• Imagine…early elementary teacher, friends, food of favorite lunch, glue smells, many have fond memories
• Passion for school usually goes down for kids in middle school
• Many kids are bored, uninspired, and unmotivated to work hard because there is no connection to life
• How do you raise engagement?
• OAISD has been asking graduates this question for many years
• many express need to connect school to future work and life
• Pace of change and innovation make it hard for us to connect education with the future careers that don’t exist yet
• Focus on soft skills (critical thinking, communicate, problem solve) - these are important to all jobs
• key indicators for success in work
• Our schoolsystemis designed for another time - We have schools succeeding in what they were built to do…no longer relevant to this day and age
• built on the factory model
• assessments are increasing which makes more content have to be forced into less time
• We are built to consider ideas and thoughts (20% of brain) and develops between 8-16 years of age
• Middle Schools need to be focusing on creative thinking, communication, and problem solving
• Intense and intentional collaboration must occur across all areas of our community
• future prep’d connects educators and students to local business and industry - explore
• develop
• present
• “Children are the R&D department of the human race” – Alison Gopink
• “You learn the work by doing the work “- Harvard Graduate School of Education
• Let’s help kids imagine, engage in, and change the world

Categories: Learning · Tags: tedxmac2015 · Originally published on stephen.braunius.org