The Birth of Queen Anne Elementary
Observations of QAE workshop with Bruce Dixon, June 2010
By Suzi Levine
Witnessing the birth of a school is a unique and incredible opportunity. Participating or contributing to that genesis is even more rare and special. But like the gestation of an elephant, the process leading up to the actual delivery will take long – about eighteen months – will go through many ups and downs and requires a ton (literally) of nourishment along the way.
The Queen Anne Elementary Design team and Principal David Elliott kicked things off in Dec/Jan and have been working ridiculously hard to hit various milestones thus far. The most important one of which was hiring the educators/professional staff.
On June 9 and 10, I had the pleasure of joining that staff on the first day of a 2-day workshop to come together, bond, and envision what this school could be. Over the two days, Bruce Dixon worked with them to provoke their thinking, present them with resources and equip them with questions to help start the process of creating our new school.
Below are the high level sections and some comments/observations throughout that day. I’m not going to share their specific answers because those are their stories and because, in three years, I don’t want anyone saying “but three years ago, you said you envisioned it looking like this and it’s not exactly like that!” Also – this is the first step in their overall discussions – and, again – is not the definitive discussion. As Katie Cryan Leary, the 1st and 2nd grade teacher (and a mom of an incoming Kindergartner) said: “Our work with Bruce was our first step as a staff into the work ahead – a time filled with Bruce taking thought-provoking jabs at the assumptions we all hold close and challenging us to consider innovative ways to help our students exceed our standards.”
My key takeaways to share with you – whether you already are signed up or are wondering if you should be – are:
1) David has assembled an extraordinary set of teachers who are creative, passionate and deeply invested in the success of the students and this school. No one is going to have to worry about which class their kid is going to get. In fact, the talent in this group compares with the best schools around the globe.
2) The openness to different models, ideas and structures that the group shared bodes extremely well for the innovation and success this school will have in creating 21st century learners – instead of industrial era learners with a very frontal teaching model.
3) While this school will be using “technology” – the team shaping the school has its priorities straight in recognizing that technology is merely helping unleash the creativity of the teacher and engaging the students. It still all comes down to the teacher quality and student engagement.
Fundamentally – I couldn’t be more thrilled to send my daughter to this school and to be a part of this incredible journey. If I had to be stuck on a desert island with a group of educators and could select them in advance – this is the group I’d choose.
What follows are descriptions, observations and comments from the different sections of the day.
Introduction
Bruce Dixon, the consultant, asked us to introduce ourselves and share our best and worst school experiences. After we were done, he pointed out commonalities among our stories – but also pointed out that these are the same ones as every group he leads. Specifically:
o The best teachers trusted you to know/allow you to do what you did well.
Kids will naturally do the challenging, engaging work. But there isn't a draw
on that fact. He never hears that people "love tests"
o Almost universal that best experiences are in elementary and worst
are as we get older. Stunning that we get so much right in elementary,
astounding that we don't do that again in the later grades
o The Element - about "being in your element" and identifying your talent.
What is your talent - and then the rest is about nurturing it.
"Find what you're good at and stick to it.” What is your potential
Fundamentally: Should learn from our stories and NOT teach the way we were taught. Instead - learn from how we were taught and change it around.
Exploring more of what’s out there and why/how technology can help
He then showed the following videos/websites to show how kids are using technology – but also showing that they are using tech as a medium to get feedback and not perfecting their work first
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuFsDN8dsJU
(this boy is now 11, I believe)
o http://cooktimewithremmi.com/index.aspx
(this girl is 8 – okay – a bit precocious, but still….)
We also talked about the different school models – why some work today that didn’t work in the 70s
We also talked about the new model where people are both producers and consumers of media today.
The best thing we can do is help the kids have a conversation about technology usage – e.g., social media usage.
o e.g.: have a discussion around myths/truths that are out there such as:
"There is a difference in how GenY are wired. They can grasp technology
more quickly and are able to effectively multi-task."
In addition- used a quote from George Siemens regarding how to reposition the technology available to us as we think about its use in schools (again – note that this isn’t a treatise or indicative of what will be decided within the school –it was simply content provided by Bruce to get the group thinking)
- Forget blogs, think open dialogue
- Forget wikis think collaboration
- Forget podcasts, think democracy of voice…
- Forget RSS Aggregation … think personal networks
- Forget any of the tools… and think instead of the fundament
- George Siemens Blog - http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/
After lunch, we did a series of envisioning exercises that I thought would be another basis of excellent discussion among the parents. (caveat – this is not to say that we are starting a parent discussion group on this based on the offsite. However, it’s definitely thought-provoking and, in the future, could provide substance for a dialogue). They included asking these questions:
o Describe the student experience at QAE (as you would hope to see it)
three years from now. Imagine and describe a typical week.
§ What is the experience a student might have over that time
§ What was the highlight of that week for the student
o Additional questions
§ Where and when does learning take place - examples?
§ Who determines what they are learning and how?
§ How are the students aware of their progress?
§ Why do students want to come to QAE? What differentiates it from
other elementary schools in Seattle?
§ What is it that students most complain about?
After doing the teacher experience equivalent, he moved on to:
o Describe the parent experience at QAE as you would like to see it
3 years from now
§ What is the single biggest reason parents decided to send their
children to QAE?
§ What is the single biggest reason parents decided NOT
to send their children to QAE?
o How do parents know how their children are progressing?
He then did Standout Ideas:
o 3 years time – what is the standout idea at QAE that the district office
would want other schools to consider adopting?
o Fill in the blank: Queen Anne Elementary is a _____________ School
o What was the focus on the last public media story….
Lastly – he finished with the dilemma of schools:
· The skills (in life and business) that are easiest to teach and test are also the ones that are easiest to digitize, automate and outsource
o OECD defining and emphasizing that the skills for the 21st century are:
§ Great collaborators and orchestrators
§ The great synthesizers
§ The great explainers
§ The great versatilists - who can take their knowledge
and apply it elsewhere
§ The great personalizers - communications with others -
interpersonal skills
§ The great localisers - localizing the global.
Fundamentally - "if moral purpose is front and center, the remaining seven drivers become additional forces …."
I can’t thank the staff enough for the honor of participating in this and in contributing ideas to their potent brew.
