EDGE - Not Just Castles from Macaroni
As the due date for EDGE Academy applications nears, I am struck by a comment one 6th grader made about what he thinks EDGE is. He said, “I don’t want to build castles out of macaroni.” After some conversation, he realized that his view was a misconception, that EDGE was much bigger and more complex than he first thought, and that he wanted to be part of it.
I posed the same question to the talented group of educators who will be part of ensuring the success of EDGE. Here is how they responded:
Mrs. Jennings, one of the assistant principals who will work with the team, captured the problem-based nature of EDGE with the following anecdote:
“Ms. Jennings, I’m not going to apply to be part of the EDGE Academy,” Melissa informed me.
“Why not? Give it a chance. The academy is a great opportunity, and it’s being offered at your home school,” I replied.
“Seriously, Ms. Jennings?!? I’m not interested in building castles out of macaroni. That is not exciting, and it does not help me learn.”
Melissa is an honor roll student enrolled in advanced math and science courses. However, her favorite subject is English. Melissa is a motivated student who loves to read, write and collaborate with her peers. Knowing this, I asked her, “What is exciting to you? How do you learn best?”
Without hesitation, Melissa told me she likes to be challenged and she loves solving problems.
“The EDGE Academy is not about making random things without a purpose,” I explained. “Through the EDGE Academy, you will see the interconnectedness of all content areas as they relate to an essential problem. For example, when studying a unit on bacteria and viruses, one idea is to have students attempt to solve the problem: How do we keep our friends from getting sick? By engaging in lab experiments and online simulations, students would work in teams to diagnose, treat, and prevent future flu outbreaks. In social studies and English class, students could read non-fiction texts about the impact of poor sanitation and the lack of medical knowledge in colonial America. Finally, students could research how engineers design communities taking into consideration the possibility of an epidemic.”
“That is an interesting way to study material. It almost makes building a macaroni town sound interesting,” Melissa responded.
"You sound like a perfect candidate for the EDGE Academy. Think about it. You just might love it!” I concluded.
Mr. Noss, the instructional technology specialist who will work with the team, and who will provide much of the technology instruction embedded in the program summed up his role this way:
My role in EDGE Academy is to provide support to you, the student, in finding ways in which you effectively consume and disperse your knowledge of the curriculum. The effective consumption of knowledge is different for all learners, as is the dispersing of knowledge. Through the use of technology, my goal is to provide you with many forms of expression along with supporting you with technologies you may discover on your own or already know. My role is also the same when it comes to your teachers. I will work closely with your teachers and introduce technologies and techniques for them to use in the classroom that better engage you. We all learn in different ways and we all prefer methods that excite us and engage us in learning. The type of student EDGE Academy wants is the learner who wants choices when it comes to how they learn and disperse their knowledge. I am part of the EDGE Academy to help support that type of learner.
Mrs. Beck, the math teacher who will work with the team, described the relevance of math:
Designing and building, sharing with each other and talking, and letting your creative side show are just a few of the ways that we can dig into Math and Science more! Let’s pull the learning off the pages, put it into our classroom in different physical and connected ways to give it more life, purpose, and meaning! I see our world as full of math: movement, architecture and design, music, video games, and the internet are all based on mathematic principles. Once you can see them, the world looks a bit different: new possibilities and meanings come to life…school was meant for opportunities like the EDGE program!
Mrs. Abrams, the social studies teacher who will work with EDGE, described the emphasis on real world learning that will be featured in EDGE:
How would you like to try and solve real -world problems? How does having a choice in how you show mastery of objectives sound? We want to access what you already know about topics and then find creative ways to help you find out information that you need to know. How about writing your own play and then performing it for the 7th grade? What about designing and planting a garden and then eating what we harvest? Have you ever used a 3-D printer? What if we could use one to help us design tools to use in the garden that may have been used after the civil war? This is what the EDGE academy is in my mind! No macaroni needed!
Dr. Phillips, another assistant principal who will work with the team, took the big picture philosophical view:
As a student in the EDGE Academy you will not build castles out of macaroni. You will begin a journey, a quest that will lead to your future. Together with your classmates you will be an active participant in your learning. Your teachers will design learning experiences that challenge you. They will guide you, but you will find your own solutions. In collaboration with your classmates you will explore, design, create, think, imagine, work and yes sometimes fail; but in the end you will succeed! As a student in the EDGE Academy you will not build castles out of macaroni, you will build the foundation for your future: The launching pad for your dreams.
My role in the EDGE academy begins with believing in what can be accomplished. I will be part of a team that is developing a new way to facilitate student learning and understanding. Educators have spent a lot of time talking about what we need to do. It’s time to start putting the talk into action. In collaboration and with shared leadership we will design unique learning experiences from which our students will learn to solve problems by integrating knowledge taken from multiple subjects. This will equip them with the ability and skills needed to be successful in their future.
Mrs. Solheim, the English teacher who will work with EDGE, simply turned the question back to the student, which highlights the student-centered approach foundational to EDGE:
You don’t want to go to school and build castles out of macaroni? Why not? What would you like to build them out of?
Mr. Noss created a terrific video designed to capture key elements of what EDGE will be:
We hope to see your applications by April 3, 2015!