Building a Team to Meet the XQ Super School Challenge
After all this time trying to reach people through Facebook (it's been fun and informative--don't get me wrong), I sign up for the XQ Super School Challenge and invite others who are signed up to read my blog and join my team if they like what they read. Six people have joined the team. Wooooo hooooo!
On top of that, I had more Blogspot page reads in a single day than ever before, and someone started commenting on the posts. Another woo hoo is in order...woooo hoooo! It makes a difference to have a system like the XQ challenge website already in place for start-ups like me to benefit from.
I'm working with another team member to set up a time for our new team to meet face to face but in the meantime, we can be working toward the first goal, which is to come up with an idea for a super school and submit it by Nov. 15.
We will use a flipped classroom approach and get much of the preliminary work done online before we meet in person. We can then use meeting time to continue the conversation rather than start from the beginning.
The XQ website has all of the tools needed to help us stay on track so I plan to use them. I like that it takes a systems based approach and that it asks teams to look at the research. It sounds very NCLB but there's a huge difference. With NCLB, the data is used by school administrators, state education departments, and test publishers for accountability. If your students do poorly on a standardized test, you are a bad teacher.
Put the data in the hands of teachers, parents, students, and community organizations/businesses, and you have another story entirely. The data becomes assessment. It becomes a learning tool that will help inform what we choose to do in the future. No one has to prove their worth with it.
Most importantly, this challenge puts the power back in the hands of those who know what to do with the data -- teachers.
If we can pull this off, all of the pieces L&LNM needs in place but hasn't yet built, like sustainable funding, will basically be put into place for us (at least we'd be off to a good start).
Also, we will be working with other nonprofits who may be further along than L&LNM, which means we might consider running the funding through them and put L&LNM as a partner to build credibility that can result in future funding.
I'm not passing up this opportunity. Even if we don't win, we will have learned a lot, met important partners, and maybe funding will come from someone else who saw what we did and liked it.
If you want to join us on our journey, go to the XQ website and register. Every day I will be checking the directory and inviting any new New Mexicans I see there to join the team. Those of you on Facebook that care -- Rosalinda, Louie, Olivia, etc. -- join us!
That's it for now. Make it a great day and learn something!
On top of that, I had more Blogspot page reads in a single day than ever before, and someone started commenting on the posts. Another woo hoo is in order...woooo hoooo! It makes a difference to have a system like the XQ challenge website already in place for start-ups like me to benefit from.
I'm working with another team member to set up a time for our new team to meet face to face but in the meantime, we can be working toward the first goal, which is to come up with an idea for a super school and submit it by Nov. 15.
We will use a flipped classroom approach and get much of the preliminary work done online before we meet in person. We can then use meeting time to continue the conversation rather than start from the beginning.
The XQ website has all of the tools needed to help us stay on track so I plan to use them. I like that it takes a systems based approach and that it asks teams to look at the research. It sounds very NCLB but there's a huge difference. With NCLB, the data is used by school administrators, state education departments, and test publishers for accountability. If your students do poorly on a standardized test, you are a bad teacher.
Put the data in the hands of teachers, parents, students, and community organizations/businesses, and you have another story entirely. The data becomes assessment. It becomes a learning tool that will help inform what we choose to do in the future. No one has to prove their worth with it.
Most importantly, this challenge puts the power back in the hands of those who know what to do with the data -- teachers.
If we can pull this off, all of the pieces L&LNM needs in place but hasn't yet built, like sustainable funding, will basically be put into place for us (at least we'd be off to a good start).Also, we will be working with other nonprofits who may be further along than L&LNM, which means we might consider running the funding through them and put L&LNM as a partner to build credibility that can result in future funding.
I'm not passing up this opportunity. Even if we don't win, we will have learned a lot, met important partners, and maybe funding will come from someone else who saw what we did and liked it.
If you want to join us on our journey, go to the XQ website and register. Every day I will be checking the directory and inviting any new New Mexicans I see there to join the team. Those of you on Facebook that care -- Rosalinda, Louie, Olivia, etc. -- join us!
That's it for now. Make it a great day and learn something!
Comments
Post a Comment