Students and Parents: You can participate in the Innovate 2013 Conference

While just about everyone in the Graded community will be finishing up their vacation, 300 educators, including over a 100 of Graded's faculty, will be learning at the Innovate 2013 Conference. The good news is, that in today's connected world, you can participate virtually by joining the Conference Ning. This is your opportunity to join in our discussion on "re-imagining school". You can also track the conference on Twitter with the hashtag #innovate13.

The full conference kicks off with the Innovator Panel on Saturday evening at 1700. We are happy to announce that two Graded parents, Alex Abizaid and Fábio Coelho are on the panel. Graded graduate, Michell Zappa is also a featured speaker on Monday.

Bold Schools Wrap-up: HS PTA Coffee

At yesterday's PTA coffee Gila Fregonesi and I presented information on academic program changes that we believe will positively impact students in the classes of 2015 and 2016. We also discussed Will Richardson's concept of Bold Schools. Below is the presentation from yesterday's coffee and a summary of some of the comments from our discussion. Feel free to watch Will's TEDxMelbourne talk and respond to the following survey.


 A brief summary of the comments from yesterday's meeting is below:

• The world is changing and technology must be embraced and integrated into education. We cannot teach the way that we did before.
• In today's world students are connected to a larger world. A classroom without walls. Helps students become citizens of the world.
• Learning is constant and it happens anytime, anywhere for students, teachers and parents. 
• Learning in schools has to be connected to real life. Have to look for ways to integrate studies into real world work.
• We need to make a paradigm shift that teachers to focus on learning, not teaching.
• Questioning is constant and students have to take a systemic view instead of focusing on specific content. 

 What are your thoughts on the Bold school ideas that Will Richardson presents? Feel free to join the conversation by commenting and/or taking the survey.