First off, I know I've been gone a long time. I have been at home with my 6 month old son and completely out of the loop. At least I was, Educon changed that.
Now I know I'm fairly new in the edublogosphere. I also know that I'm fairly new to school reform. My hope is that those 2 things are connected because the only place that I'm really hearing anything about true change, systemic change, is online. That changed when I went to Philly last weekend and spent three days with the students and teachers at the Science Leadership Academy. That school has it figured out and Chris Lehman was nice enough to allow us to all come see his inspired creation and then let us hang out for a couple days and argue ways of change.
This was the first conference I've ever been to where every session (well, almost every session, not everyone got it) was a discussion about how to really change schools. The discussions ranged from how we communicate with kids in class to how we interact collaboratively outside the four walls to here is our action plan to let the world know great things can be done.
4 days later and my mind is still buzzing with what I can do in my online courses while at the same time stewing with how to reform our school. Step one is to take action using the strategic ideas of Zac Chase and our small discussion group. Anyone doing anything special with your students that is a slap to the face of traditional education, please take some of these baby steps.
