Institutional Isomorphism – thoughts
School has had a strong fine arts program:Music, Dance, Drama, Strings Band, Visual Art
Principal that believed in the Arts: Supported a music teacher with proper qualifications,
Leadership in teaching art / not crafting.- Visual Literacy
Teachers who extended learning through drama. Dickens Day – Engaging student learning through hands on, collaborative and creative learning.
Through leadership and mentoring teachers began to explore learning through the arts/ collaborating with artists in the community to enhance learning in a multitude of subjects.
Brought student teachers into our school from UBC’s fame program. Students who had strengths in fine arts and media. They brought in fresh ideas and technology and showed us what we could do with technology to continue our hands on, collaborative, and creative learning.
Once the students left however, we were left with a need to learn how to use tech tools in order to utilize what they have to offer
New Principal and new staff who wanted to see us move together as staff learning how to utilize our tech tools to move towards a 21st century model. New desktop computers in every class including library, music room, ELL and Learning Assistance.
We began with lunch and learn workshops every 2nd Wednesday. We would have teachers on staff, people from the community, teachers from the district help us to move towards a digital literacy so that we could begin to teach.
*Websites- communication
* software- typing programs, writing programs , imovie, iphoto, digital photography, …
*online reporting
Declining Enrollment – gave us the push to move our school forward into the model of 21st Century learning
Birth of Global Learner Program – A year of collaboration –A living ever morphing way of teaching that takes risks, collaborates, pushes teachers to find new ways to engage student learning that encourages student leadership. Broadens their thinking and learning to connect to the world and their community. Sometimes uses technology but as a means of achieving outcomes.
You might be interested in the work of Ellen Dissanayake, “Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began”. She writes about the role art making has played to cohere human societies so they could cooperate and sustain their social coherence over time and through difficulties. There is a natural connection between our uses of technologies and our creative expression in the arts. Both activities entail learning. This is a very exciting dynamic that is not well articulated in educational theory at present.