Personalized Learning Summit 2016 Takeaways

“All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they are now getting.  If they want different results, they must change the way they do things.”   Tom Northrup

Wow.  My experience in these two short days has been profound.   Northrup’s quote included in a keynote address by Michael Horn, coupled with a visit to a well known tech company has diverted my attention from professional development around strategies and best practice to the importance of culture and space.  It is so essentially important that all stakeholders know and understand the vision and mission of the school.  How else can we expect buy-in and fidelity to our vision?  To move beyond compliance to “this is how we do things around here?” This change needs to happen.

I realize that we already have our list of words/phrases that create our foundational vocabulary, but I think we need to go further than that.  Yes, we need to know and own those words/phrases, but are they easily articulated?  And perhaps we need to revisit them given our learning over the past year.  But there needs to be more.  How do we build it into the DNA of our culture? Suggestions welcomed!

Of course, we also need to be able to identify our culture in the makeup of our space(s).  Investment in new mobile furniture is imperative to promote collaboration and ease of transition in the classroom.  If we want to model what is going on in the workforce, rows of desks facing front is NOT the answer.  If we want to grow individuals reliant on guidance and focused on a central personality, then we can continue as we are.  If we want students that are self-reliant, that own and drive their learning, then we must change the way we set up the classroom and the learning experience.