Monday, March 21, 2011

My best post ever!

I hinted on Twitter last week that I was anticipating great things. I mean we had our state tech conference and March Madness, but I also had a secret that I hoped would come true.

Well today I accepted a history position at Kent Innovations High. It is a new project based school starting next fall through our county intermediate school district. It is part of New Tech High that is spreading in the mid-west.  This school integrates the curriculum of the four core subjects into student centered projects. It also works with local businesses to give students real problems to solve. This model of school represents so much of what I believe is best about learning.

The crazy part about this job is that it starts right after spring break. The staff gets all spring and summer to get to know each other, be trained,  and design the curriculum! We will actually be given time to be prepared to make this work. The school space is also being re-modeled so that it looks more like a Starbucks than a traditional classroom.

I can not really express how excited I am about this opportunity. There have been disappointments the past couple of years that I did not want to express publicly, but I am seeing that it is all working out for the best now.

I will continue to blog here in a similar fashion, but the focus will naturally turn to what we are doing in this school. I will also probably blog about history more, but will cover all core subjects as our projects will be integrated. I hope we will also be helping students to use on-line tools to collaborate with others and share their learning. I will be calling on my online community to create interesting learning opportunities for my new students. I can't wait to get started...

13 comments:

  1. Congratulations! I bet it will be interesting to switch from middle school to high school. Where will the school be located?

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  2. Thanks Sue and Ricochet!

    The school will be in one wing of an existing building at the Kent Intermediate School District. It is not a huge switch because it will be 9th grade.

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  3. Congrats and all the best in your new adventure.

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  4. Congrats on the hire! Welcome to New Tech! Hopefully we'll be able to meet at the Summer conference! -- Geoff

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  5. Geoff sounds good. Is that the conference in Grand Rapids?

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  6. Mike. Fantastic. What a terrific opportunity. I would love for you to keep me in the loop as this progresses. Best of luck. Dave Tchozewski, daveski61

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  7. very exciting! congratulations! can't wait to hear all about it. I'm envious of your opportunity to be one of the creators of this program. I'll just have to experience it vicariously through this blog.

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  8. That is so exciting! I wish you the best of luck and hope you will keep updating us with your experiences there!

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  9. Hi there! First off let me say congrats on having the oppurtunity to be a creator and experience such an exciting thing! I am a student in Dr.Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama and am studying to become an elementary education teacher myself. I think a school like this only shows just how far we have come through the knowledge of technology. I think it is GREAT that you all have time to carefully put a program together instead of just jumping head first off in it. I wish you all the luck in the world and can not wait to hear your further updates!

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