What we do at the Duke School and why we do it:

We inspire learners to boldly and creatively shape their future….  We prepare the next generation of problem solvers for our complex world. 

In the seventh grade, our teaching team will be create a three-month long project in the spring.  The student projects will focus on Biodiversity.  Our intention is to focus on local actions together with the awareness of their global consequences.

At least part of the time, we will be investigating how to restore parts of the local Duke Forest on the campus, which was clear cut to construct new buildings.

Student’s will be asked to identify plant species, observe budding in the spring to collect data for Project Bud Burst.  If all goes well, we will create or join an international project to promote student conversations about their restoration work with other students around the world.

Wish us well!

I am convinced that this global issue is of utmost importance and requires immediate action.  My response starts with creating a vision for a science leadership academy on the theme of global sustainability. We need all hands on deck and I cannot think of a better way to reach people than by inspiring and empowering the next generation of leaders.

In my ideal school, students select a real world challenge to solve.  Each teacher is trained in both Covey’s Principle-Centered Leadership and Appreciative Inquiry methods.  Teachers facilitate student growth (completely personalized education) by encouraging students to seek positive personal change, assess their strengths, create visions for their future, “sharpen their saws,” access community resources and establish working relationships with professional mentors in their local community.

Will you partner with me to turn this vision into a reality?

Related links:

Career Academy Support Network

Appreciative Inquiry

Covey’s Principle-Based Leadership for Schools

Playing for Change.

“What has become clear to you since last we met?” – attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

We had our second meeting on Wednesday, March 28 at 7:30 before school began. With the pressure of school beginning at 7:50, it rapidly became clear that we have much to do just in terms of building effective group dynamics. We spent the majority of the time reiterating what had transpired at the last meeting to a critical team member. That was important work, but could have been done prior to the meeting. First lesson learned. We need to establish group norms that will bring everyone to the meeting operating from the same page.

The meeting was attended by five members, but as the majority of the time was spent in a dialogue between two people, I could see some frustration building. There was very little time leftover to check in with the other team members. Second lesson learned. We need to establish a group norm that will allow each of us to speak briefly on our latest activities, prior to any review of the meeting agenda.

As before-school activities limited our time to meet, we felt the time pressure. It will be important to have a timekeeper to keep track of time. Third lesson learned.

Given these three lessons, I’ll be asking my group to agree to the following group norms.

1. We will start on time and finish on time.
2. We will attend all meetings. If we cannot make a meeting, we will read the minutes and ask for clarification prior to the next meeting.
3. We will have a check-in at every meeting to allow each member to report on any new thoughts, connections made or other relevant activities.
4. We will assign a timekeeper to help keep us focused and moving on our agenda items.

Beyond these practical items, my thoughts have been influence by my reading of snippets from Kouzes & Posner’s classic book on leadership, The Leadership Challenge. I’m on chapter 3, Clarify Values, which is the first step in a multi-step process of leadership. They name two essentials to the process of clarification, which I paraphrase:

• Find your own personal voice
• Affirm shared values with your group

Kouzes & Posner point out that groups whose members are committed to the group’s vision and mission are much more successful in achieving their goals than groups that are not.

So my question has become, “What process will allow our group’s individual members to reflect on and share their values in a way that builds group integrity and commitment to our common goals, mission and vision?”

My first thought is that I need to obtain everyone’s buy-in that such a process is vitally important. It has been my observation that anything that smacks of vision and mission statements in the public school setting is met with resistance from years of overuse. Nevertheless, I believe I can frame the process in a way that reveals the value of such work and motivates the team to participate.

I’ll post more along these lines as this process unfolds.

“What will you do with your one wild and precious life?”  – Mary Oliver, from the poem, “The Summer Day”

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”  – Margaret Mead

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
- attributed to Goethe

Beginnings

We’ve begun.  Today is the second meeting of a global education workgroup at Gravelly Hill Middle School in Efland, NC.

Our first meeting on March 4, 2009, was designed to assess the level of interest in global education.  In attendance was my principal, two language teachers (Spanish and French), a 7th grade social studies teacher and myself.  Our district technology director has expressed an interest, but was not able to make the first meeting.

Our goal was to share our initial ideas on global education and brainstormed for the next steps.  To get us started we looked at the following:

1. An example of a mature international schools program:  International School Partnerships Program from the Center for International Understanding at UNC.
2. An example of a global service learning  project:  The Global Run Project

A question arose:  How shall we begin?  The writings of Cool Cat Teacher on her experience starting the Flat Classroom Project with Julie Lindsay provided some initial guidance.  We believe it is important to identify, make contact and establish a long-term connection with another teacher or school first, before we connect our students.

Our initial answer to establish a sustainable connection is to use the shotgun approach, which in our case would be to collect emails to as many potential contacts as possible.  We’ll be compiling our potential contacts in a google spreadsheet.

The intention of this blog series

I’ll be recording the progress of our group after every group meeting by reflecting on our process in this series of blog articles.