Academy at the Lakes – A Premier North Tampa Private School

21st Century Skills for 21st Century Schools

Sapphire64 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:04:57 +0000

“If you are not a school of the future, you risk being a school without a future. . .”
-Patrick F. Bassett, President, National Association of Independent Schools

In schools of every kind across the country, curriculum and delivery of curriculum are undergoing a quiet revolution. The strongest schools, and not just in our country, are striving to make their curricula reflect the needs of the 21st century. The enormous changes in information technology and the speed at which communication now easily takes place across once formidable boundaries have caused the U.S. Army War College to coin an acronym for our times. The world of the 21st century , they say, is VUCA, meaning that it is filled with Volatility, Uncertainty, Challenge, and Ambiguity.

How should today’s schools help our children prepare for the VUCA world they will enter?

To answer this, many in education have turned to author Daniel Pink and his important book, A Whole New Mind. In Pink’s view, our new landscape has been shaped primarily by three game-changing factors: Abundance, Asia, and Automation.

Abundance

We and our children in middle class 21st century America live amidst unprecedented plenty. From sophisticated material goods in countless varieties to the innumerable options we enjoy regarding where to live, what to buy, and even what to eat, we have unbelievable freedom to CHOOSE. Periodically, events like those in Haiti shake (or wake) us out of our preoccupation with our choices to tell us that others may not be so fortunate, but most of the time, we hone our competitive market-oriented skills toward the end of maximizing our purchasing power with efficiency AND STYLE. This comes from abundance, and gives rise to the essential question: Will what I am able to offer be in demand in an age of abundance?

Asia

A few well-known facts: China has 1.3 billion people. India has about a billion. The U.S. just hit 300 million. Put another way, there are over 3 people in India for every one in the U.S., and there are over 4 people in China for every one in the U.S. The top quarter of students in China and the top quarter of students in India EACH have more than the total number of students in the U.S. — and they all learn to speak English. And, depending on the particular business sector they are in, they will be happy with wages that are one-third to one-fifth of the price of a similarly talented U.S. worker.

How will our children compete?

Automation

To fully understand our situation today, we must have some understanding of the vector of history that has brought us here. (Please pardon the history lesson. It’s very brief and has a powerful point!) Up until the 18^th century, humans were firmly entrenched in the Agricultural Age. Following that came the Industrial Age. In both of those eras, the worker who was most in demand was one who had physical strength and personal fortitude. In contrast, by the late 20^th century, the workers who controlled, marshaled, and doled out information reaped the greatest rewards – we had progressed to the Information Age.

In the Information Age, the presence of computers has drastically changed certain kinds of routine information processing jobs. Basic accounting has been altered by programs like QuickBooks and TurboTax. Basic lawyering tasks can now be accomplished through the many computerized “do it yourself” programs that are widely available. Even doctors’ work in the process of diagnosis is based on decision-tree logic, and patients now find themselves able to access programs that allow them to answer a series of questions to arrive at a pretty strong preliminary diagnosis without a physician. Then there are the hundreds of websites and data bases on medicine and health that we all consult. Once upon a time, and not too long ago, doctors were in control of all of the information. Now, that is no longer true, and their role has changed to more of what Pink calls an “empathetic advisor on options.” Of course, we will always need doctors and lawyers and accountants, but their roles and the attributes that will bring success are changing. Even professionals will need to have a higher degree of sophistication and a different set of skills.

Because of the Information Age, many jobs are at risk, especially those that “depend on routines, that can be reduced to a set of rules, or broken down into a set of repeatable steps.” Many more jobs will be outsourced by the time our students enter their career years.

Pink believes that the key to unlocking our children’s future marketability lies in:

“The capacity to detect patterns and opportunities, to create artistic and emotional beauty, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new. The ability to empathize with others, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one’s self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond the [commonplace] in pursuit of purpose and meaning.”

So what do we need to do to prepare our students for the 21^st century?

Most of the jobs our children will have have not yet been envisioned or developed. The pace of the expansion of knowledge is so fast today that a high percentage of facts our children will learn in school and college will be out-of-date in a very short time. The older models of schooling will fall by the wayside, including perhaps the assembly-line system we all take somewhat for granted: grouping children by age and passing them through a series of workers (teachers) who add value to the “product” by working to apply the same process to each unit, then passing them along to the next worker until the finished product emerges at the end of the line. This system of education was developed during the Industrial Revolution as a means toward standardization and efficiency, but are those the most important elements of a 21st century education? Perhaps we need new systems that will be more focused on equipping students with skills that will allow them to adapt and create.

Here are some of the skills my school’s faculty feel will be necessary (in no particular order):

Global Awareness

The world has gotten much smaller and “flatter,” as Thomas Friedman says.

Language proficiency, cultural sensitivity, openness to new and different ideas and perspectives, and ability to adapt to change will be essential.

Ability to Access and Assess Information

In addition to research skills, discrimination skills and interpretation skills – media literacy — will be key. Once upon a time, there were editors whose gauntlet needed to be run before information was widely available. Today, that’s no longer true, so we must help our children learn how to discriminate between bad information and good.

Ability to Collaborate, Communicate, and Present

According to popular author Malcolm Gladwell, the new model of genius is collective, not individual. In order for our children to truly exercise creativity and innovate, they must be able to do so in groups. Thus, they need relationship-building skills and the ability to function as a member of a team.

Financial, Economic, and Entrepreneurial Literacy

To help our graduates gain a leg up, and in addition to the Economics requirement, my school has instituted a Personal Finance course that is required before high school graduation.

Civic Literacy and Health Literacy

Building blocks for a healthy and strong nation.

Innovation/Creativity

These paramount characteristics are largely built through the next category.

Critical Thinking Skills and Problem-Solving Skills

(including conflict resolution skills)

Building Structures of Self-Direction, Accountability, and Resilience

One of the most key attributes for future success is “the ability to manage one’s own work, and to drive it to a successful conclusion.” [Bassett]

Social Responsibility

Crucial for citizenship.

Character

Integrity, Compassion, Honesty — essential human values that ought never be cast aside.

If these things are going to be necessary, how do we re-form school to make it be a builder of these skills in our students?

I believe we must create environments that build these skills through curricular approaches and through extra-curricular activities. Some examples:

Math team, robotics competitions, contraption-building lessons, problem-solving activities like Odyssey of the Mind, interactive simulations — virtual reality and other Web 3.0 applications;
Place increased emphasis on the learning accomplished through wide and deep participation in fine arts and athletics; and
Support teachers through strong professional development programs that help them develop even better skills as coaches, encouragers, collaborators, knowledge seekers, and modelers.

The authors of Tough Choices or Tough Times summed it up this way:

“The crucial new factor, the one that alone can justify higher wages in this country than in other countries with similar levels of cognitive skills, is creativity and innovation. . . . This capacity for out-of-the-box and breakthrough thinking will be decisive for large firms and small, for individuals as well as organizations, for not just a few but the vast majority – and therefore for the nation. . . . [O]ur schools emphasize memory and analytical abilities and therefore may not benefit creative students. This is not true of the best of our independent schools and suburban schools, but it is emphatically true of most of our schools. . . . People . . . who are comfortable in working in artistic, investigative, highly social or entrepreneurial environments are more likely to succeed. . . . Schools will have to learn to simulate those environments. . . . “ (Tough Choices or Tough Times, Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce (National Center on Education and the Economy) (2007) (pp. 29 – 31)

A VUCA world will require VUCA skills, the ability to apply Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility to the world of the future. It’s an exciting time to part of the revolution.

Lower Division Newsletter – 02/26/10

jgibson — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:12:16 +0000

View the Lower Division Newsletter for the week ending February 26, 2010.

Lower Division News Letter 02/26/10

The Sound Of Music

Sapphire64 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:46:26 +0000

Academy Student Researchers Rock the Regional Science Fair

Sapphire64 — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:29:21 +0000

Article: Dr. Amy Jordan, Mark Heller

“Science Fair was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot,” eighth-grader Colleen Lopez said about the Pasco Regional Science and Engineering Fair at River Ridge High School on Saturday, February 6th.

Colleen was one of seven Academy students who competed in the fair. All seven students placed in the top three slots in their category. Six students won first place and will continue to the state science fair.

Seniors Helen Latimer and Julian Doromal won first place in the teams category of the high school competition with their work, Multilayer Polypeptide Nanofilms. Helen and Julian efficiently and reproducibly generated biological nanofilms, a breakthrough necessary to transform nanotechnology into a marketable commodity. Julian and Helen worked in Dr. Donald Haynie’s laboratory in the USF Physics Department and will continue their work until they leave for college in the fall.

Ninth-grader Alex Stark won first place in the computer category with his project “Tic Tac Toe: Adventures in Decision Making.” Alex programmed an invincible tic tac toe game and demonstrated that his program is infallible compared to its human competitors. Alex earned commendations from both Intel Corporation and the U.S. Army.

In her project Regional Groundwater Study Through Isotopic Analysis, senior Carly Harro analyzed hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios by mass spectrometry to trace surface and groundwater interconnectivity in the Weeki Wachee Ground Water Basin in Hernando County. Her findings will be utilized by the Southwest Florida Water Management District to study local water shortages. Carly won first place and received commendations from the Association of Women Geoscientists and the American Meteorological Society and also took home the U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize Regional Award and an invitation to enter a special competition.

In the middle school science fair, eighth-grader Shayne Fitzgerald won first place in the Environmental Science category with his project Quick Steam II. Shane utilized steam from an exothermic reaction of calcium oxide with water to turn an alternator. This reaction could be a cheap, readily available energy source to power batteries or run a generator. Shayne hopes to apply his work to powering a car.

Eighth-grader Colleen Lopez won first place in the Botany category for her work on The Effect of Centrifugal Force on Radish Seed Germination. Colleen utilized centrifugal force to mimic the mechanism for producing gravity in space. She hopes her work will be applicable to growing fresh food in space.

Seventh-grader David Gamero earned third place in the Environmental Science category with his work titled Electric Magnets. David calculated the productivity of an electrical generator turning at different speeds and compared single generators to multiple generators. He determined that using multiple generators is more efficient than using one large generator. He hopes to charge the lithium ion battery of a laptop or iPod by placing two generators on either side of a bicycle axle.

The spirit of inventiveness and inquiry is a hallmark of the educational experience at Academy at the Lakes. We are most proud of our students, their teachers, and the special school culture that encourages and supports our future leaders, scientists, and innovators.

Academy at the Lakes, located on Collier Parkway in Land O’Lakes, serves students from the entire North Tampa metropolitan area from PK3 through 12th grade.

Grandparent’s Day Information is Posted

jgibson — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:24:57 +0000

Information for Grandparent’s Day – an order form for Lunches, Pictures and a Schedule of Events – has been posted on our Community Section under Information – Forms – Events.

Sound of Music Dress Rehearsal Information is Posted

jgibson — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:16:12 +0000

Information for the Sound of Music Dress Rehearsal participants – Actors, Instrumentalists and Technical Crew, has been posted on our Community Section under Information – Forms – Fine Arts.

March Menu and Order Form

jgibson — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:59:25 +0000

March’s lunch menu and order form can be downloaded here.

Monthly menus continue to be posted in our Community section under Information – Forms.

Lincoln Makes a Whistle-Stop Tour of Academy

Sapphire64 — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:25:35 +0000

On Tuesday, February 9th, just in time for the national holiday honoring him and a number of his predecessors, President Abraham Lincoln made a whistle-stop tour of the Academy at the Lakes.

President Lincoln began his visit to the Academy on the McCormick Campus, first speaking with Upper Division students and then to Middle Division students. He shared stories from his early life, his path into politics, and the challenges he faced as President during the Civil War. Each session ended with an opportunity for students to ask questions of our special guest. (He proved, however, understandably reluctant to answer any questions about the circumstances of his death.)

Mr. Hagenau and his AP US History students then joined the President for a lunch discussion in the Lorton Conference Room. After lunch, President Lincoln traveled over to the Wendlek Campus for a visit with our 2nd-4th Grades students. He ended his tour of the Academy with a surprise visit to first graders, who had just finished creating likenesses the President out of colored paper, markers, and pieces wool yarn.

President Lincoln’s visit was made possible through the generosity of Dr. and Mrs. David Persky, parents of Abigail (Academy Class of 2012).

President Lincoln was brought to life by professional performer and historian Jim Getty. Mr. Getty, fittingly, has been a resident of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for three decades, during which time he has enlightened and entertained diverse audiences across the nation with his knowledgeable and captivating portrayal of our 16th president.

Academy at the Lakes – A Premier North Tampa Private School

21st Century Skills for 21st Century Schools

How should today’s schools help our children prepare for the VUCA world they will enter?

So what do we need to do to prepare our students for the 21^st century?

Here are some of the skills my school’s faculty feel will be necessary (in no particular order):

If these things are going to be necessary, how do we re-form school to make it be a builder of these skills in our students?

Lower Division Newsletter – 02/26/10

The Sound Of Music

Academy Student Researchers Rock the Regional Science Fair

Grandparent’s Day Information is Posted

Sound of Music Dress Rehearsal Information is Posted

March Menu and Order Form

Lincoln Makes a Whistle-Stop Tour of Academy

Lower Division Newsletter – 02/12/10

Lower Division Newsletter – 01/29/10

Academy at the Lakes – A Premier North Tampa Private School

21st Century Skills for 21st Century Schools

How should today’s schools help our children prepare for the VUCA world they will enter?

So what do we need to do to prepare our students for the 21st century?

Here are some of the skills my school’s faculty feel will be necessary (in no particular order):

If these things are going to be necessary, how do we re-form school to make it be a builder of these skills in our students?

Lower Division Newsletter – 02/26/10

The Sound Of Music

Academy Student Researchers Rock the Regional Science Fair

Grandparent’s Day Information is Posted

Sound of Music Dress Rehearsal Information is Posted

March Menu and Order Form

Lincoln Makes a Whistle-Stop Tour of Academy

Lower Division Newsletter – 02/12/10

Lower Division Newsletter – 01/29/10

So what do we need to do to prepare our students for the 21^st century?