Work+and+Done-ness

Work and Done-ness

(entire article: http://ednews.org/articles/high-school-design-affects-student-work-ethic.html)
 * This sounds eerily like our own MAASCO led MHS Master plan, note the key points: **

So what would a high school look like that made students //__want__// to exceed minimum standards and not merely slide by? My guess it would look like an interscholastic sports team that emphasized teamwork, daily practice of fundamentals, daily feedback on individual and team performance, continual communication among coaches (viz. teachers) on how to do better the next day, continual opportunity for students to practice skills in competitive ("real world" or workplace-like) situations, expectations of helping fellow teammates (classmates) to improve, integration of knowledge to help students understand why they are learning something in a particular way, and the targeted use of technology to diagnose and improve abilities.

"To engage today's teenagers and take full advantage of what their teachers can offer, //**high schools must substantially alter the way they deploy staff, organize curricula and the school day, and connect with the community**//.

For example: ·Create smaller learning communities and let students **concentrate on a career theme. Teachers would truly get to know their students as both would spend most of their day in a career theme department or academy ** (such as business, engineering and technology, health sciences, or expressive arts).

·A multidisciplinary team of teachers **would run each career theme department.** **Technical subjects would be integrated with academic ones.** Periodically, students could change career departments. Employers in a career pathway would help oversee curricula, contribute equipment and mentors, and provide student internships.

·**Replace school bells with morning-afternoon scheduling. Students would take cross-disciplinary courses from teams of teachers who work together rather than in isolation.** Students would stay together long enough to become part of teams that focus their attention on solving problems that require knowledge of different systems, just as they would in the real world.

·**Ninth-grade students would take an intensive, team taught, computer-assisted, eight- to 12-week course that rapidly brings up their reading and math scores to grade level while providing career guidance and orientation to high school expectations.** Success factors for this approach include the //challenging cross-disciplinary curriculum, faculty teaming and small group coaching, emphases on workplace discipline and time management, daily feedback on class and individual performance//, the use of courseware (e.g. PLATO, NovaNet, KeyTrain) to manage instruction and reporting, and most importantly, **the blending of the "soft" teamwork, customer service and interpersonal skills with the "hard" reading, math, and computer skills." **