 EXAMPLES OF CURRICULAR

INNOVATION ........................2 Nov. 11, 2008

h
 BRIGETTE LESCHHORN USES WIKIS TO
BRING LORD OF THE FLIES TO LIFE WHILE
MATT HIXENBAUGH AND JOHN OLESKI
TEACH COLLABORATION AS THEY EXPLORE
ANCIENT AFRICA.....................3

MICDS
Innovation
 AMY SCHEER PROVES THE WORLD
IS FLAT IN A PROJECT WITH 8 OTHER
COUNTRIES..........................4

IT ISN’T ABOUT THE TABLETS, IT’S ABOUT THE LEARNING THEY ENHANCE AND THE
POSSIBILITIES THEY PROVIDE. IT’S ABOUT USING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE
OPPORTUNITY. IT’S ABOUT MAKING INNOVATION TRADITION.
Update
The MICDS Upper School Curriculum has been and will continue to be the driver in our use of technology. Technology
allows us to build an innovative curriculum that teaches the core curriculum AND 21st century literacies. It encourages global
collaboration in an increasingly flat world. .

Shifting Gears
Smooth Driving
This year MICDS launched a 1:1 them. It was “GO Time!” we had all
tablet program in grades 7, 9 and 10; cylinders firing for what was sure to be
"MICDS has all the resources to set the
believing that the curriculum had an interesting ride.
pace and the tone for 21st century
evolved to a point that ubiquitous
education. That is my intent, to make the
access to technology was needed to
MICDS Upper School one that is known
allow us to build the type of
for its innovative, exciting curricular
innovative curriculum that today’s
program that truly educates and energizes
students need, a curriculum that
students to be their own teachers for the
retains the fundamentals but
future."
acknowledges emerging literacies. We
were excited about giving our
students not a laptop but a personal
This newsletter is designed to serve as an
learning environment, a tool that
update on our progress in becoming the
paired with the right curriculum could
school that our students deserve.
help us all become a community of
learners. Our goal was to move from The ride was framed by a statement from
imagining possibilities to fulfilling the Upper School Head, Louise Morgan

Cool Course
The interdisciplinary Sudan Course allows students
to work with video footage collected by a National
geographic photographer to create a documentary
video about the crisis. The course includes seminars bias in journalism, activism, and the art of creating a documentary. The class
with speakers like John Danforth and a “Lost Boy.” collaborates with other schools and universities on an international level.
It is team taught by an English and History teacher
and includes literature about the crisis as well as a
history of Africa. Students learn about videography,
 BIG RIVER RUNNING
POETRY CONTEST
WINNER

S TUDENT
More Bits and Bytes on Porsche Poole,
S
submittedALUTE
Class of ’09
:
an original poem to
Big River Running. She took
The tablet is simply a tool that allows us to be creative in

the Tablet
The tablet is simply a tool, but it is
a powerful one because of the
opportunities it affords students
and teachers. At MICDS, we view
the tablet as the students Personal
Learning Environment. It can be
customized to aid in their learning
and to make them efficient at the
job as student. It contains
textbooks and software that allow
learning to continue outside of the
lab. It possesses
Likewise, it would not be fair to my students to teach them
about World History the way I was taught years ago if I want
them to be competitive in today's game of life.
4th place. He poem can be read
the ways in which we engage students in learning. It is a in its entirety at
learning environment that allows us to extend the http://www.bigriverrunning.co
classroom beyond physical boundaries.My students can m/Poetry%20Contest.htm. An
excerpt is below:
work with students in other countries and that is extremely
powerful.
I Run by
MICDS History Teacher
the power to allow us to build an
innovative curriculum that extends How
opportunities that this opens for
the classroom walls by allowing learning are limitless and
students to interact with experts and Can I run
powerful. The curriculum at
students in other geographic When my heart pounds
MICDS is evolving to leverage
locations and to continue to do Like the furious stranger
this power, keeping what is
software intensive projects outside Behind the front door
necessary in core foundation and
of the school day. The adding a richness that surpasses
How
traditional learning and prepares
out students for lives as global
citizens in the 21st century.
Can I run
When my breath
Matt Hixenbaugh Comes harder than
Asphalt-covered roads

Curriculum Role Call Packed-dirt trails

And any other track
Unbeaten
English use software to analyze their data they find and Unbested
Students produced graphic novels to help will present their findings electronically to their ‘till now
them understand Antigone. peers
Students studied Frederick Douglas and then World Languages How
delivered their own persuasive speech in the Students used Photoshop and InkArt on their
Presentation room. Speeches were broadcast tablets to created children’s books written in Can my legs pump
and recorded using ustream.tv so parents Spanish to share with lower school Spanish With more energy
could watch from home and students could students. More vigor than
evaluate and learn from their own Students use browser based and locally hosted The parched journeyman
performance. software to engage in conversations in the target Desperately trying to draw out
Science language outside of class, extending the time a drink
For the Atomic Scientist Project students did spent on oral practice Traveling through the
research on a historical personality in History unforgiving desert
science and created a wiki book of Students interact in a Ning social network to
information. continue discussions, share their ideas and How
Math questions, and deepen their thinking outside of
Scribe Blogs-Students take turns posting the class. Can I stay sane
days notes with a reflection of the material. Facebook 1800 uses Ning to place students in Focused
They are creating a companion website for an 18th century facebook situation in which they Determined
their course while learning to think critically research their character, an 18th century ….Continued
and reflectively about their own learning. reformer, and interact in the network
Math Research Project- Each student is accordingly.
gearing up to select a social justice or Continued page 5
environmental topic to research and study
from a quantitative point of view. They will
SITE WATCH
Quizlet (http://quizlet.com) is a flashcard site that was started in 2005 by a 15
year old student and his father. It is a site that the MICDS students view as
valuable for learning recall information like vocabulary words or science
facts. Students can collaborate on the creation of a flashcard deck. Students
can practice a deck of flashcards and quizlet tracks their progress. Quizlet also
monitors overall statistics for the deck of flashcards. It records the most
missed cards and the user with the most views for a given deck.
 EMERGING
LITERACIES:
Wonderful Wikis
Students in Matt Hixenbaugh and John Oleski’s
21st Century
classes explored the civilizations of Ancient Skills
Africa to develop research skills.
kingdom. In 9th grade English,
tool for teaching true
students were put in groups,
collaboration. We use
given basic parameters similar
technology to enhance learning
What exactly is a wiki? A wiki is a to the situations encountered in
and skill acquisition not for
website where users can add, Lord of the Flies and wikis were
technology’s sake.
remove, and edit every page used to play a survivor island
using a web browser with ease. game that forced them to think
Students in World History II
Wikis requires no technical critically about decisions being
Classes were put in groups and
knowledge and work much like made. The wiki format
given an Ancient African The Skills of a Life
word processing software. The encourages equal participation
kingdom to research and create Long Learner (L3)
wiki software keeps a log of and a true sense of
a wiki page that would allow
every change that has been collaboration.
their peers to learn about that Visual/Media Literacy
made, when it was made, and
Brigette Leschhorn used a wiki to teach students
who made the change. More
Lord of the Flies and the life skills of negotiation, Information Literacy
importantly, a wiki is a great
collaboration, and creativity
Global/Cultural Awareness

Digital Citizenship

Network Literacy

Basic Literacy

Flexibility/Adaptabilty

Learn More:

Partnership for 21st Century

Skills
Must Read Faculty Grade Report (http://www.21stcenturyskills
.org/)
Wow! It has been an exciting and fun quarter and we have accomplished so much! This quarter we
implemented a tablet program in grades 9 and 10. Our focus has been on revising curriculum to NCREL/Metiri Group 21st
leverage the power of this program as well as on supporting students as they learn to take notes and Century Skills
live in an electronic environment. We have concentrated on opportunities to formalize research and (http://www.metiri.com/Solut
citation and have attempted to provide students greater opportunities to present and create because
we have tools that give us the ability to do so.

Your work with the integrated units that started the year provided a firm foundation on which to
build. I am proud of the work you did with creating graphic novels, researching and discussing in
ning networks, producing political commercials, and teaching collaboration with wikis and google
docs. You have done a nice job helping students begin to develop understandings of creative
commons and visual literacy as evidenced in the geometry blog project. In order to reflect on what
we are learning, you have participated on Elgg. You have shared information using delicious
accounts. In short, you have started to build your own Personal Learning Networks.

We’ve talked about a framework for learning previously and we will now begin to give greater
meaning to that concept as we develop and refine our concept of 21st century learning. We have
much to accomplish in the next three quarters and I know you are up to the tasks. There are so many
opportunities and learning experiences before us! CONTINUED HERE-
http://www.21centuryconnections.com/node/631
 FACULTY
NOTES:
Professional
Development
Learning is not limited to
our students. Faculty
members are always
Portia and her poetry or a
looking for ways to
behind
improve the scenes
their art guy or
teaching.
stutech
Recently, a unique
conference was offered,
free of charge and from the
convienince of your own
home. The k12 online
conference featured over
40 sesssions given by
distinguished faculty from
all over the world. Sessions
contain ideas and
information on engaging
students in deep learning
experiences as well as
information on the ways in
which education is
changing and how to be
responsive to that change.
MICDS faculty spent time
listening and discussing a
number of sessions.
FlatClassroom:
8Countries – 1 Collaboration
It is important for students to view Math as a part of life, to see its relevance outside the
classroom, to use it in real ways. The flatclassroom project forces students to identify
and work with real numbers while putting student in the position of global citizen...... Amy
Scheer (AP STAT teacher
The FlatClassroom Project is a
collaborative project between
10 classrooms from 7 different
countries. It uses Web 2.0 tools
to make communication and
interaction between students
and teachers from all
participating classrooms easier.
The topics studied and
discussed are real-world
scenarios based on 'The World the overall project. They
is Flat' by Thomas Friedman. organize their findings on a
The Flat Classroom Project is collaborative wiki. They must
featured in the latest edition ofmake decisions about what
Friedman's book in Chapter version of English they will
13, 'If it's not happening it's use and be consistent with the
because you're not doing it', ir spelling Our students find it
page 501-503. interesting that there are
differences in the spelling and
Students in AP Statistics proper use of English and
participate in this project. The struggle somewhat when they
project begins with must use British spellings.
students from the Once research is complete,
different schools students move to the creation
and countries phase and work together to
introducing create videos to demonstrate
themselves to each what they have learned. There
other. They begin to are several opportunities for
interact and learn students to interact in real
about each other and time with each other. Students
the countries that collaborate as global citizens of
an increasingly flat world.
they are from.
Students are then
put into teams with
students from other
countries and each
team is asked to

Additionally, MICDS has a
team of faculty involved in
a learning cohort
comprised of teams from
20 schools. The teams
come from New Zealand,
Australia, Spain, and the
USA. These educators are
involved in ongoing
discussions about the most
effective methods to use,
the emerging skillset
students need, and the most
important content that must
be taught. This interaction
generates original ideas for
creating innovative content
and helps our teachers
Cool Tool
research a portion of
DyKnow allows us to convert traditional lectures
into interactive two-way dialogues between teacher
and student. It provides a mechanism for increasing
student assessment and providing feedback about
student performance. DyKnow allows the teacher to
manage the lecture, to actually write on the students
tablet and to send notes to the student freeing the
learner to concentrate on learning. DyKnow also
allows the instructor to control student access to
applications and websites so distractions can be
minimized when needed. After class, DyKnow
notebooks can
be replayed allowing students to see the steps in a math problem or to hear the audio in a World
Languages class. If a student is sick and can’t be on campus, they can still sign into DyKnow and
take part in the lesson. More information on DyKnow can be found at http://dyknow.com.

Today’s PowerPoint on Technology can be seen at

http://www.slideshare.net/ehelfant/meetmicds-presentation