#NaBloPoMo - A transformation of learning

Today I had the honor to work with several colleagues from my building off campus at the CIC St. Louis building. Aside from allowing us to step out of our building and away from some of the many distractions one has when in the building, this space allowed us to get a glimpse of where our learners may work one day. It is a phenomenal space and great idea for us to step outside of our four walls and really take in how we might want to transform our spaces to better align to current working environments. However, this trip was not for considering our spaces, it was secondary to the main goal which was designing and transforming the learning opportunities we offer in our day.

We spent the day working through the design thinking process solving this question:

"How do we transform the learning opportunities in our building to align to a model that encourages the democratic process and learner passions, while strengthing our connections to our community and continue to meet the requirements of the state and district?"

The goals were multi faceted, in my opinion.
1. What can be done immediately to make changes to drive change around student choice and ideas
2. What can we begin doing to lay ground work for making bigger changes in the future
3. Develop Moonshot ideas that will help the above mentioned goals and question.


The work was focused around data collected from our students and staff. Small groups worked together with data in areas that they may not have been directly associated with. Seeing through these different lenses lent itself to a  deeper understanding of what each key stake holder in the building had to offer in regard to change.  It was encouraging and exciting to see the groups so ready for these changes. It was also a hard task to think so differently without knowing every detail to make things work successfully.

I feel like the group as a whole made HUGE progress to begin prototyping some of the ideas and common themes that were revealed today. I am looking forward to our next steps of moving forward with a transformation.