It's A New Year - Dream Big #29

Greetings WOL Friends,

As the new year begins all of us at the WOL Institute wish you well.

With so much media telling you how you can be better, more efficient, and mindful - I want to reiterate my belief that you are amazing. Look back on all that you have accomplished in the past year! Try not to focus on what you haven’t done, rather focus on that one student who needed you, the teacher you supported through a difficult time, the friend you called. All the people’s days you made that you don’t even know about because you smiled, you said hello, you said good job.

In this episode, we hope to inspire you to think creatively - to get an assignment done, to find a teacher for an elective, science, or World Language course, or to finish a project you started. Think outside the box, there is always another way! I talked with our team about what success they want to build on in the new year. They accomplished so much in 2022!

This awesome team helps our teachers navigate new ideas a little at a time!

Here are a few of the ideas Lauren, Erin, and Olivia shared in this episode:

1. Dr. Tom Butler’s newsletter about his Top 10 books inspired us to really think about moving from creating learning experiences, to supporting student-led and designed learning journeys.

2. If we could create courses without restraint we would not limit them to a single content area.

   

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3. We talked about courses we dream of last season. Here are a few more titles we think could help others engage in their learning:

   1. Exploring and Creating Cities - from ancient Rome to modern metropolises, what makes a city tick? How can we make cities green? Will cities survive the pandemic?

   2. The 10 Most Influential (you name it). Teas, Beverages, Maps, Books, TV shows. You get the idea. Listen in for more

   3. Passion Projects - think Genius Hour every day! Students build, design, create, and write, all while solving our community’s problems.

4. Creating Narrative - Story Based Courses! We are so excited to share our new approach to authentic and relevant experiences - inspired by our PASCD conference attendance. Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Allison Zmuda help us see just how valuable rethinking the presentation of our courses can be for engaging students and our communities. Look for their new book soon HERE.

5. Lauren talks about the book Unstoppable Us, which she is reading with her son. If you have heard of Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari, yup - he wrote it. We, humans, can be UNSTOPPABLE.

Stay tuned for opportunities to join us in working to create learning journeys of the future!!

Happy New Year!

Pat, Olivia, Lauren, and Erin