- Very hard math--but make this math relate to real world endeavors. Focus on probabilty and statistics. Because probability and statistics are what people need in the real world.
- 7-10
- No classrooms--instead a workspace with places for collaboration and places for quiet work.
- 60 % gifted, 40% struggling--These are not hard and fast but I want enough in each group that cliques will not form.
- Students who understand that working together is not giving someone else your hard work. It is learning to work together in the same way that you will work together for the rest of your life.
- Develop leaders.
- Develop a love of learning and a connection with students.
- Morning meeting of adults to discuss data related to student needs. Target students who are in difficulty that very day.
- Director will visit with all students at least one time per week.
- Director will observe each student for 10 minutes on a regular and rotating basis.
- Everyone involved in the school will work on having and creating a growth mindset even in the face of daily setbacks.
- Adults will support each other in weekly 1/2 hour de-breifing sessions. These are not sessions to complain--they are sessions to vent a bit and then work on solutions.
- The school will be an incubator for ideas that everyone has had but has had no place to try.
- There will be work samples throughout the building. The space will look like a museum.
- Students AND adults will clean their workspaces at the end of the day.
- The school will have a leadership council that will make major decisions about learning. This will be similar to the council at Souhegan high school. Teachers and students will be part of the council.
- Students and teachers will understand and come to learn that failure is an essential part of learning. They will learn how to accept failure, make course corrections and do better the next time.
- The school will likely be small enough that we will be able to regularly meet as an entire group. This would be like a corporate meeting. The director would speak about timely issues and a student would speak as well.
- Summative assessments would be primarily student led conferences.
- Appropriate and business use of technology would be encouraged. Texting, picture messaging, video, video editing by students.
- There would be an online student paper that would be published weekly.
- Writing, writing, writing, writing. Students will write 1000 words per day. It doesn't matter what but they will be writing every day. If they are having a meltdown and can't do anything then they will write about that. They will write about academics, they will write about their lives, they will write about whatever they need to write about to get to 1000 words per day at least.
- Tele-presence room. 1 experience per week with someone from the outside world. A paleontologist from Montana one week,
- Teachers students and director will eat together for lunch. (Think Phillps Andover where they all eat in the same space. Sometimes teachers eat with kids sometimes not, but they all eat in the same space.
- Snack time and current events at would happen at a midpoint in the morning. This would be social, with no agenda and would be attended by all. Parents would supply snacks or student groups would make them. There would be announcements by students an other updates.
- T-shirts, sweatshirts, polo shirts, bumper stickers, these things might seem silly but they matter.
- Students would come up with the name for the school, the design logo, and so forth.
- There would be an app for the school.
Having visitors would be essential to this school. In addition to local professionals I will draw upon successful friends to provide a constant lecture series that goes throughout the year.
- Ted Lord--anesthesiologist
- Ron Sandler--environmental ethicist
- Chris Elliott--Owner Ohio Soil Recycling--a bioremediation firm
- Justin Wells--OSR
- Jim Gooch--Trust for Public Lands
- Tucker Richmond--hedge fund manager
- Scott Evans--CIO TIAA-CREFF
- Val Scheutz--veterinary assisstant
- Liz Hogheem--architect
- John McLeod--architecht
- Seth Webb--director of recreation for Killington VT
- Becky Jones--nurse
- John Crumrine--conservationist and dad
- Chris Irwin--Engineer at Honda
- Ryan Macaulay--Owner Epic Sports
