You’re a teacher. Have you ever wanted to make a major change in the way schools work?
Do bears defecate in the woods?
We know there are all sorts of inefficiencies in the system, so dreaming of doing it differently is as common as quarters in a laundromat.
So, someone says to you, “Go create a new school.” What would be different?
Would certain things appear or go away? Would there be textbooks, a set curriculum, desks, academic calendars, bell schedules, uniforms, unions, districts, classrooms, campuses, school leaders, or even teachers?
One goal I have for the coming months is to share a range of thoughts and desires about schooling with anyone paying attention. I’m gathering as many ideas about nontraditional approaches to teaching and learning as I can find and come up with, and invite you to share what you’d do differently.
Here are several ways to do it:
- Send me an email. It’s my first name at gmail.com. “What? You got your first name for your Gmail address?” Yep. One benefit of having a really unusual name, that.
- Leave a comment on this post. I’m trying to remember to go back in and approve comments regularly, but generally speaking, I’m doing a poor job of it.
- Go to Next Vista’s December newsletter. I start that with the same request for ideas. An advantage of doing it this way is that answering this prompt is the way to be entered in Next Vista’s monthly $5 caffeine card drawing. Honestly, very few people enter, so your chances are phenomenal, compared to most contests.
When sharing a thought, please add any detail your time allows.
For anyone wondering, my exploring odd, intriguing, and/or radical ideas for a different kind of school doesn’t mean I’m changing the work I do helping teaching teams in “normal” schools get much better. As always, I’m happy to explore that possibility with any interested educational leader. It’s fun work for everyone, and the revenue runs my little nonprofit attempt to save the world from ignorance, one creative video at a time.
image credit: Woman looking up by Tachina Lee from Unsplash (license)
