FM Update – Conference Notes 6 August 2023

The first of two items for my Kiwi readers.   This one an newsletter from a friend and colleague in the field.

FutureMakers: Conference Notes. 6 August 2023 I’ve just returned from the JCPS conference in Louisville, Kentucky, home of the famous derby, various types of bourbon and, of course, KFC! The conference theme was “When Learners Lead”, and there were plenty of great keynote speakers and workshop presenters, including students, making really useful contributions to this discourse. In this newsletter I thought I’d share a brief synopsis of just some of these, with links to the work they do that you may wish to explore further. In this newsletter… Creating Joy The Power of Relationships The Future of Smart The Future of Assessment Learning to Leave Tending to the Soul of School OkCello Creating Joy The day before the JCPS event I had the privilege of attending the “back to school day” for staff in the Eastern Hancock School District in Indiana. I got to meet up with Kevin Honeycutt again as he presented his thoughts around how we can inspire learners and bring joy to our classrooms. District Superintendent, George Philhower (centre) places a huge emphasis on Joy at the heart of how this district operates. The Power of Relationships Speaking of creating joy – it was great to have Dwayne Reed present at the conference. Besides being simply a lot of fun and inspirational in his presentation, he managed to bring a really serious side to his message about the importance of our relationships with our learners. If you haven’t heard of Dwayne before, check out the video below which he created for his Fourth Grade class as he welcomed them into his class as a first year teacher in a school in West Chicago. Download “Welcome to the 4th Grade” for free: dwaynereedmusic.bandcamp.com/track/welcome-to-the-4th-grade The Future of Smart Keynote speaker Ulcca Joshi Hansen is an internationally recognised expert on educational transformation at the level of instruction, assessment, organisational design and policy systems. She is  a keen advocate for moving our education system and the players within it in the direction of being human-centered. Her keynote was the highlight of the event for me. Check out her TED talks on the Future of Smart and ReThinking the 3Rs – or her book The Future Of Smart also. Future of Assessment The topic of assessment dominated many of the workshops and discussions during the conference. Hanna Vaandering is a member of the National Education Association Exec Committee. The NEC consulted with more than 118,000 students, parents, families, civil rights groups, activists and other educators across the nation seeking their thoughts on change in high stakes assessment. Their feedback is captured in a document titled ‘Beyond the Bubble‘. Building on this, Hanna explained her work in co-leading the development of a set of principles for the future of assessment. These five principles will provide the guiding value statements for the NEC’s ongoing work in assessment, ensuring all students have access to an equitable, robust, asset-based assessment system. Learning to Leave Ten years ago I first met Elliot Washor in San Diego when he took me for a tour of the SD Met High School and presented me with a copy of his book, Leaving to Learn, which I quote regularly in my work. So it was a huge bonus to meet up with him again at the JCPS event and receive a copy of his latest book, Learning to Leave! Elliott and I had a couple of lengthy conversations about the International Big Picture Learning Credential (IBPLC) that has been developed in association with the team at Melbourne University. The breakthrough here is that this credential now offers a rigorous pathway from secondary to tertiary study that is currently accepted by 17 universities around Australia! Tending to the Soul of School Eric Chagala, founding principal of the Vista Innovation & Design Academy (VIDA), gave a great workshop titled ‘tending to the soul of school. Eric challenged participants to consider what they are doing to create a school culture that provides a positive experience for both staff and students – and makes them want to be there, and want to learn. I was particularly interested in how he’d applied these twelve questions from a Gallup survey to the work he does in his own school and in others. OkCello I thought I’d round off these few reflections by mentioning Okorie Johnson, an outstanding cellist and composer from Atlanta, who entertained us at the beginning of each day with his artistry that integrates cello performance, live-sound-looping, improvisation, and storytelling.  A former teacher himself, Okorie has been doing this at the JCPS conference every year that it has been running. Check out his performance on TED for a glimpse of his artistry. But wait, there’s more… At FutureMakers we use a range of forums to curate good ideas and resources. Check out the following… Derek’s Blog – regular posts available on the FutureMakers website Previous newsletters – access all of the previous editions of the FutureMakers newsletter from this one place Resilient Schools Online Community – brought to you in partnership with Transcend My slideshows from recent presentations curated on SlideShare Modern Learning Practice – a curated set of links on Scoop.It Hybrid Learning – a collection of resources on the FutureMakers website Learner Agency – another collection of resources on the FutureMakers website If you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter please feel free to forward it to others to read, or better yet, ask them to become a FutureMakers subscriber so they will receive their own updates delivered to their mailbox. I’m always interested to hear your feedback or ideas about what you’d like to see included in future newsletters – please use the link below to email me with your suggestions. Email Derek

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