In Session Four, we reviewed and updated our educational shifts and guiding values to ensure they support the future-focused learning environments that we envision for our schools. After doing so, we engaged in a series of hands-on activities to begin conceptualizing how these future-focused spaces will be structured and what road-blocks lie ahead.

We identified potential obstacles that may stand in the way of bringing these shifts and values into reality. As with driving a car, a stop sign does not mean, “turn around and go home”. Rather, it creates a caution point for the driver to pause and discern when and how to best proceed. Likewise, that is the intent of these Stop Signs.

Finally, we split up into groups to develop a Conceptual Space Diagram that would support the shifts and values articulated thus far. In an effort to simplify the task, groups were directed to focus on a small learning community. Conceptual spaces and ideas were developed for a single grade level at the elementary school, middle school, and high school age ranges.

In Session Three, we reviewed our shifts and values developed in the previous educational visioning meeting. To ensure these reflect our vision for the future of learning at St. C Schools, we will contine to dicuss and refine these shifts and values. To begin the process of conceptualizing these shifts and values, we assessed a series of photographs of interior educational and business spaces and identified the spaces that best reflect our vision of a future-focused learning environment for our district. The group also took a facility tour of the recently opened Harrison Central School in Cadiz and highlighted what aspects of the new school resonate with St. C Schools.

In Session Two, we review the results of our shifts survey, taking the temperature of where we are today and where we want to be in 10 years. The videos and readings for Session One showed us where education is heading nationally and globally, but we know that not every theory, trend or philosophy is going to work here in St. Clairsville. 

By deeply understanding where we are today in academic delivery, we can help chart a course that takes into account where our biggest leaps will take place. 

In this session, we also began to conceptualize, in real terms, what a future focused learning environment should be. 

We are preparing for the future!  As a key member of the community, we need your help to define what that future will look like for our students.  The world has grown into a global marketplace with ever-changing technologies and more and more complex challenges. We must equip our students to adapt and thrive in this rapidly changing global environment.

Our Educational Visioning Team is tasked with considering what these changes mean for our students and the manners in which they learn.

Thank you for agreeing to be a part of this important effort. Over the next week, please watch and read the links below.  A few days following, a survey will be posted asking you to help identify values that will inform the future of St. C Schools.

After the survey is complete, we will have a series of sessions in which we dive into these values and uncover what they mean for the future.

Thank you for your investment in the future of our schools!

P.S.  As we consider how teaching and learning are changing, we’re sure challenges come to mind that could hamper that transition. Please share those issues with us anonymously by submitting them below.

A stop sign does not mean “turn around and go home”.  Rather, it is an opportunity to pause and consider how best to proceed.  We’ll have some conversation about these and how best to navigate around them.