Upside Down with Standards

It’s that district mandated time of the week again: workshop day. It’s time to triangulate the world of standards and outcomes with the world of working with students. Notice, however, how few “student choice” workshop days there are or “learning & learner focused” days there are mandated in any given district. 

In scouring over all of the academic standards and essential learner outcomes thoughts instead drift to the Upside Down Academy. It’s model, structure, and standards are all quite simple.

“The best way to learn is to try and teach.”

1. Learn something.
2. Pay attention to what you find confusing.
3. Come up with a way to make it less confusing / more fun for the next person.
4. It can be a blog post, video, dance, song, smoke signal, what ever.
5. Create a lesson and make it a little easier for the next person 

 I find the idea of planning learning environment with this kind of an outcome or this kind of a structure in place to be far more engaging than anything conceived of by a standards committee. 

The technology exists to make this a reality. We just need the will to make it happen. And to have the savvy to reconcile that new world with what things like this. 

It sounds like a challenge worth accepting, don’t you think?