It’s all about the long game. Setting the course for the
future is what’s important. Talking about shade coverings or marquees can be
decided by the administration. Setting the course to cutting our taxes, and
re-prioritizing our facility plans towards the direct needs of the kids, is way
more important for a board. The primary issues we, as a board and the
community, need to address is our schools overall security; the rebuild of the
Lowery Freshman Center; and the possibility of developing a Magnate school as
an outlying campus to the main High School.
When it comes to security we need to think more along the
lines of road-mapping an all-encompassing corporate security solution that combines
our investment into learning for the students as well as protecting them. As an
example: ideas around video recording, streaming and classroom knowledge
transfers must be included when we talk about video. Monitoring a hallway is
not the endgame. We need to incorporate our entire video solution to include
lecture cameras to record classroom teachings so that students can re-visit
historical classroom topics. When I say “all-inclusive video” I mean “all”. Why
not utilize our investment in security as a combined solution of classroom
instruction? Those same classroom-recording tools for learning also act as an
emergency video feed if something goes wrong. It also enables us to keep record
of any typical misbehaving of the student body. When everyone knows cameras are
present incidents reports will fall. Let go of the notion that video is
intrusive, in fact, it’s pervasive and there is nothing anyone can do about it. What better way to take charge of a Facebook post or Youtube video upload from the student body.
When a lot of people hear security and video in the same
sentence they instantly start thinking about George Orwell and 1984, but in
reality they couldn’t be further from the truth. Our kids weren’t even born in
1984, so trying to force our “out-of-touch” reality on them will only make
things worse later on. The truth is our kids utilize video, audio and instant
access to information way more than you or I did. I sit with my 11th
grader doing Pre-Calculus and remain amazed at the amount of great video
content on the web that illustrates examples that far outpace what she is
getting from just one individual in a classroom (I’m just excited that I can
understand Calculus better than I did when I was a kid… I wish I had those
tools when I was in high school). If we
don’t start incorporating our own-recorded video solutions of classroom
lectures, then the kids will get it from somewhere else. When they exit our ISD
and go into the collegiate environment they will be faced with a plethora of
these tools; my fear is that we aren’t preparing them for that change. Don’t
fight the change in how things are being taught, grab hold of it, explore it,
be creative and own it. Being a technologist you will be amazed at what can be
accomplished, especially when we spark curiosity.
The Lowery Freshmen Center is a great opportunity to truly
push our learning models into the future. Why not think out of the box and take
the classroom way beyond sitting at a desk and listening to one teacher. Lets incorporate a real architecture of
advanced learning that the rest of the nation will want to model their
strategies on; I’m talking about group structures of learning that incorporate
all the latest of technology tools that can immerse the students into the
topics that concern them. Literally design the new Freshmen Center as corporate
framework of technology introductions, immersed classroom instruction and
advanced laboratory learning. Work with the City to provide tax incentives for
the largest corporations to fund our initiatives, build new labs, and augment
student, teacher and real-time experts.
Which leads me to the final topic about a Magnate School.
In order to alleviate some of the overcrowding at the high
school -- and I don’t really care if you think it’s at capacity or not -- a
roadmap to off-load capacity can only help our kids. By not strategizing a
downward track of classroom sizes, or hallway crowding, we are doing our kids a
disservice. One of the topics I covered in an earlier article was about
building a Magnate School; such a Magnate School could be academic oriented by
including such things as all AP, IB or any advancement placement curriculum.
The school could also house the arts, to include band, as way to better
accommodate the space required. These are just ideas of course, my ideas, I
have many more but as one gentlemen recently told me, “I see you are in it for
the long game”. Indeed I am. All I can do is concentrate on the long game,
because we have plenty who want to be involved in the day-to-day activities of
awnings and sun coverings.
Dr. Michael Myers
ANY DISTRIBUTION OR COPYING OF THIS MESSAGE IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONSENT OF DR MYERS.
