , but their final push was always about meeting standards. That, I think, is the SXSW conundrum. How do you take these insanely creative and innovative ideas that we wallowed in all week and make them fit with the current test driven educational system that we find ourselves in.
Radford noticed that a common theme within the special education talks that I attended was the idea that assistive technology, although essential for some, can benefit almost anybody and that there is so much technology that has been created to help those in need, however these applications can be used to enhance learning for all learners.
I thought this picture summed up the wonderfulness of the morning. Drew is showcasing one o this finds and Radford is completely engaged in what he is saying.
"The Acton Academy mission is to inspire each child and parent who enters our doors to find a calling that will change the world. room schoolhouse. write their own rules, no grades, badges, someone guides them. online learning. portfolios. Business fair uses talent to make products."
We had an interesting conversation about the pros and cons of this system and how we could take some of their philosophy and move the vision of our school forward.
Drew talked about a presentation he saw on expeditionarylearning.com . He was so inspired by the presentation that he immediately emailed his team and got them on board with his idea to do a PBL unit on Life Cycles with each class choosing a problem that related to an animal that students could come up with solutions for. His idea is that this TEKS driven project would span the rest of the year. The presenters used simple booklet.com to create the final product. Kelly shared her independent research format for projects. The challenge: Turning facts into a narrative.
Kelly asked teachers about their ideas for PD on our campus and here are some of their thoughts.
1. Radford suggested picking an app that the entire campus could focus on for the year.
2. Elisse said that teachers liked the February Tech Training format of having 6 options to choose from.
3. There was a request for more trainings like the one that Elisse did on the Socratic Seminars last August.
Another common theme was the mixed messages that we receive about the importance of test scores. Radford was saying that all of the App start ups that he talked to always led with the fact that their app was creative and collaborative, etc. , but their final push was always about meeting standards. That, I think, is the SXSW conundrum. How do you take these insanely creative and innovative ideas that we wallowed in all week and make them fit with the current test driven educational system that we find ourselves in.
Radford noticed that a common theme within the special education talks that I attended was the idea that assistive technology, although essential for some, can benefit almost anybody and that there is so much technology that has been created to help those in need, however these applications can be used to enhance learning for all learners.
I thought this picture summed up the wonderfulness of the morning. Drew is showcasing one o this finds and Radford is completely engaged in what he is saying.