Head's Up, Kathleen McNamara

Visiting the iSchool in New York City, down in Soho, was impressive for a number of reasons. The high school within a school has a very customized program, originally modeled after HIgh Tech High in San Diego, where teachers are encouraged/required to innovate and customize the educational experience of their students. I saw samples of very innovative work on the boards in the hallways and watched very engaged students, collaborating on real world issues, composing music and working from a dramatic reading of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As one of our tasks is to relate this visit to our own research on 21st Century Schools and our reading from Daniel Pink, Drive, I saw many examples of a curriculum laden with the opportunity for, in Pink’s words, autonomy, mastery and purpose. This was a humbling visit! 

http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate/animate/rsa-animate-drive

The Dean of Admission of Columbia College, Peter Johnson, addressed our heads group at the end of the day. He and colleague, Alec Milton, discussed admissions at Columbia and gave us a window from the inside to their college admissions process. Dean Johnson used a terrific metaphor for the recommendation letters from faculty and the college placement office. He used the term YAC, a recent addition to the world of football stats. Here is what I found in wikipedia: 

Yards After Catch (YAC) is the term used in American football for the distance gained by a receiver after catching a pass.[1] Specifically, it is the forward yardage gained from the spot of the reception until the receiver is downed, runs out of bounds, scores, or loses the ball. YAC is sometimes referred to as RAC for Run After Catch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yards_after_catch

Essentially, Dean Johnson said a great letter tells the story of the student once he/she has received the pass, YAC:  What is important is not that they caught the ball, but how far they go with the ball once they catch it; how a teacher writes about the contribution of a student. 

Coming from a long line of football playing men, I love this analogy!

In our 21st century skills class, we discussed Pat Bassett’s 5Cs +1.

Creativity, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Cosmopolitanism (cross-cultutral competency)

We also discussed (in small groups), how we would create our ideal 21st Century School.

So who are we? This group of eighteen heads?

We are seven women and eleven men

We are from twelve states and four countries

We are from large schools and small, boarding and day, preK3 through 12th grade

We are funny and serious and long term heads and second year heads

We are happy to be here at TC, at Klingenstein, doing this program at this moment in time

More to follow!