Most Likely to Succeed

What?
Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend a viewing of the award-winning documentary "Most Likely to Succeed" made by Greg Whiteley. The screening was presented by CORE education, and screened at St Peter's School, in Cambridge.

The film's synopsis:

The current educational system in the United States was developed a century ago during the rise of the industrial age and was once the envy of the world. However, the world economy has since transformed profoundly, but the US education system has not. Schools are attempting to teach and test skills, when mastered, that still leave graduates woefully unprepared for the 21st Century. After presenting this problem, the documentary focuses on the story of a school in San Diego that is completely rethinking what the experience of going to school looks like. As we follow students, parents and teachers through a truly unorthodox school experience, the audience is forced to consider what sort of educational environment is most likely to succeed in the 21st century?

What caught my attention?

• student agency
• meaningful
• soft skills
• feedback
• exhibition
• real audience
• obvious growth and learning
• thinkers
• collaborators
• problem solvers
• re-imaging

Discussion
After the screening, the audience all participated in a group discussion where we shared our thoughts on the following questions:

What changes are happening?
What do we still need to do?
What action/discussion points will I take back to school?
What next?

So what?
I came away from the film with a renewed desire to look at my teaching practice. I was trained under the old style teaching (based upon system created in 1893). To me this system is not adequately preparing students for the society we are moving forward, where it's not about specific knowledge, but instead, knowing how to access knowledge, as well as being problem solvers who work creatively and collaboratively with others. 

I believe that I need to change the way I teach.  Fortunately, we work under a forward-thinking curriculum which gives us the freedom to make change.

Working out my thinking and how I am going to make changes will be a large part of my PLD over the next year or so.