The spring semester in MSON is always exciting for me, and not only because our 191 students across 18 courses are embarking on new learning experiences—or because we release our Course Catalog with MSON’s offerings for the next year. It’s also because I’m thinking about community and connection for the adults in MSON.
Just as our students meet in seminar twice weekly, we adults cherish times when we will get together—in professional development sessions, at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) conference, and at our Annual Workshop in June.
While our program is all about the students we serve, the final part of our mission reminds us that “Beyond its classes, MSON draws on its vibrant community to help teachers and school leaders collaborate and innovate in their schools, charting new territory in learning.” During the school year, we foster this community through virtual professional development sessions in collaboration with the Bay Area BlendEd Consortium and Stanford Online High School. (See below for upcoming dates.) All sessions are free and open to anyone in our communities (regardless of their exposure to MSON). Sometimes, our sessions are the only chance our colleagues have to connect with those at other schools.
Our Annual Workshop takes these sessions one step further. We have held an Annual Workshop every summer since 2013. In the early years, we were figuring out how to build MSON and training teachers (and liaisons) for whom all of our practices were quite new. Some of you will remember those early years and the exploration and bonding that took place! Since our program evolves each year, we retain that sense of co-creating, and our bonds are just as strong. Each year, participants rave about the incredible professional development they get from joining us in person—in terms of understanding MSON and connecting with like-minded colleagues (often from very different contexts) about shared issues. Student health and wellness, lab work online, student scheduling, project-based-learning….we’ve covered it all!
This year, we’ll convene in Nashville, at our member school University School of Nashville. Visiting a member school gives us the chance to open our perspective by touring another campus and even to interact with MSON students in person. During the three-day workshop, we will spend a day focused on “time and space” in our schools. After all, MSON challenges traditional notions of “seat time” with twice-weekly meetings and flipped classrooms. MSON also challenges traditional notions of space—virtual versus in-person spaces. We know as well that many of our member schools are thinking about time and space differently—redesigning their schedules, converting spaces in existing structures, and building new spaces for new modes of learning. We will share experiences across our member schools, making use of the deep expertise and diversity of perspective across the consortium.
Finally, NAIS is a time many in our community gather in person. MSON Heads will meet for a session in Philadelphia on February 26th to hear updates and discuss the program’s evolution. I welcome other members of our community to reach out if they will be in Philadelphia.
See you soon—online, in Philadelphia, or in Nashville!
Best,
Claire
Food for Thought
A “grab-bag” of articles I’m reading this week:
A longtime course provider enters the undergraduate degree market.
“Coursera Launches First US Online Bachelor’s Degree” EducationDive
With the Iowa caucuses around the corner, high school students play a particularly important role. (Note MSON’s two courses that build democratic/civic skills, “Democracy and Civic Engagement” and “Think Global, Debate Local.”)
“Iowa Caucuses Offer Students a Laboratory for Civics Education” Education Week
Along those lines, this new study shows the positive impact of high school debate on students in terms of cultural capital—especially skills like taking feedback and resilience.
“My Voice Matters”: High School Debaters’ Acquisition of Dominant and Adaptive Cultural Capital (summary of American Journal of Education study in Marshall Memo)
As the Democratic primary season heats up, here’s a good summary of the candidates’ views on education issues.
2020 Cheat Sheet: What the Democratic Presidential Candidates Have Said About Education ChalkBeat
Our students in “Explorations in Computer Science” will encounter key concepts in Artificial Intelligence. Will their creations compose sonnets?
What Happens When Machines Learn to Write Poetry The New Yorker