Schools Should Be Student Centered and Team Oriented
Creating a school and classroom culture that engages students, immerses them in the material, and challenges them to grow and take responsibility for their own learning is not an accident. It takes careful planning, attention to detail and lots of coaching. A classroom without permanent, well-defined learning teams is like a rag-tag football game: everyone may have fun, but it is not always clear what the goal was or what was accomplished. Effective, student-centered classrooms treat education as a team sport with well-defined team roles and rewards for those who are the most effective team players.
We make every student, parent, and visitor feel noticed, welcomed, and valued both in our classrooms and our school.
● We are proactive in promoting good attendance and a welcoming environment. ● We listen because that lets us know the child, builds a sense of community and makes our instruction more effective. ● We foster a growth mindset to unlock human potential. |
We teach children to think and model the values, character, responsibility, teamwork and readiness for independent learning expected in the real world.
● Margaret Mead's belief that "children must be taught how to think, not what to think" is an essential part of our vision for both academics and discipline. ● We believe that rules don't teach behavior. People do. ● We teach students to behave responsibly and use their words wisely. ● We teach them to listen carefully, reason critically, communicate clearly and write persuasively. ● We build our capacity to discover student motivation, not just judge their behavior against a set of absolute standards. ● We use restorative practices and principles to foster communication in classrooms and avoid long-term problems. |
We ensure that students understand both what they are to contribute and how.
● We create interdependence and positive interaction where participation of every member is necessary to the completion of the group task and each member’s unique gifts and talents are needed. ● We use a combination of small group and large group discussions to provide the team leaders and the teacher with feedback on what is going well and areas to improve. ● We use the gradual release of responsibility instructional framework to purposefully shift the cognitive load from teacher-as-model to joint responsibility of teacher and learner, to independent practice and application by the learner (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983). |
We challenge students to value knowledge for its own sake, go beyond the minimum needed to get by and discover what they can achieve.
● When people are given the opportunity to influence the outcome of an activity, their desire to understand and the dynamics of their participation change because they feel that they have a stake in the outcome. ● We ensure that students understand the curriculum, remain engaged in the academic content and with each other. ● We design, model and guide challenging and engaging group tasks that encourage the exchange of ideas and not just the logistics of completing the assignment. ● We ensure group and individual accountability while assessing and monitoring students' developing understanding (and show them how to do the same). |
Grades don't teach—people do! We begin with the end in mind and design competencies in advance of Instruction.
● We design multiple ways for our students to demonstrate their knowledge and ability. ● We reward competence and persistence, not compliance to timeframes and goals. ● We provide high-quality instruction that teaches students complex thinking, reasoning, and planning. ● We provide personalized attention for student leaders and struggling students. |
We continuously improve our practice and can objectively show that our school and our classrooms are the best places to teach and learn.
● We improve by focusing our efforts on those things that make the greatest difference to student achievement. ● We spend time figuring out what our best is and then pursue it relentlessly. ● We instill a sense of urgency by making data-driven decisions to understand our students' learning and do not allow ourselves to be distracted in that effort. ● We reference how we use data in making individual decisions, to model the ways it informs our thinking. |
Our leaders, both in the classroom and in the school at large, articulate the mission and vision of the organization and work every day to make that mission and vision a reality.
● Our leaders own our mission, communicate how everyone’s work fits into the larger picture and spend every moment trying to close gaps between what we expect and who we really are. ● Our leaders make sure that all everyone has the information necessary to do their work, and that they see the connection of their work to the larger goals of the team. ● Our leaders take the time to visit with everyone starting with the most at risk, to find out what they are doing, see if any help is required, answer questions and ask questions of their own. ● Our leaders listen to, and recognize the contributions of, everyone because being able to influence a situation —whether by simply being able to vote for one or more choices or by actively arguing your point of view— raises your personal stake in the outcome. |