Group+3+-+Creative

Jeff, Trevor, Susan, and Kimberly Trevor - we teach content but not disciplines as in the Gardner book, the cognitive process of a historian is very different than that of a physicist. at high school level we want to expose students to what Jeff - when are we going to use it, we need to connect it more directly, maybe bring in a literary critic, an engineer into the classroom. Kimberly - we lose them at 18 sometimes and they forgo furthering their education, they don't see it as useful Trevor - International Baccolariat Program has a good reputation, look at that. Magnet schools - speciality centers - Gardner idea to develop subject area as a discipline Kimberly - what about interdisciplinary teaching? Interdisciplinary links between history and science are hard to link But it is a good idea to link math and science Earth Science should really be taught after chemistry and physics. Kimberly - Etiquette Challenge Centers, Wellness Center - hike to Monticelllo, Yancey After School Program Susan - Asked Daughter (finished 9th grade) Why does school "suck"? you come to school, you sit at a desk, you take notes until your hand hurts, you stop, you zone out, you come back stressed out that you forgot to take notes....you take out your homework Trevor - Murray High Schools students create their own learning plan Trevor and Kim - Teach what you learned - once they know that they have to make it interesting to other people.

Final assessment idea: Start with the premise that 90-95% of students think schools could use improvment, put the ownership of making schools more engaging on the students themselves as a critical thinking project / assessment 1. Research three other schools - use technology (internet, twitter about your school, create a blog )

Educational Research shows that SOL scores do go down if more focus is placed on critical thinking.

We have a standard of learning that talks about analysis etc but the multiple choice format does not really allow for this type of assessment. It is primarily knowledged based.

We need to make a paradigm shift so parents and students are not so SOL score conscious. Is it really that important that a students makes a 484 versus a 515.

What is the drive for pushing critical thinking skills? The workplace is driving this not the school systems. School Systems are "happily?" focused on SOL scores

People forget facts but not learning

One of the things that killed the cool American Studies projects, was teaching the SOL content.

Keep asking why....

In a nutshell: Promoting critical thinking in schools is a response to the growing amount of evidence that our students are not adequately prepared for the workforce or college.