Don’t force your child to fit in at school. Find a school to fit your child.

Anyone who has or works with children knows that we have a huge crises in education and it has nothing to do with test scores. Our students are literally bored to tears in disconnected schools that kill their creativity, force them to power down as soon as they pass through the school doors and are completely disconnected from their passions, talents, and interests. In many cases these are students who are bright and gifted but struggling in school in some cases to the point of being medicated (see highlighted portion of previous link) so that they can survive the day and fit into an environment they find boring and/or irrelevant. Sadly in many cases rather than fix the boring schools, we try to fix the bored child. This often leaves parents in deep despair and children and teachers frustrated and feeling stuck in their situation accepting this as “the way things are.”

But, it doesn’t have to be this way. There is help. There is a solution. And, it’s a little out of the box.

Get your child to a school that fits him or her…however you can. This is not as difficult as it may sound at first blush. There is a growing recognition that many schools are outdated relics from the past that sit awkwardly in a 21st century world. In response to this, there are pockets of educators, schools, even systems around the world that are rising up to the challenge of educating the 21st century child rather than the current industrial model of education that is pervasive in most schools. In fact a new batch of schools has just cropped up in New York City designed specifically for students who have zoned out in the traditional system.

The iZone schools have been specifically developed to challenge the following assumptions about current practice:

• Schools are comprised of similarly-operated classroom units in which one adult delivers content to a room of between 12 and 34 students, for a set number of minutes per day and days per year
• Adults dictate a course of study to children, who receive and process information for adults to evaluate
• As part of one job, teachers manage classroom organizations; research and deliver content; differentiate the course of study according to student needs; assess performance; and deliver feedback
• Special education students are best grouped and planned for according to class size requirements

These schools recognize the problem which they define as such.

• Since 2002, the number of New York City students graduating from high school has increased every year, and more students than ever before are headed to college. The fact that a full third of our youth still do not graduate from high school, however, is a call to action. And that of those who enroll in college, only 50% graduate from four year colleges within six years and only 28% graduate from associate programs within the same time frame, is a call to change. (Statistics are from public school graduates who enroll in CUNY colleges)
• Today’s schools are structured for an industrial model that is increasing obsolete to the 21st century knowledge economy where students will spend their working lives. The foundation of education has in many ways remained unchanged in that it assumes that information and skills must be provided only by adults who are physically in the same room as learners, performing jobs defined in the 19th century, on a notably rigid and brief daily schedule ]
• In today’s schools, students are grouped in ways that do not maximize the potential of each and every student to personalize their learning.

The schools strive to address the problem with this powerful vision.

• Transform our schools from a traditional, industrial model to one that reflects and embodies 21st century skills, tools, and experiences, so that our students graduate ready for success in college and in the workforce, regardless of race, language or socioeconomic background.
• Personalize each student’s learning experience to meet their diverse and individual needs to the maximum feasible extent.

The Innovation Zone has adopted an approach of launching schools that embody a set of innovations that can be evaluated for scaling potential. The core innovations are:

• Expand student learning time, stretching the school day and the school year without adding teacher work time
• Optimize a match between individual student learning needs, learning modalities, content and instructional resources through an algorithmic engine
• Blend distance and online coursework modules and personalized learning management systems into a brick and mortar environment in ways that allow students to differentiate their pace of learning
• Apply gaming theory to standards-based content, creating challenge-based curriculum and an instant feedback and assessment loop
• Create job embedded teacher teams as a vehicle for teacher organization and adult learning

If you're reading this and wondering how many thousands of dollars need to be dished out for parents to send their children to such schools, the answer is not a cent. In fact, schools like these have innovative leaders at the helm who believe that the fundamental right of children and responsibility of public education is to provide every child with the opportunity to attend the best schools. These leaders believe that in fact regardless of background or SES You Can Get a Dalton Education at a NYC Public School.

If you are curious What a 21st Century School Might Look Like here is a sampling of the iZone schools. You can see videos about each school here.

• Quest to Learn - Design and innovation are at the heart of Quest to Learn (Q2L), a school committed to helping every student to achieve excellence in the skills and literacies necessary for college and career readiness. The school believe that students today can and do learn in different ways, often through interaction with digital media and games. Q2L builds on this belief to create a nurturing and vibrant 6th-12th grade school environment that supports all students in the pursuit of academic excellence, social responsibility, respect for others, and a passion for lifelong learning.
• iSchool - The NYC iSchool has taken a problem-based learning approach to education. Teachers collaborate on thought provoking topics to integrate into the classroom while ensuring they still meet state mandated subjects and testing standards. Students learn in the context of real world problems, and just like the real world, they have access to a host of technology and information anytime, anywhere, and from anyplace. The NYC iSchool is leading the way in creating a culture in education that truly engages students with successful results.
• The Cinema School - The Cinema School is an academic high school that prepares students for top level colleges through a liberal arts education grounded in creative activity. They emphasize filmmaking because it deepens students’ learning while building confidence, responsibility and leadership. Our curriculum helps students become stronger thinkers and develop the skills needed to accomplish great things. Admission to The Cinema School is competitive no film making experience necessary.
• The School of One - The mission of School of One is to provide students with personalized, effective, and dynamic classroom instruction so that teachers have more time to focus on the quality of their instruction. To achieve this mission, School of One re-imagines the traditional classroom model. Instead of one teacher and 25-30 students in a classroom, each student participates in multiple instructional modalities, including a combination of teacher-led instruction, one-on-one tutoring, independent learning, and work with virtual tutors. To organize this type of learning, each student receives a unique daily schedule based on his or her academic strengths and needs. As a result, students within the same school or even the same classroom can receive profoundly different instruction as each student’s schedule is tailored to the skills they need and the ways they best learn. Teachers acquire data about student achievement each day and then adapt their live instructional lessons accordingly.

There are schools like these cropping up around the globe. Parents, students, and educators need to start voting with their feet, not as they are currently doing by leaving the school system with high school drop out rates above 50% in many cities, but by investigating what schools will suit the needs of their 21st century learning and teaching styles and then figuring out how to attend or work in such environments. The schools are hungry for innovative educators and students who will thrive in these new environments. Now parents, go find the right school for your child and teachers who are frustrated by their outdated employment situation, start connecting with these school leaders. They're looking for you.

You have read this article ADD cure / ADHD Cure / ADHD Treatment / high school drop out rates / iSchool / iZone / School of One with the title School of One. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2009/12/dont-force-your-child-to-fit-in-at.html. Thanks!

5 Innovative Ways to Differentiate Instruction as Witnessed During My Visit to the School of One

Innovative educators often tout the ways they differentiate instruction explaining how technology enables them to address the needs of diverse learners and learning styles, yet, when I visit classrooms, I usually see all students working on the same lessons using the same tools. For example, educators talk about how they use Smartboards to differentiate instruction for Tactile learners, podcasts for auditory learners, digital media for visual learners, etc., but when I visit schools the whole class is using a particular tool. While a teacher may incorporate a number of different technologies, they are not differentiating instruction based on the learner.

I was relieved last year when I began working with Renzulli Learning. After exploring the tool I was convinced I had landed upon a resource that was a true differentiation machine. Renzulli allows teachers to determine student’s learning styles, interests, abilities, and expression styles and then group them based on this information and find activities aligned to their profile. One of the true powers of this tool is its ability to instantly group students and assign lessons to them based on their profile. Sadly when I visited schools using Renzulli I NEVER saw evidence of teachers using the tool to differentiate instruction. Instead, Renzulli was used just as the other tools. All students were assigned a particular project that they searched for by using the tool as a kid-friendly Google and instruction was not differentiated.

So, what is the problem? We know technology can be used to differentiate instruction and hundreds of schools in my city alone had a tool uniquely designed to support this work. I think the problem is at least two-fold.

1) Educators don’t have a proper pedagogical foundation in what it means to differentiate instruction…this needs to be addressed.

2) Educators have few opportunities to see instructional models where differentiated instruction is implemented…until now.

During my recent learning walk at the School of One, I found differentiating instruction is not just a term, it is the way the school does business and there are many lessons that can be learned from visiting the school.

1. Using Renzulli Learning as a Differentiation Machine

At the School of One each child completes a Renzulli Learning profile. The profile is shared with the student’s teacher and family whose input they also elicit. Each student’s unique profile indicates how they like to learn (i.e. games, discussion, independent), their interests (i.e. athletics, technology, performing arts), and their learning styles (artistic, audio visual displays, technology). Students are then tagged by their profile. When providing lessons (known as playlists selections at the school) to their students, they are uniquely matched to the students learning profile. Students are grouped for lessons by profile which means that they may receive individual, small group, peer, or whole group instruction based on matching students with similar learning profiles. The Renzulli System has this functionality built in, and you see it in action at the School of One.

Schools with out the Renzulli Learning System can implement this type of functionality by using a digital survey tool such as SurveyMonkey or Google forms to students to determine students learning profiles and match students to each other and activities that reflect their learning profile.

2. Using Data to Differentiate Instruction

The School of One compiles the various data sets on each student (i.e. standardized tests, interim, and ongoing assessments) to design instruction directly aligned to the students need based on performance indicators. This data is used to create a unique learning needs assessment profile for each student outlining areas of strength and weakness.

3. Tagging Lessons to Allow for Differentiation

Lessons are compiled that are aligned to each performance indicators and then tagged to various learning profile selections so they can be matched to learners in need and learning profile. In another words lessons are tagged not only by the performance indicator they are aligned to, but also, by learning profile attributes such as expression style, interest, learning style. This is done by placing lessons in a shared space where teachers can access them. Schools can used a shared drive or a wiki to do this, but what would be even better is if organizations (i.e. Curriki) with large lesson banks did this and provided this service free for educators. Renzulli does this in part, but you must pay for the service.

4. Using Space to Support Differentiated Instruction

At the School of One they are thinking differently about the use of space and have converted the school library into a flexible learning center. Teachers can do the same within their classrooms, and by collaborating with other educators in the school. The learning center has areas for students to work independently, with peers, in small groups, and as a whole group. At any given time there are many learning scenarios occurring based on the students unique learning profile and needs. Classrooms can be designed differently to account for such flexible grouping and collaboration with others in the school such as the librarian, art teacher, music teacher, etc. can also be incorporated so that there are individual, peer, and small group areas that teachers could reserve.

I found this great tool courtesy of a Tweet from @altteacher. "Design your classroom using this cool classroom setup tool. Teachers may want to consider bringing students into the conversation and letting teams of them design the classroom for optimum learning. This could be turned into a contest and the team with the winning design gets to setup the class. Teachers might even want to get the community involved.

5. Differentiating Instruction by Connecting with a Variety of Learning Providers

Differentiating instruction means saying goodbye to a one-size-fits (or provides success for) all curriculum. In a differentiated model lessons are aligned specifically to data, standards, performance indicators and student learning profiles. This can take on a variety forms. At the School of One there are opportunities such as educational games, online coursework from providers like Apex and Compass Learning, teacher-created lessons, materials from various textbook providers, individual and peer tutoring from expert high school students and online tutors, and more. An innovative idea would also be to add student-created materials to this list. This can be a terrific way for students to convey mastery…once they learn something they create a game, video, lesson, etc. to teach others.

My learning walk at the School of One provided a refreshing opportunity to see a school put many promising practices in place to result in a uniquely differentiated experience for each child.

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End of the Year Reflection from the School of One Program Director

From: Rose Joel

Sent: Sat 8/8/2009 12:58 AM

Subject: School of One Pilot Update

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As our School of One summer pilot winds down this week, I’d like to share with you a brief summary of what has been an exciting, challenging, and hugely successful effort.

A few headlines:

1) The program has received some terrific coverage in the media, with articles in the New York TimesForbes. ABC News, NBC News, and PBS all sent producers to take footage for future broadcasts while the local TV and newspapers ran stories. We’ve also seen some insightful blog posts —here, here, here, here, and here – as well as this one that I think best captures the teacher experience. and

2) Over the past month, more than 200 people visited School of One, including Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein (who made several visits throughout the summer). Our visitors included political leaders, state and district administrators, school principals, teachers, academics, business leaders, and philanthropists all committed to educational innovation.

3) We were thrilled by the enthusiastic response from students and their parents. Our average daily student attendance exceeded 90% (a high number for a voluntary summer program) and more than 50% of parents attended our parent event (normally the school has a 10% participation rate).

4) Principal Phyllis Tam and her pioneering team of math teachers, with whom we worked this summer at MS 131, told us they want their school to be part of our school year rollout. .

Of course the most meaningful results relate to student outcomes. In the coming weeks, our team will carefully analyze the huge volume of data produced during the pilot and will work with our independent evaluators to examine how the summer’s outcomes related to our goals and objectives. We will then return to R&D mode where we will prepare to open again this coming January in three NYC schools.

If you didn’t get a chance to visit school of one, please visit our website where you can read a program description, watch a video that describes School of One, and watch a video about our summer pilot. You can also follow us on Facebook by becoming a fan of School of One.

We are grateful to all of our sponsors and partners and look forward to expanding our network of supporters for the next phase of our growth. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions about the project and how you can be involved.

Joel

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A Truly Differentiated Education at The School of One in Manhattan

Today, principals were invited to join the Manhattan Office of Instructional Technology on a learning walk at the School of One at M.S. 131 in Manhattan. The school is pioneering a new way to learn in school by implementing an approach to truly provide differentiated instruction each day for each students by creating individualized daily plans (Playlists) for each student based on student assessments, individualized learning styles, interests, expressions, abilities, and more. When students enter school their schedule is posted on a digital display (think flight schedule screen at the airport) and this schedule is based on their assessments from the previous day using an assessment algorithm. Every day, students study skills from their personalized Playlist and then take a Playlist Update (assessment) at the end of each of day. The next day they receive a new and different schedule. Student classes take place in the School of One Mission Room that has been created in the school library.

Manhattan principals are fortunate to be invited to visits to innovative schools throughout the year. Our visit was certainly a timely one as the day of our visit, the school was featured in The New York Times Education Article: Laptop? Check. Student Playlist? Check. Classroom of the Future? Check by JENNIFER MEDINA.

To learn more about the School of One, download the School of One Student Handbook.ppt

You have read this article 21st Century Education / 21st Century Schools / School of One with the title School of One. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2009/07/a-truly-differentiated-education-at.html. Thanks!