CHANGEd 60-60-60: EXPERTS AND EDUCATORS

Thinking about CHANGEd: What if we expected and empowered students to co-design curriculum? 60-60-60 #13 and reflecting…

I watched a true master-teacher at work today. Empowering students. Expecting the best. Modeling learning. Reflecting thoughtfully and openly. Celebrating both success and failure. Inviting students into a world that is not often associated with “K-12 school as we know it.”

Alpin Hong is not an teacher by trade. He’s an expert pianist but an excellent educator all the same. Bo’s question of What if we expected and empowered students to co-design curriculum? makes me think of what happened at Trinity today. We invited Alpin Hong, an world-renowned pianist, into our school. In essence, he’s an artist-in-residence and it’s his second week-long visit to the school. He’s had the opportunity to collaborate with Trinity educators and students to co-design a musical experience that gets at the heart of 21st century teaching and learning. I am certain that this experience will cause all of us at Trinity to think differently when it comes to curricular and co-curricular experiences for our students.

Looking ahead….what if we did something different with curriculum design? Instead of having our teachers work independently or even in silo-ed PLC teams, why not invite experts into the conversation? What new perspectives could they offer? Just as we should not hesitate to empower students in co-designing curriculum, we should also engage those artists, historians, scientists, authors, and other field experts to help us co-create meaningful, authentic learning experiences. If we’re going to no longer “neaten the mess of education-industry learning,” we must start thinking of the dynamic combination of expert + educator + student.