Change

Back to their future – together!

Posted by kima ⋅ August 12, 2011 ⋅ 3 Comments

This was part of my speech on August 7 at Portland, Oregon during the 8th Annual AERO Conference — Transforming Education & Our World and was originally posted at the TEDxKids@BC website. I hope you will enjoy the video I made for the occasion – bear in mind that this was my first attempt at video editing! I am … Continue reading »

Why Should We Ask the Children?

Posted by Pernille Ripp ⋅ May 18, 2011 ⋅ 3 Comments

This year I took the ultimate risk; I asked my students what they wanted to learn about. The first time I did this, I was met with averted eyes and mumblings. One student even asked me if this was a trick question? After much reassurance, after all, these kids know that adults usually use their … Continue reading »

What’s high school for?

Posted by kima ⋅ May 6, 2011 ⋅ 3 Comments

I don’t always agree with Seth Godin, but I usually find his thoughts valuable beyond the world of marketing and entrepreneurship he usually writes about. I was so glad he decided to venture into the question of “what value could (or should) high school bring?” in today’s blog post, he suggests we should teach the future generations … Continue reading »

How do you change school culture?

Posted by whatedsaid ⋅ April 26, 2011 ⋅ 11 Comments

How can the culture of a school be changed? I was recently asked this question by Tyler Rice and I responded with a letter (cross-posted here) to which I await his reply. Dear Tyler (and educators at Coop Catalyst!) It’s taken a few days of thinking to even begin to formulate a response to this huge question. I’m sure … Continue reading »

Stand up for public education

Posted by Elisa Waingort ⋅ March 28, 2011 ⋅ Leave a Comment

This has been edited and revised from a previously published post at http://bit.ly/hwQkl7 In the current climate of teacher bashing, increased high stakes testing and teaching, and the push to use student test scores to evaluate teachers in order to determine individual teacher rewards and punishments, it is imperative that teachers, families, and students stand up and say, … Continue reading »

Adora Svitak on the “big” changes in education

Posted by kima ⋅ February 25, 2011 ⋅ 14 Comments

In order to make anything a reality, you have to dream about it first! The goal is not to turn kids into your kinds of adults, but rather better adults than you have been! – Adora Svitak, 13 years old writer, poet and humanitarian speaking to adult audience at TED 2010 Editor’s note: Ever since I joined … Continue reading »

Think Outside the Book

Posted by kima ⋅ February 11, 2011 ⋅ 19 Comments

“I have never let school interfere with my education.” -Mark Twain This is a guest post written by Dale J. Stephens, an unschooler and founder of UnCollege – a self-directed learning higher education alternative.I had an opportunity to meet Dale through Twitter and since then had got to know him better through our email and Skype … Continue reading »

Leading From the Heart

Posted by Chris Pryor ⋅ January 27, 2011 ⋅ 23 Comments

This is my very first post on the Cooperative Catalyst. I was up all last night thinking about it. Eyes wide open, always alert. I admit it — I was nervous. Will they like me? Will my writing speak to the valued co-op reader? These thoughts consistently traveled through my mind and never quite settled down … Continue reading »

The future of big box schooling

Posted by kima ⋅ January 24, 2011 ⋅ 5 Comments

I recently posted my thoughts on Schooling the World, an important film that takes a look at the value of bringing Western-style education to sustainable indigenous cultures and beyond. I personally — and as I mentioned in my post, it seems Sir Ken Robinson too — believe the film raises many important questions which are … Continue reading »

While US waits for Superman, kids in the world are drafted as failures

Posted by kima ⋅ January 19, 2011 ⋅ 14 Comments

I posted this 3 months ago on my personal blog — My bin of thoughts. In a discussion with this group it came up that while quite a few posts have been written on the Cooperative Catalyst for Waiting for Superman, no one have yet posted anything about Schooling the World. I believe that this … Continue reading »

10 things to do on the first day of school…

Posted by whatedsaid ⋅ January 17, 2011 ⋅ 4 Comments

Also posted at What Ed Said A new school year is about to begin in Australia. It’ll be the first time in nearly 30 years that I don’t have a class to teach (I have a new role) and it’s not an easy adjustment! For as long as I can remember, I have started the … Continue reading »

The kind of mayoral engagement I think we can celebrate

Posted by scottnine ⋅ November 30, 2010 ⋅ 2 Comments

Imagine a small city of 200,000 people whose mayor has earned the trust, partnership, and respect of its educators (both public and private), business leaders, youth, and parents. A mayor whose calendar reflects a real commitment to an honest conversation about ways the entire city can become a school – in the best use of … Continue reading »

Try Something New

Posted by Adam Burk ⋅ May 6, 2010 ⋅ 4 Comments

Here’s my advice for how teachers can play a more active role in education reformation-try something new. This may be something new in your classroom such as Paula White details. Or it may be a new school as Chad Sansing writes about. If you follow Aaron Eyler’s advice then your action might be not following … Continue reading »

It Starts with You

Posted by Adam Burk ⋅ April 27, 2010 ⋅ 16 Comments

This week’s question “how do we act as catalysts of change within our present circumstances?” is one I think about everyday. I am constantly attempting to be an effective catalyst of change, and have had some successes and many failures. As a customer I worked with Whole Foods to remove paper products from their shelves … Continue reading »

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