Welcome to our blog

This is the story of two educators on one journey. Each day we will record our reflections on the process of being involved in an innovative educational environment. The decision on our part to leave the public education system was deliberate due to our growing frustrations over the factory "one size fits all" model of education. This model has dominated the educational landscape and is not designed to meet the needs of the 21st century learner. Step one in our journey was to find a place that would allow us the freedom to break out of the system. We needed a chance to just breath and facilitate learning in the ways that we both know are best for children. That step has led us to Rosemary Beach Florida to work with the students attending the OH Institute. The OH Institute is a unique educational environment that we find humane. The curriculum focus is on the individual learner with an infusion of technology project based learning. Currently, it has 20 students in grades 4-11 all of whom are seeking something different than what the factory system of education has to offer. This is where our adventure begins...

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Monday October 18th

Monday October 18-

Amy:

Today was a whirlwind day. It started with a group of visitors coming in to look at our elementary curriculum in math. One thing that came out as they were visiting was that the online curriculum that they have developed is one that is intended as a supplement to the regular curriculum. They called it a tier two piece which means that it is layered on top of the core curriculum. Essentially it is suppose to be another hit if content delivered in a different way.

After our visitors I spent the rest of the morning on check ins. Students are starting to consistently fall behind on their FLVS work. I still feel like this is due to a lack of commitment on their part to do homework. To do FLVS and PBL work they have got to do 2-3 hours of work a night at home. I am fairly certain that the majority of our students are not doing this.

I spent the afternoon block working on documenting systems and structures as well as refining the HS PBL course.

After school we dealt with our first dilemma with a social issue in the elementary room. Randy and I liken it to the kids being more like siblings because the environment is so small. I think we have a good solution and plan for solving the dilemma.

Finally the day ended with a dinner with our morning visitors. I enjoyed listening to Mike Lue talk about China and the education system.

Randy:
Morning - Today we had visitors from edu2000. They explained how learning math is like learning Chinese letters. You have to have the foundation to be able to move forward. Also, Ms. Sylvia was here to help the hs students with their writing. What a valuable resources. Elementary began work on their civilizations and Jack and Trae are working together.

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