Design Thinking / Innovation / Innovation / Inspiration / Leadership / Learning / Project Management / Space Configurations / Strategic Planning / Teamwork / The K12 School Experience in America Posted on:

Designing A Better World

In August 2019, over 2,200 schools will open doors to students in the state of Georgia. A small number of those schools will be brand new. None like this. Mount Vernon Presbyterian School opens the doors to a brand new Upper School (Grades 9-12) building after a year of construction and years of planning, dreaming, and designing. The building is the physical expression of the School’s mission and vision; innovative, flexible, and relational. Everything is on castors. All desks are stackable and nest-able. Writable walls move up and down allowing disciplinary classes to combine and become interdisciplinary or trans-disciplinary. Smart […]

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Learning / student led conferences Posted on:

Every Kid Is Worth a Conversation

Dear Upper School Families, On Wednesday, October 25, all students in Grades 9-12 are invited to lead a 25-minute conference with their advisor and parent(s). Students will share their goals, present demonstrations of learning, identify curiosities and strengths, and seek feedback to support and challenge their progress. Through this experience, we desire students to: Take ownership of their learning Develop deeper relationships between advisor and parent(s) Demonstrate skills of communication, reflection, and feedback Discover the value of: setting a goal sharing specific demonstrations of learning deep learning beyond alpha-numeric grades student choice and the pursuit of curiosities through iProject measuring […]

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Collaborative Team Teaching / Teamwork Posted on:

Collaborative Team Teaching

Collaborative Team Teaching Amy Choi and Pam Ambler presented a compelling and highly useful workshop for team teaching pairs on the first day of pre-planning. As the Upper School scales collaborative team teaching up from Humanities 9 to Humanities 10 and several new inter/multi-disciplinary courses this year, the models and tools they provided will be key to our success. This workshop was the result of a grant that included elements of design thinking. Resources: Collaborative Team Teaching: Challenges and Rewards Team Teaching: Advantages and Disadvantages Team Teaching Benefits and Challenges

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eportfolio Posted on:

3 Tips to Take ePortfolios to the Next Level

If we expect ePortfolios to be effective tools for measuring learning… If we expect ePortfolios to enhance (or replace) a single numerical grade on a report card as a means of monitoring progress… …then we must continue to research, iterate, and implement them with students. Here are 3 tips to take ePortfolios to the next level of effectiveness. 1. Show Before and After Advisors should help students design demos that show before and after. Compare two or more pieces of work over time. Don’t just upload a picture or write unbroken paragraphs of endless text. Tell a story that visibly […]

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21st Century MV Mindsets / Badging / Differentiated Instruction / Learning Measures / Learning Outcomes / PBL: Passion Based Learning Posted on:

Introducing Faculty Badges: Winter Edition 2017

Today was the grand unveiling of the new suite of badges designed for faculty by Amy Wilkes and Katie Cain. Like a kid at Christmas, I still get excited when new badges are designed and introduced. These badges are only available through the end of April, so don’t let them pass by you. Remember, a badge has six elements to its design. Although the artwork is often the most visible and appealing aspect of a badge, it is only 1/6 of the design. Like a quarterback who gets all the credit when a team wins, the artwork can overshadow the […]

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Learning / student led conferences Posted on:

Student Led Conferences – Year Two

Observing Faculty Reflection VTR Wins – 94% of families participated – SLCs are scaling to Lower and Upper School – I participated in 21 conferences, seeing all but 2 advisors. – I observed teachers giving feedback on goals, badges, and student behavior. – I learned a lot more about specific students. – Teachers contributed to the experience in new and helpful ways. – I saw evidence of group work, but grading on individual mastery of outcomes. Areas for Growth – Despite exhaustive communication, I still observed several students who had not shared “permission to view” in their google doc demonstrations. […]

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Design Thinking / Empathy / MVIFI Posted on:

Pre-Planning Recap: Day 3

Today, Middle School teachers had the pleasure of working with Meg Cureton on a design thinking flash lab centered around making connections with one another. Connections: Design Thinking Flash Lab Part of the flash lab included these two excellent videos (we may have skipped the second one, actually, be we’ve used it before and it’s really good). Get Things Done We had a few hours to get some things done on our own and grab some lunch. Then, we followed up on our morning flash lab with some creative time in the Studio(i) maker space. We took our low-res prototypes and turned […]

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eportfolio / Visible Thinking Routines / XLR8 Summer Grants Posted on:

Pre-Planning Recap: Day 2

Today was a robust, action-packed day #2 of pre-planning. Front-loading and launching the key initiatives for the upcoming semester, communicating the basic “housekeeping” items, duties + red binders (Thank you Mel), preparing for R & D teams (Thank you Angél), and getting CPR (re)-certified (Thank you Anne-Brown and Patsy). Here are the slide presentations for Advisory (Thank you Max and Tasha), Visible Thinking (Thank you Ann and Charles), and Eportfolios (Thank you Katie).  

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Badging / Community / Reflective Practice Posted on:

The Blogger Challenge

The Blogger Challenge concludes today. A challenge was issued and 18 daring educators answered the call. Some had never blogged before. A few had blogs, but had not written and reflected in a while. Others never stopped. Some of the cool things about this blogger challenge was that it was a) voluntary b) during the summer c) badge related d) cross divisional Feedback from the Bloggers… “What fun the blogging challenge was, it was my first time participating in an all school activity. Thank you for the opportunity it’s been fantastic!” “What a fun ride! I am challenging myself to keep […]

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Design Thinking / Fuse15 Conference Posted on:

Love Beyond Walls

Love Beyond Walls I spent today working with the coolest group of educators (yea – team red!) for the coolest non-profit in Atlanta, Love Beyond Walls. Our Fuse Commander Meghan Cureton was flawless and demonstrated exceptional leadership throughout the entire process. On day two of #Fuse16, we collaborated in teams of 5-6 to understand and solve for the needs of Love Beyond Walls founder Terrence using the DEEP design thinking process. We used many of the design thinking playbook tools including MoVe Man… We met…Terrence. A passionate visionary committed to building relationships and provide both relief and development to those in […]

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