Tell us the story of your school and what makes it unique. If you were to describe it in a few sentences, what would you say?
Atlanta International School is an international school for 3 year olds through 12th grade. We are one of only a few schools in the US that offers the full International Baccalaureate program (Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme, Diploma Programme), and our school provides students with a strong foundation in language and global perspective that is needed to succeed in a globally-connected world.
What was your original HMW (How Might We) question coming out of the January 14th Design Workshop?
How might we enhance collaboration between teachers and library/technology specialists to enhance student learning throughout our school?
Tell us about your team's experience with the Empathy phase and the biggest surprises and unexpected insights you found.
We interviewed a number of students, teachers, and parents, and were surprised to find many common themes, even between those with very different backgrounds. We were amazed at how passionate people were about learning. What surprised us the most was that the most memorable learning experiences people shared were really personal and took place outside of school.
Tell us about your team's experience with the Design Summit. What stands out most? What will you take with you?
We interviewed a number of students, teachers, and parents, and were surprised to find many common themes, even between those with very different backgrounds. We were amazed at how passionate people were about learning. What surprised us the most was that the most memorable learning experiences people shared were really personal and took place outside of school.
What POV (Point of View) statement did you settle on at the Design Summit (at least for now)?
We have gone through many iterations of our POV, so we're including our most recent POV here:
We met: enthusiastic, inquisitive, passionate learners who shared that some of the most powerful learning is student-led and student-centered, engages multiple disciplines and intelligences, builds empathy and shifts students’ perspectives, transcends the classroom space, fosters a sense of ownership and connection, and is authentic, creative and hands-on.
We were amazed to realize that the most powerful learning experiences transcend structured time, space and curriculum.
It would be game changing if we could transform our use of time, space, and curriculum to create a consistent learning environment of applied, trans-disciplinary, project-based learning that nurtures collaboration, creativity, and a shift in perspective leading to meaningful action.
Tell us about the prototype you built at the Design Summit. What was it? How did it address your POV? In the testing you did with users, what did you learn?
We put together a prototype that allowed participants to think of school spaces that fit interdisciplinary projects. While this was insightful, we felt that it was perhaps a bit too restrictive. Further discussion following the Summit revealed the links between time, space, and collaboration, and we felt that we couldn't focus on one at the expense of the other two. We have since reframed several times before arriving at the revised POV in the prior question.
Tell us about what you're going to do next to continue iterating. What's your action plan? What are you doing on Empathy? What are you doing on Define/POV? What are you planning to do on your prototype?
We have gone through a series of reframes. We returned to our empathy interviews and did a more in-depth analysis of the data that we have gathered. We also did the empathy interview work as one large group, rather than analyzing it in pairs or smaller groups as we had before. This has proven to help us establish a stronger consensus among the group.
What other reflections on the process to date and the collaboration with other schools would you like to share?
One of our biggest challenges has been to establish wider buy-in from stakeholders across our school community. We have participated in a number of meetings and have also had a number of shared conversations, and this has steadily yielded positive benefits. We have seen some game-changing conversation over the past few weeks, and we are looking to carry that energy into our work next year.
Atlanta International School is an international school for 3 year olds through 12th grade. We are one of only a few schools in the US that offers the full International Baccalaureate program (Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme, Diploma Programme), and our school provides students with a strong foundation in language and global perspective that is needed to succeed in a globally-connected world.
What was your original HMW (How Might We) question coming out of the January 14th Design Workshop?
How might we enhance collaboration between teachers and library/technology specialists to enhance student learning throughout our school?
Tell us about your team's experience with the Empathy phase and the biggest surprises and unexpected insights you found.
We interviewed a number of students, teachers, and parents, and were surprised to find many common themes, even between those with very different backgrounds. We were amazed at how passionate people were about learning. What surprised us the most was that the most memorable learning experiences people shared were really personal and took place outside of school.
Tell us about your team's experience with the Design Summit. What stands out most? What will you take with you?
We interviewed a number of students, teachers, and parents, and were surprised to find many common themes, even between those with very different backgrounds. We were amazed at how passionate people were about learning. What surprised us the most was that the most memorable learning experiences people shared were really personal and took place outside of school.
What POV (Point of View) statement did you settle on at the Design Summit (at least for now)?
We have gone through many iterations of our POV, so we're including our most recent POV here:
We met: enthusiastic, inquisitive, passionate learners who shared that some of the most powerful learning is student-led and student-centered, engages multiple disciplines and intelligences, builds empathy and shifts students’ perspectives, transcends the classroom space, fosters a sense of ownership and connection, and is authentic, creative and hands-on.
We were amazed to realize that the most powerful learning experiences transcend structured time, space and curriculum.
It would be game changing if we could transform our use of time, space, and curriculum to create a consistent learning environment of applied, trans-disciplinary, project-based learning that nurtures collaboration, creativity, and a shift in perspective leading to meaningful action.
Tell us about the prototype you built at the Design Summit. What was it? How did it address your POV? In the testing you did with users, what did you learn?
We put together a prototype that allowed participants to think of school spaces that fit interdisciplinary projects. While this was insightful, we felt that it was perhaps a bit too restrictive. Further discussion following the Summit revealed the links between time, space, and collaboration, and we felt that we couldn't focus on one at the expense of the other two. We have since reframed several times before arriving at the revised POV in the prior question.
Tell us about what you're going to do next to continue iterating. What's your action plan? What are you doing on Empathy? What are you doing on Define/POV? What are you planning to do on your prototype?
We have gone through a series of reframes. We returned to our empathy interviews and did a more in-depth analysis of the data that we have gathered. We also did the empathy interview work as one large group, rather than analyzing it in pairs or smaller groups as we had before. This has proven to help us establish a stronger consensus among the group.
What other reflections on the process to date and the collaboration with other schools would you like to share?
One of our biggest challenges has been to establish wider buy-in from stakeholders across our school community. We have participated in a number of meetings and have also had a number of shared conversations, and this has steadily yielded positive benefits. We have seen some game-changing conversation over the past few weeks, and we are looking to carry that energy into our work next year.
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