Fiona On Fulbright 2014: October 2014

Monday 20 October 2014

Articles in the local "Indiana Daily Student" newspaper

The local student newspaper is interviewing all of the Fulbright Distinguished Award teachers. Below are the links to the articles about people from New Zealand (me), Finland, Singapore, Morocco and India.

Fiona Jeffries, New Zealand.
http://www.idsnews.com/article/2014/10/a-qa-with-fulbright-distinguished-award-in-teachin-g-program-winner-fiona-jeffries

Petteri Granat, Finland
http://www.idsnews.com/article/2014/10/qa-with-fulbright-distinguished-award-in-teaching-program-winner-petteri-granat

Mohana Ratnam, Singapore
http://www.idsnews.com/article/2014/10/qa-with-fulbright-winner-mohana-ratnam

Christine Sim, Singapore
http://www.idsnews.com/article/2014/10/qa-with-fulbright-distinguished-teacher-christine-sim

Sutapa Mukund, New Zealand
http://www.idsnews.com/article/2014/10/qa-with-fulbright-distinguished-teacher-sutapa-mukund

Taina Wewer, Finland
http://www.idsnews.com/article/2014/10/qa-with-fulbright-distinguished-award-in-teaching-program-winner-taina-wewer

Remya Iyer Parameshwar, India
http://www.idsnews.com/article/2014/10/qa-with-fulbright-distinguished-teacher-remya-iyer

Sanaa Hissame, Morocco
http://www.idsnews.com/article/2014/10/qa-with-fulbright-distinguished-teacher-sanaa-hissame

Thursday 9 October 2014

Columbus Signature Academy High School -- A Project Based Learning Secondary School

This school is led by the Principal, Mike Reed (who incidentally, would love to get an invitation to come to New Zealand to talk about his school and this type of learning ... and then fit in seeing the sights of course. :-) ) This school is a New Tech Network school and is based on using 21st century skills. The training was done in Napa Valley. The school is based on the skills valued by industry -- being tech-rich, having a collaborative environment and having the skills of agency, being able to discuss, communicate and negotiate. The philosophy is to use authentic projects to solve authentic problems. The school opened with 100 Freshmen, and added 100 each year. (Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, Senior.) There are 400 in this school, as opposed to 2100 in Columbus North and 1600 in East High School. This is classed as a Magnet school; students have a home school of East or South, but they do most of their classes at CSA, and only go to their home school for things not offered at CSA such as sports teams, high level French and music. This way they can be in sports teams and band in the other schools.

New Tech schools have been driven by economic development. To attract business to a town, you need to have good schools. The town of Columbus is the base of Cummins Diesel Engineering Company and as such the town has more engineers per capita than any other town in the US. The school has a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) focus, but not all go on to do engineering. They use Project Lead the Way as the basis of their learning. All projects are applied using science and maths and using a problem solving process. Many of the courses are integrated. For example, Probability and Statistics is integrated with English in a course called Social Justice. It looks at how data is used and decisions are made.

Like the other Signature Academy schools, it is representative of the community and must have students who are entitled to texts and lunch being provided by the state, it must have Special Ed students and also English as New Language (ENL) learners as well. Their study hall is called an Ac. Lab (Academic Lab). The corridor is the "Collaborador" where students get together to work on their projects. No bells are used in this school and students have a five minute 'passing period' to get from one class to the next. Students here are also required to do 100 hours of community service to graduate. (North High School requires 10 hours of community service.)

There is a consensus model of decision making. Students are involved in the timetable making process, as are the staff. It is not just done by an administrator. Students are always on interview committees when new staff are appointed. The transition to this type of learning can be tricky for new students. They need to ask questions, analyze an issue, not wait to be told by a teacher. Students learn to advocate for themselves, to problem solve and to find answers. In saying all this, Mike was realistic that he is dealing with teenagers and there have been some suspensions of students in the time he has been there; generally for second offense substance abuse and continued defiance.

No complaints if you wear a bow tie.

And, you can wear what you like to school.

Columbus Signature Academy, Fodrea -- A Project Based Learning School in Columbus, Indiana

We went out to Columbus, Indiana to visit an elementary school and a high school that does all their learning through Project Based Learning. Columbus Signature Academy is led by Dr Diane Clancy. All of the teachers are called 'facilitators' - students will talk about their 'facilitators' and the term 'teachers' isn't used. Their mission is to prepare socially engaged citizens who excel in an information and technology rich society. Here, students are empowered to seek answers and create solutions. There is a ballot system to get into this school, but the school must be representative of the local community so it is not all capable learners and high socioeconomic families who are represented. All have made a choice to be there, however.

BYOD started this year, but they also have in class a 2:1 ratio of Netbooks for grades 1 and 2 and all students from Grade 3 up have their own Netbook. Projects are chosen based on the interest of the students. Students have voice and choice in what is being learned, yet the state standards are included in all projects. Students are engaged in the learning because they are involved in the brainstorming of ideas, the voting on an idea and they then work in groups to carry out parts of the project they have selected to be involved in. Students do well in State Standardized tests because they have an authentic memory of doing a skill.

As part of the PBL, students have 'stations' in their classes that are literacy and numeracy based. All groups are heterogeneous, except their reading groups and their maths groups. For these stations, teachers differentiate the work according to the ability levels of the students. The morning stations are usually Maths and Language Arts focused and the afternoon stations are Social Studies and Science based. Facilitators plan the stations with a co-teacher, and students complete the stations in both classes. The school has been purpose built so that there is a large door that allows access between two classes. Every two days, new stations are presented to the students.

The up side is that students are highly engaged, become more confident, enjoy their learning and are doing well in State testing. There is no bullying; there is a culture of support and empathy for others. Students are eager to learn and see success. The only down side that I saw was that teachers are spending huge hours in their jobs. Some reported being at school at 7.30am and working until 10pm. I know dedication to your job is important, but it seems these teachers don't have a life outside of school. One even spoke about her buddy facilitator becoming her best friend and they catch up in the weekends. Teachers don't get paid well in the US, so to be working lawyers' hours and to get teachers' pay somehow doesn't sit well with me. Also, what about teachers own families? Great for the students, but just some red flags raised in my thinking.

An early start, after a late night.

The library is the hub of the school; not a separate room.

Lots of writing being done.

Coming up with ideas for the next project. (Grade 2.)

All classes have Smart Boards

Bloomington Graduation School

Bloomington Graduation School is an alternative high school. Students who for academic, social or personal reasons decide not to go to High School North or High School South, go to Graduation School to finish high school. When students talk about reasons that they like this school, they all mention that they like the small classes; and indeed they are small with fewer than ten students in each class I visited.

The students are really friendly and open to talk to me. I have been visiting the English class of Becky Rupert who has been doing a unit on "Literacy in our Lives" with the students. In short, they use a planning sheet to map out all the areas in their lives where they use literacy. They explain the type of literacy skills they use in each area and why this is important to them and their personal identity. Using an iPad, they then create a movie of their life and the literacy involved in it.

Many students here want to graduate early, so they have the ability to work ahead at their own pace if they finish a unit of work.

Monday 6 October 2014

Bloomington High School North and Hoosier Hills Career Center

Bloomington High School North is my home base school and I go there once a week. I am linked to a teacher named Angie Cannon who is positive, provides lots of choice and really has a heart for the students she teaches. She grew up in the area and has a real understanding of what some of her students have lived through. There are many things I like about Angie's class and the way she teaches, and one thing is that her students aren't in rows that face a whiteboard at the front. Yes there are rows, but they are perpendicular to the front and the students face each other.

One class she takes is called Young Adult Literature. Students have the option of about ten novels, based loosely around a theme, and they select their own novel to read. There is a variety of ability levels in the mix. Before they select a novel, students use the internet, or the school library system, and search for reviews on all of the books. Having read each review and made a statement as to why, or why not, this book would appeal to them, students then make a book selection. As part of the reading process there is work on character development, theme, setting etc, but students work together in small book groups, based on the book they have chosen.

The other interesting thing about this high school is that it has Hoosier Hills Career Center attached to it. This is a vocational school that is physically linked to the school by means of being on the site and under the same roof, however it provides a range of different classes. Students can take these classes and gain credits towards their High School Diploma. Some of the classes are Fire Science, Auto Body Repair, Engine Shop, Child Care Training, Weight Lifting class, Culinary Arts (which has a proper commercial kitchen), Drama (with its own theatre), Carpentry/Building Shop (where they do projects in the community under the supervision of their teacher), Nutrition and Wellness (much like Home Ec.), Ceramics, Lead Lighting etc. Below are some pictures of the facilities in the school.