- College & career readiness
- Equity to close the achievement gap
- Expand access to 21st century skills
If students are to be reading at grade level (part of college & career readiness), for example, then the transliterate student can read on a device or on paper. Next, equitable access explicitly mentions college-going curriculum, but it also brings to mind the Williams Act. If some students have access to technology, all students have access to technology. Lastly, 21st Century skills include collaboration and creativity. These are not dependent on technology, but tech tools in the Google suite certainly make collaboration and creativity do-able in the classroom.
I did do a little digging from my Site Leadership Team folder, and found a document where we had addressed goals on a page. The document read:
Silverado is part of the New Technology Network of schools, we engage students in purposeful, authentic, deeper learning through Project Based and Technology Infused Instruction aligned with common core standards.
In my personal practice and my capstone, this last statement makes sense. However, after spending a few years keeping NTN and PBL as first priorities, I think the statement could be improved by moving "aligned to common core standards" to the beginning, instead of the end. I know it's an issue of semantics, but to emphasize the standards, I would begin with standards first. That's because I've seen the pitfalls of creating authentic projects that teach kids how to collaborate and create flashy products on their chromebooks, without actually learning how to improve their writing or create a strong thesis statement. I've seen beautiful presentations that were copied and pasted together by students who didn't understand their content. So maybe a revised goal should read:
Silverado is part of the New Technology Network of schools, we engage students in purposeful, authentic, deeper learning aligned with common core standards and supported through Project Based and Technology Infused Instruction .
I added the word "supported" because technology, like PBL, should support learning- but it's not always necessary. Both technology and PBL, however, can create immense gains in engagement, collaboration, and authentic work. A mission statement reworded like this would support my capstone.