Moving On

by Olga LaPlante

I had a workshop today with middle school teachers. Two of them were from King Middle School which is an expeditionary learning school. I haven't been in it, or observed lessons, but one thing is very obvious - they are enthused. They are talking passionately about their classes - expeditions - and are quite creative. It's also possible that I was lucky to meet this particular kind of teachers by pure coincidence, but it was very encouraging anyway. You hear so many controversial things about Portland Schools. However, working with adults has proved that there are great teachers, and great things continue to happen.

So, as I said, that was middle school - with all the buzz around the high school piece, middle school initiative has lost a great deal of its novelty, and has gone to the background. Which actually may be a blessing in disguise - don't I know about that phenomenon!!! - and now middle schools who are savvy in many cases, may go on focusing on their local smaller scale professional development, and this is where the MLTI/eMINTS mentors are invaluable.

Well, thanks to Jim for sending me an invite to write here - I guess I needed a special note to start contributing! :)

Expeditionary Learning Resources

King Middle School - Kelly Fitz Science Blog