If you happened to hear my Back to School Night presentation, you'll know I highlighted the fact that departments recently created some aspirational goals for their students.  Here is the overview of what I presented that night:

Right before the school year began, Meg Hill, Paul Kim and I invited all 9^th grade teachers and advisors to a brainstorming session in the Math Lab.  For the sake of the exercise we grouped people together by department.  The goal was to find effective and transparent ways to answer the following question:  What does it mean to be a successful student in your department?  In other words, what does it mean to think and act like a scientist? (or artist, historian, etc.)

 

In an amazingly brief amount of time, every department came up with concise, meaningful statements about the overarching learning goal(s) in their areas of instruction. Then department members devised quick lessons that could be used in their courses to bring these ideas “to life” with students.  We all agreed that the more we articulate these visions and build towards them intentionally, the more likely we are to have students actually embodying them.  I think this all connects to the larger goal of getting kids to better understand what and how they are learning instead of focusing so much on what they are supposed to be doing—i.e. making them more process-oriented and less outcome-driven.

 

Arts: What does it mean to think and act like an artist?  To be able to use your own individual skills and perspective to create meaningful connections in the world and to learn to thrive in situations where one is present, connected and uncomfortable.

 

English: Critical thinkers, readers, and writers strive to constantly ask, explore, and revise in an attempt to connect, empathize, and elevate.

 

Health and Wellness: A healthy and well-balanced student effectively manages his or her high school commitments and is able to recognize when he or she needs academic, emotional or physical help.

 

Innovations: An innovator is someone who masters the expected but reaches for the possible.  Also, a connected community member sees others and their needs, empathizes, collaborates, and designs and implements creative solutions.

 

Math: A mathematician uses all of their mathematical tools and skills to persevere in solving complex problems that they have not encountered before.  To be a mathematician is to be courageously curious and creative about patterns and puzzles in the world. 

 

Science: Acting like a scientist involves thinking critically, being able to develop testable hypotheses, describing in detail your findings, and wearing safety goggles.

 

Social Studies: A social scientist poses big questions about human relations in order to draw cogent, rational, empathetic conclusions that result from the process of inquiry.

 

World Language: A linguist fearlessly tries to communicate and always wants to know more about context, connections, and/or perspectives.