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@CarlaMeyrink

carla@tcfl.edu.do

Carla Meyrink

Blog: teachingexperiment.com

@ylonkarodriquez

ylonkarodriguez@tcfl.edu.do

Ylonka Rodriguez

@ShiselleLO

slopez@tcfl.edu.do

Shi Shiselle Lopez

@alearningleader

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The Script

Talking points in this session

Lessons from the pandemic: What needs to change in education?
How we can ensure that our students are prepared for success in a quickly changing world?
How can we inspire our community to make changes?
Steps in how to form student think tank for reimagining school.
The changes we made and their impact.
Challenges and solutions.
For your toolbox - resources for reimagining your school.

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How do we prepare students for a successful future?

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Answer the following question in Mentimeter:

What are the areas in education that you feel need improvement?

Use the QR code

Go to mentimeter.com

and use the code: 3364 8992

QR code:

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Before making a change, we asked our teachers to consider, what we could take off their shoulders. Examples:

Overloaded curriculum
Grading
Testing
Type of planning
Meetings
Expectations for students that are too high.

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Steps in forming the

THINK TANK

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Student

think tank

Think tank composition:
Choose secondary students
Male/female
Traditional & creative thinkers
Students who had differing views about the school.

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2. Open ended invitation:

Would you be interested?

This is not for a grade.
This is not for a class.
This is purely optional.

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First step: During a PD session, think tank students were invited to join teachers in watching the documentary: Most Likely to Succeed

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Students discuss Most Likely to Succeed and next steps.

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What possibilities thrilled you the most?

What are some ideas that you really think we should work on?

If we could make one change, what do you think it should be?

What do we do with this information?

Guiding questions to begin the discussion:

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Session two: Students watched The Future of Work and considered all the ways humans are different than computers and robots.

What do they have to offer the world?

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How do you feel about talking to students in other classes about coming up with ideas?

What do you need in order to lead these meetings with 7th-12th grades?

Students haven’t seen the movie, how can you inspire them?

WHAT’S

NEXT?

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The think tank students decided to create a vision board that would help them present their task to the students they interviewed

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First meeting with students.

Debriefing afterwards.

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Parent meeting

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Teacher meeting

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Changes we made for the 2022-23 school year, based on the think tank’s findings.

Designating a regular Friday for entrepreneurship sales. Parents can come too.
Creation of passion pursuit hours in elementary and project days in secondary to facilitate multi-disciplinary and multi-age projects.
Tweaked the schedule to give longer lunch hours.
Leadership opportunities: created more mentorship programs, school greeters, student-led projects.
Created mixed grade level advisories.
Set up a program for job shadowing.
Working on global outreach - connecting with people around the world.
We expanded on student centered learning and student self-assessment.

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Entrepreneurship Day

“Entrepreneurship day was so cool! I got to show off my products”

“I’m so glad I got an opportunity in school to work with my small business in school.”

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“Passion Pursuit” Day

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Project Day

“I can’t believe how much I got done.”

“I was able to meet with my math teacher for extra help. It was great!”

“I love having time to work on my makerspace project.”

“This lowered my stress so much!”

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Mixed Age Advisories

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TCFL

What Our Students Say

“I have met new people I can connect with and actually have a good friendship with, this is something I struggled with in past years. With help of my advisory and project days, my social skills have also had a positive boost.”

“When my motivation lags, my performance suffers. Despite this setback, I remain optimistic that by maintaining my focus and dedication and seizing the opportunities offered by school events like project day, I can regain my momentum and motivation, once again doing well in school, and succeeding my own goals and objectives.

“My first trimester was based on meeting my goal for personal improvement by learning how to self-regulate. I’ve improved by becoming a more productive person, so I’m at the developing level. For example, I’ve been taking project days more seriously, such as a project day where I used my time efficiently and finally completed an entire math agenda.”

“I also like solving rubix cubes, like 2*2, 3*3, and 4*4, since I like to do this so much I inspired and motivated people to do it with me and I recently started a Rubix Cube club on project days, showing leadership skills that I didn’t know I had.”

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Leadership Opportunities

Think Tank • Entrepreneurship Days • Academic Mentors • Sports Mentors • Sustainability Club • Un Paso a la Vez • Internship program

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TCFL

Grows and Glows

	Grows	Glows
Entrepreneurship	Too many entrepreneurs.	Students are learning important life skills for a real audience.
Passion Pursuit	Students and teachers don’t always share passions. Students want to change passions in the middle of a cycle.	Passion pursuit has changed the atmosphere of the school - more joyful. Students are exploring their passions outside of school, involving their families.
Project Days	Students using time as catch-up days. Teachers not understanding the reason for the project days.	Much more collaboration happening across subjects and grade levels. Student-led clubs and projects = leadership.

Students feel heard and empowered.

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Continuation of the Project

Meeting with students in California

TCFL student panel

The Community Way: The Podcast

Global Outreach:

Conversations with other schools

Think Tank Team

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whatschoolcouldbe.org

bigquestions.institute/

Playlists

Resources

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Let’s Connect!