Out-of-the-box thinking had McClure Junior High School principal Dan Chick standing on a table in the school library wearing quickly crafted headgear with a marshmallow on top.
Despite more than doubling the height of other competitors in the Marshmallow Challenge, where teams used uncooked spaghetti noodles, tape, plastic strips and a marshmallow to create the highest free-standing structure, the McClure teachers did not earn bragging rights. Judges from Discovery Education, who were on hand for a presentation on digital learning, ruled the McClure creation didn’t meet the criteria of “free-standing.”
“We technically did not violate any rules,” Chick said, arguing his case to no avail.
“We spent a lot of time devising ways to get around the rules,” assistant principal Ashley Burger admitted.
Although losing bragging rights to teachers from Forest Hills School, the McClure crew did earn kudos for their out-of-the-box thinking from the representatives of Discovery Education, a subsidiary of Discovery Communications, which includes the Discovery and Animal Planet television networks. Discovery Education reps said such out-of-the-box thinking as well as purpose, possibilities and passion will help craft how District 101 students learn in the near and long term.
Discovery Education was at McClure to help launch a multiyear professional development initiative, Digital Leader Corps. The program, financed through the Western Springs Foundation for Educational Excellence, aims to create modern digital learning environments that engage students, improve academic achievement and prepare students for success beyond the classroom.
Superintendent Brian Barnhart said the corps chosen for the digital learning group would devise technological advances and share their learning and insights with peers in their schools.
“We will use technology in ways that we have not even begun to think of,” Barnhart predicted.
He said bringing instructors from pre-kindergarten through junior high together for the digital education partnership with Discovery will give teachers a chance to connect on different levels and share successes across grade levels. The hope, he said, is that this puts the district on a trajectory for increasing the use of technology for the betterment of students’ education.
Toni Robinson, Discovery Education’s director of professional development, said that the chosen educators would share the work they do and are already doing to bring technological advances to the classroom.
“The idea is that we are really looking at you as leaders helping to support the great work you’re already doing and then helping to disseminate that information to others so that we don’t just have little pockets of excellence, that we are really seeing a transformation throughout (the district),” Robinson said.
Robinson said she foresees the day when a teacher will have a device go off in class and be alerted that a certain student is not engaged in the curriculum. She said even though there is more data on student performance than ever before, an overwhelming factor in a child’s education is the passion of his or her teacher.
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“You can’t have passionate students without passionate teachers,” Robinson said. “Impassionate teachers douse the passion in students.”
Kevin Beese is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press