DREAM

CANVAS

EDGECOMBE COUNTY

A Case for Change

Imagine growing up in a small town, unable to see and experience the world beyond your neighborhood. You grapple with questions and curiosities about the unknown world. Why do things exist? Why am I called to be in this world? Who am I called to be in this world? How do I change the world? What happens if I don’t? You attend school each day searching for answers to these questions. Instead, school prescribes what you will learn and locks up your unbridled potential. When you ask questions that may provide answers to your thoughts, you are quickly dismissed and considered disruptive and insubordinate. So, each day you continue to sit on your porch and question the world alone, still searching for answers. Why are people poor? Why are people oppressed? Why does racism haunt this world? How do I change it all? I dream big, but my dream remains festers, on this porch, where I sit instead of going to school. I will not go back there. School should be an incubator of hope and dreams--instead it rejects them. I will never realize my dream, because we all know what happens to a dream deferred.

Our vision

We are the architects of our lives.

We design our futures.

Our dreams are not deferred.

Graduate Aims

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By the time they are 25 years old, all ECPS graduates will be able to say ...

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I know my purpose and what I’m passionate about, and I’m living this out

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I engage productively in my community

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I can return to - or stay - in Edgecombe County

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I am resilient in the face of challenges

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I possess global awareness and agency

Our Priority Aims

Purpose

• Sense of knowing, striving
• Relevance
• Know the WHY
• Know their gifts
• Cross-section of what you love, what you’re good at & what the world needs
• In pursuit of their Northstar

Resilience

• A magnet for challenges
• Mental toughness
• Agile
• Tenacious in pursuit of your why
• Snapback
• Resolve, determination
• Resilience is a journey/process

Design Anchors

► Love first.

We love our students. We listen to our students. We learn alongside our students.

► There is no normal.

We support our students in growing their unique, jagged gifts and in failing forward.

► Rooted right here.

We root our work in place and partner closely with families to transform our community.

► Everyone owns everything.

Kids lead beside adults to achieve our vision together.

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What we believe

Practice

• Students need opportunities to engage in “feedback cycle” (recognize, ask, receive, implement, give) ALL THE TIME

Individualization

• Students have different entry points / gaps / skills but its difficult to meet individual needs when teaching to the average in our current model

Safety / Love

• Students need to feel safe and loved in order to enter their executive state, but we don't prioritize this and instead succumb to focusing on what feels most urgent (i.e. high-stakes testing) and get frustrated when we're not successful

Family

• Students have a deep sense of positive commitment to family and feel an obligation to family that might impact their stated aspirations
• Students want opportunities to be involved in learning experiences outside of the classroom, but family obligations may make this difficult

Identity affirmation

• Students want to have their identity affirmed and need/want space to discover new parts of their identity
• Students have questions / misconceptions about their identity but rarely have the opportunity to explore their identity

Choice, failure, relevance, freedom

• Kids want a lot of choice and autonomy, but from some structure and guidance
• Students want to be resilient but are not given the opportunity to fail in school
• Culture comes alive when students are the creators of it, but often adults try to control irrelevant things
• Students want their classroom experiences to be more relevant to their interests and aspirations, but have a hard time articulating exactly what that might look like
• Students want a voice and have a voice but adults rarely give them space to advocate

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Learner Experience Journey

Affirmation

9:00

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Genius Bar

● Mathematics ● Literacy ● Science ● Personal Development ● Technology

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Appointments - Workshops - Drop-in

10:00

12:00

3:30

4:00

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Purpose Block

Literacy

Purpose Block

Literacy

Lunch

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Purpose Block

Literacy

Purpose Block

Literacy

Purpose Block

STEM

Purpose Block

STEM

Purpose Block

STEM

Purpose Block

STEM

RIC

Goal setting

Solving hard, personal challenges

Organizing my life/work

Resilience & purpose content

Case Study of Self

Where you at?

Portfolio & Progress Check

1:00

• No grades - students create portfolios, case study of self, competencies
• No grade levels

Our Learner Experience Journey

PURPOSE BLOCKS

Students partner with a Purpose Block teacher to identify their passions and create projects to explore them. Students monitor their learning as they pursue their purpose.

PURPOSE BLOCKS

Students use purpose block time to master critical skills using a personalized platform that tracks their mastery.

GENIUS BAR

When students or experts decide students need targeted support, they go to the genius bar, where an expert guides them along their learning journey.

MMC

In meta-moment communities, students begin their day with a caring adult they feel deeply connected to. Students answer the questions “Am I safe? Am I loved? Am I ready to learn?”

Our Learner Experience Journey

Key Features

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Students are grouped not by age, but by passions, developmental levels and mastery.

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Growth is tracked through Learning Portfolios, a Case Study of Self, and Competency Mastery.

AFFIRMATIONS

We begin the day celebrating scholars, their resilience, and their identity. They lead the charge to achieve more than we’ve ever dreamed and to transform our community.

RIC

Students engage in goal setting, solving hard, personal challenges, organizing life/work, learning about resilience & purpose, and completing a Case Study of Self.

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Where you at? Check

Students engage in reflection of their learning progress, goal setting, and developing and deepening their learning portfolio.

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Learner Experience Journey

Affirmation

9:00

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Genius Bar

● Mathematics ● Literacy ● Science ● Personal Development ● Technology

​

Appointments - Workshops - Drop-in

10:00

12:00

3:30

4:00

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Purpose Block

Literacy

Purpose Block

Literacy

Lunch

Meta Moment

Meta Moment

Purpose Block

Literacy

Purpose Block

Literacy

Purpose Block

STEM

Purpose Block

STEM

Purpose Block

STEM

Purpose Block

STEM

RIC

Goal setting

Solving hard, personal challenges

Organizing my life/work

Resilience & purpose content

Case Study of Self

Where you at?

Portfolio & Progress Check

1:00

• No grades - students create portfolios, case study of self, competencies
• No grade levels

Implementation Plan

2017-2018

• Gather insights from empathy work, science of learning research, and inspiration visits.
• Define graduate aims, identify design anchors
• Develop design teams
• Create a culture of innovation plan
• Create a test plan
• Audit for strategic alignment and abandonment

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2018 - 2019

• North-Phillips School of Innovation MicroSchool
• Build a culture of innovation Edgecombe wide
• On-going staff professional development
• Run test cycles throughout the year for different parts of the learner experience journey
• Pilot parts of canvas in each school at large

2019-2020

• Continue to build culture of innovation
• Pilot parts of canvas in each school at large
• Pilot Dream Canvas with entire grade levels at each school
• Run test cycles throughout the year for different parts of the learner experience journey

2020-2021

• North and Phillips School of Innovation
• Full implementation of the North + Phillips School of Innovation Dream Canvas

A Case for Change

Now, imagine growing up in the same small town. You’re sitting on the same stoop, of the same home, with the same curiosities about the world. The world is still unknown, but you are now in pursuit of discovery. You have struggled to understand the dark world around you but “There is not enough darkness in the world to snuff out the light of even one small candle.” Your school, teachers, classmates, identity, purpose have become that candle.

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You feel valued and important at school. They take time and pay attention to your interest, your passions, and your dreams. You are able to show up in the fullness of yourself. You are now ready to handle life in hard places, with hope.

You are recognized as a whole full individual with a power to change the world. You are no longer crushed into adult fantasies for your life. Your own curiosities drive your learning. You are allowed to question the world around you, find answers to your questions, and authenticate them. Where do my passions meet the world's greatest need? This has become my "essential question" that drives all of my learning objectives.

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The dream is no longer deferred. School gives you the energy and balanced optimism to define, pursue and live out your dream. Your dream will not fester like a raisin in the sun because at your school; raisins are not left in the sun to dry up, they are planted and loved, in turn, germinating into roots of subversive hope. Hope, that one day, instead of understanding the unknown dark world, I’ll create a different world built with belief, resilience, purpose, empathy, and with the humanity that resides in each of us. My school is now an incubator of hope

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