School of the Future

In a new age of information, rapid innovation, and globalization, how can we prepare our children to compete? Once the envy of the world, American schools are now in trouble. Test scores show our kids lag far behind their peers from other industrialized countries, and as the divide between rich and poor grows wider, the goal of getting all kids ready for college and the workforce gets harder by the day. How can the latest research help us fix education in America? Can the science of learning—including new insights from neuroscientists, psychologists, and educators—reveal how kids’ brains work and tell us which techniques are most likely to engage and inspire growing minds? What role should technology play in the classroom? Teachers, students, parents, and scientists take center stage as NOVA (American popular science television series broadcast on PBS) explores a new vision for the “School of the Future.”

Opening students' mind

Geoffrey Canada is internationally renowned for his pioneering work helping children and families in Harlem, and as a thought leader and passionate advocate for education reform. From 1990 to 2014, he served as the President and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, which The New York Times called “one of the most ambitious social-policy experiments of our time.”
-- Watch Geoffrey's TED talk "Our failing schools. Enough is enough!"

The Power in Education

"We are all connected to succeed, and good leaders do this. Tomorrow's future is sitting in our classrooms. And they are our responsibility. That means everyone in here, and those who are watching the screen. We must believe in their brilliance, and remind them by teaching them that there indeed is power in education."
Nadia Lopez is the founding principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy, in Brownsville, Brooklyn, one of the most underserved and violent neighborhoods in New York, where she is showing the world how underprivileged communities can beat the odds and create positive institutions that have a global impact. She believes that kids are our future, and it's crucial they believe it themselves. Lopez is encouraged and inspired to see children overcome the "beautiful challenges" of Brownsville and works hard to ensure that they are admitted into some of the most competitive high schools in New York City. She became a viral sensation after one of her students was featured on the popular blog, Humans of New York, where he praised Lopez as the most influential person in his life. In 2015 a HONY fundraiser raised $1.4 million to take Lopez's students on college trips that include Harvard University, Summer STEAM programs and college scholarships. Lopez also continues to impact the lives of children through her "She Is Me" and "I Matter" initiatives, which have served thousands of youth throughout Central Brooklyn by providing workshops, forums and mentoring. In this short, energizing talk Nadia shares how she helps her scholars envision a brighter future for themselves and their families. TRULY INSPIRING STORY.
-- Watch How Dr. Nadia Lopez is Building a Bridge to the Future for Inner City Scholars
-- Watch Mott Hall Bridges Academy scholars visit Harvard
-- Watch Why Principals Matter

The Pursuit of Belonging

"There is a misconception about belonging. That in order to belong, you have to sort of fit in, assimilate or acculturate... I think that sense of belonging requires us to be alike enough, to share enough in common to find community. But in fact to celebrate the fact that we are different. And those differences are not seen as deficiencies, but in fact celebrated as actual contribution to this beautiful community that we create today..."
Terrell L. Strayhorn is Professor and Director of the Center for Higher Education Enterprise (CHEE) at The Ohio State University. He maintains an active and highly visible research agenda focusing on major policy issues in education: student access and achievement, equity and diversity, impact of college on students, and student learning and development. His research has particular accent on issues of race, class and gender and the experiences of racial/ethnic minorities, college men, economically disadvantaged individuals and other marginalized groups in education.
In this heartfelt presentation Terrell talks about a fundamental need of the student, which isn't tied so much to good grades or money, the sense of belonging.
"The success of this country depends on our ability to prepare citizens for active participation in democracy, and part of that depends on our success in educating current and future generations of students. And their success, their educational success, depends in part on the extent to which we create environments in the home, in the school, in the community where they fit in and they belong."

Want kids to learn well? Feed them well

"When we give our kids the nourishment they need, we give them the chance to thrive, both in the classroom and beyond."

What can we expect our kids to learn if they're hungry or eating diets full of sugar and empty of nutrients? Former White House Chef and food policymaker Sam Kass discusses the role schools can play in nourishing students' bodies in addition to their minds. His work connects nutrition and education in an effort to make sure future generations thrive.

Help for kids the education system ignores

"Let's believe in young people. Let's provide them the right kinds of resources. I'll tell you what my teacher did for me. She believed in me so much that she tricked me into believing in myself."
Define students by what they contribute, not what they lack — especially those with difficult upbringings, says educator Victor Rios. Interweaved with his personal tale of perseverance as an inner-city youth, Rios identifies three straightforward strategies to shift attitudes in education and calls for fellow educators to see "at-risk" students as "at-promise" individuals brimming with resilience, character and grit.
Based on over a decade of research, Rios created Project GRIT (Generating Resilience to Inspire Transformation) a human development program that works with educators to refine leadership, civic engagement and personal and academic empowerment in young people placed at-risk. Rios is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The power of human connection

Erin Thomas-Foley is the director of education for the School of Performing Arts in Richmond City (SPARC). Over the last 16 years, she has become a major force and key teaching artist behind SPARC, an outreach program dedicated to taking arts education to metro Richmond's schools and youth centers. Her most recent achievements include the creation and direction of LIVE ART, a cutting edge, inclusive arts education program that culminates in a cross-pollinated arts concert, featuring nationally recognized musicians and students from multiple organizations and schools within the Richmond community.
-- Watch "Setting the Stage for Life"

The Power of a Teacher

Adam Sáenz serves as the clinical director of The Oakwood Collaborative, the counseling and assessment clinic he founded in 2003, and is a consultant to school districts and agencies nationally in the area of teacher wellbeing, stress management, and the dynamics of effective relationship building. He believes that educators have power to shape the future by establishing life-changing relationships with their students. VERY INSPIRING TALK.
-- Read From Jail to Harvard: Why Teachers Change the World

Becoming a Better Teacher

Dr. Mariappan Jawaharlal is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Dr. Jawa is recognized as an outstanding educator for his innovative and engaging teaching pedagogy for which he has received numerous honours and awards.
- Read ‘What Do You Think?’ - A Simple Question that can Transform Your Teaching on Huffington Post
- Read Confidence-Building Communication on Huffington Post

How to raise an Adult

"My job is not to make them become what I would have them become, but to support them in becoming their glorious selves."
By loading kids with high expectations and micromanaging their lives at every turn, parents aren't actually helping. With passion and humor, Julie Lythcott-Haims, former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford,  makes the case for parents to stop defining their children's success via grades and test scores. Instead, she says, they should focus on providing the oldest idea of all: unconditional love.
Great heartfelt talk.
-- Go to TED talk

The Need For A New Model In Education

"We have to go from what is essentially an industrial model of education, a manufacturing model, which is based on linearity and conformity and batching people. We have to move to a model that is based more on principles of agriculture. We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process; it's an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish." - Sir Ken Robinson
NEW YEAR, NEW GOALS.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

"Happy happy new year / Another opportunity is there / To just believe in what we can be / And see our dreams become reality"
The Fantastikids & Monsieur Nô are an english children choir made up 20 pupils from Ermitage, International School of France and they sing to help Plan International France.

You don't really care for music, do you?

Kaylee Rogers, a pupil at Killard House School in Donaghadee, was chosen to sing a special biblical version of the Leonard Cohen classic for the school’s festive end-of-year shows. The primary seven pupil, who has moderate learning difficulties, gave an emotional performance of the song at three Christmas concerts, supported by Killard’s middle school choir.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL.

The Chance to Create

Young Audiences Arts for Learning is an association of affiliated organizations that are each dedicated to local education and community development. The YA network collectively works together to impact arts in education practices and policies on a national level. They are serving over 5 million children and youth each year in 8,984 schools and community centers across the country through its diverse network of 30 local affiliates. Their mission is to inspire young people and expand their learning through the arts.
-- Visit Young Audiences New York

Let's teach for mastery — not test scores

Would you choose to build a house on top of an unfinished foundation? Of course not. Why, then, do we rush students through education when they haven't always grasped the basics? Yes, it's complicated, but educator Sal Khan shares his plan to turn struggling students into scholars by helping them master concepts at their own pace.
In 2004, Sal Khan, a hedge fund analyst, began posting math tutorials on YouTube. Twelve years later, Khan Academy has more than 42 million registered users from 190 countries, with tutorials on subjects from basic math through economics, art history, computer science, health, medicine and more.

Music and Memory

MUSIC & MEMORY℠ is a non-profit organization that brings personalized music into the lives of the elderly or infirm through digital music technology, vastly improving quality of life. They train nursing home staff and other elder care professionals, as well as family caregivers, how to create and provide personalized playlists using iPods and related digital audio systems that enable those struggling with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other cognitive and physical challenges to reconnect with the world through music-triggered memories. In the video below you can watch and listen as John Jay High School student volunteers describe what it means to help residents of the Blue Skies of Texas nursing facility in San Antonio.
“It makes you feel good. And it makes you feel like you’re doing something to change the world. It’s an experience that every young person should go through.”

Embracing Failure

At New Mexico School for the Arts (NMSA) -- a dual arts and academic curriculum -- failure is taught as an important part of the journey toward success. Understanding that mistakes are indicators for areas of growth, freshmen learn to give and receive feedback. By senior year, students welcome tough, critical feedback -- and even insist on it.
"Students have to take risks," says Cristina Gonzalez, the former chair of NMSA's visual arts department. "That’s something that is so unique to learning in the arts. Great art comes from risk taking, from being willing to fail. Maybe it will work. Maybe I'll discover something about myself, something about my capacity that I wasn't even aware of, and that's so exciting for a student."
-- Read "Embracing Failure: Building a Growth Mindset Through the Arts" on Edutopia

There once was a WALL

"..If you painted, or performed, or wrote, or engaged in any form of creativity, the very nature of the wall could change, and change you."
Creative Aging brings the arts to older adults where they live or gather. To do that, they hire professional musicians and other artists to perform and teach in nursing homes, retirement communities, senior centers and daycare facilities. Arts-related programs have a significant and measurable impact on seniors’ cognitive, emotional and physical well-being. Older adults who participate in arts programs report a higher overall rating of physical health, fewer doctor visits, less medication use, fewer instances of falls, and fewer other health problems than those who do not participate. Please watch this short but inspiring video.

The Wall with Credits from Spoke on Vimeo.

ARTS ED NOW

"The arts tap into your soul, your love and your passion, and all those things that make you a well rounded human being"
ArtsEdNow is a a statewide campaign to increase active participation in arts education at all schools in New Jersey. Their campaign goals for 2020 include extend the access to arts education to all NJ students, increase the number of schools providing more than two art forms, increase arts participation in all schools and school engagement with community cultural groups.

ArtsEdNow Video from rosanna sanchez on Vimeo.

ArtsEdNow Voices from NJAEP on Vimeo.

Finding your Voice through the Arts

"I think music is gonna help me achieve my dream"
Based in Paterson, New Jersey, the Paterson Music Project (PMP) is an El Sistema-inspired program of the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts that uses music as a vehicle for social change by empowering and inspiring children through the community experience of ensemble learning and playing. PMP provides intensive, low-tuition musical training to students throughout Paterson after school. Students study a primary instrument (violin, cello, viola, bass, clarinet, flute, or trumpet) and participate in ensemble practice and instrumental sectionals. Students also study music theory, music history, aural training, and singing. Students perform frequently for the school and community.
-- Read "Keeping the Promise, Arts Education for Every Child"