Mar 21, 2021
Ira Socol is a former
Technology Director and special education teacher. He is also He is
the author of Timeless Learning and The Drool Room.
- The driver of change is where we want our kids to get to vs.
where they currently end up.
- We’re not accomplishing 99% of what we want our kids to
accomplish.
- We need to judge our work by how many choices kids have when
they are 30.
- We focus on all the wrong things. We focus on content
acquisition, when that has always been secondary.
- We’re not teaching the wonder of intrinsic motivation.
- I watch kids learn all sorts of things not in school.
- School without walls.
- Judo principle of education - use what the student is
passionate about to everyone’s advantage.
- There are different choices we can make.
- What should we be focusing on measuring?
- 50% of kids who go to college don’t go back for the second
year.
- They can’t assess anything without a standardized
assessment.
- We need to look for very specific evidence.
- Step 1: Are you understanding what our responsibilities are in
school/culture/society?
- See kids having a maximum level of freedom?
- If kids are in the halls, it means adults trust the kids.
- I’ve never seen learning happen where kids didn’t trust adults,
and kids never trust adults that don’t trust them.
- You kids better get to work! Said one student to another.
- This is a win that will pay dividends forever.
- Changed summer school into maker camps.
- Teacher: “Tell me, is there a problem you have in baseball you
would like to solve?”
- He can’t sit in a classroom. That’s our problem, not his
problem.
- Music construction studios
- We didn’t define kids by any deficit.
- Talent development - Gifted and Special education working
together.
- We found ways to make our kids succeed based on what mattered
to them.
- Why don’t more schools do this kind of work?
- In many cases you can hear them spinning excuses from the
moment they arrived.
- I don’t know how to make people more courageous.
- Your expectations of risk are very overrated.
- Because they were learners, they did fine.
- Kids live up to your expectations, just as they will live down
to them.
- What do you have to lose?
- They just need to take the leap.
- All we ask is that they take a little leap each time from where
they are.
- What do we want our kids to be?
- Lifelong learning competencies
- Wouldn’t it be easier if you were teaching all 8 year
olds?
- How would he learn to be 9?
- How would he learn to care for the wee ones?
- They can learn anything they need to learn to go forward.
- Coder dojo
- Kids can do so much more. We just need to have the guts.
- Someone who is fearless is either uninformed our stupid.
- Courage is knowing you’re afraid and doing it anyway.
- Passion-based learning high school started with just 30
kids.
- Aim small miss small.
- How to be a transformative principal? Turn off the bells. Ask
your teachers to open their doors and keep them open. Change your
grade book so nobody can give below a failing grade.
Innovative school leaders across the country have started
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In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character
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Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional
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it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro
you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if
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Learn more about some of the newest titles:
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from
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Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring
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