Vision 21

Vision 21 is an exciting initiative being carried out by the secondary teaching staff to incorporate 21st century learning skills into the educational process in our school. In November 2007, the Board of Trustees had the opportunity to listen to a presentation from the New Technology High School Foundation at the annual school board convention in Coeur d'Alene. The trustees were motivated to bring a similar program into our district. Last spring, a group of eight local educators visited the New Technology High School in Napa, California and were given the opportunity to learn how NTHS has enhanced student learning and student responsibility.

The returning staff members were equally excited by the prospect of incorporating these changes into their practice and took the initiative to inform the other teachers and begin working on the integration of these ideas into the school culture and academic programs. You may know that we no longer use bells at school. Using synchronized clocks, students are responsible to be in class on time. Tardies can negatively effect a student's grade just as being late to work could impact future prospects for employment. Tardies have been greatly reduced.

The secondary students and staff have been divided into cross-grade groups and several events have been developed, some by staff and some by students, which help students to work cooperatively in groups, learn leadership skills and give back to their school and community.

One of the critical pieces of the NTHS curriculum is project-based learning (PBL). PBL is a method of instruction that utilizes students working in small groups with specific responsibilities for completing the work or activity. Generally a project will incorporate numerous skills over time, may be cross-curricular (i.e., language arts and history or math and language arts) and includes a public presentation at the conclusion. Students learn to lead, work cooperatively, develop individual responsibility for their learning, communicate their ideas to others and many other important 21st century skills. Several teachers have been working hard to integrate PBL into their classes. Next year, using federal Title II funding, the district will provide a professional development opportunity on using PBL in the classroom.

Another important tool used by NTHS is a student database software program which allows teachers to create grading systems that effectively assess student progress in these 21st century learning skills. Further, this software allows students, teachers and parents to access curriculum and assessment information and readily communicate electronically with one another. A committee has reviewed six software packages to replace our current student database software which will be obsolete at the end of this school year.

If you are not familiar with the 21st century learning skills, please see Genesee School District Policy 300.2 which can be accessed on our web site at: http://www.sd282.org/Policy/300.2.pdf.