The Blue Sky School Commmunity

Blue Sky School is a school built for, of and as a community. Central to everything that we do are our students' voices.

I have always known that the existing schooling system needs deep change. Through all of my previous projects, I have tried to lead this change. There has never been quite enough space for my blue sky ideas. I am so thrilled to see my lifelong, audacious dream of a totally new type of school coming true with the support of a magical co-founder, Karen Hill, 100 Action Team members and tons of community partners. Blue Sky School is the experimental prototype school of tomorrow.

Watching our community work together to build something this huge is truly inspiring. The most amazing thing to see is our learners collaborating with one another.

Three of our incredibly talented and thoughtful community members wrote, directed, filmed and edited a video telling our story!

Our learners of all ages will be contributing to a blog documenting our ongoing learning and the process of building a school from scratch.

The collaboration, community building and celebrations have already begun, before we've even moved in to our amazing innovation centre! Blue Sky School opens for full-time schooling of grade 6-8 learners in September 2017 with a Pioneer Class of 12.

Learning happens when passion and empowerment meet. Blue Sky School is an independent not-for-profit coworking centre for learners of all ages. We nurture the next generation of changemakers and partner with today's innovative leaders.

For more information about Blue Sky School, visit us online.

Welcome a Student Teacher Into Your Classroom

Welcome a student teacher into your classroom.

The Why:

As educators, we have the opportunity and the privilege to elevate our profession. Create a prototype classroom where you and your students can help teachers experiment and improve their skills. Mentor teachers that are new to the profession. Be the person YOU needed (and hopefully had) when you were starting your career.

Teaching can feel very isolating. You are often the only adult in a room with 20 or 30 people for 6.5-7 hours each day. Getting to be part of a team will not only empower a pre-service teacher, but will also enhance your own teaching.




The How:

Make a commitment. Promise your student teacher you will do the following things. Follow through and do them:

1. I will provide you with ongoing, meaningful feedback in the writing and in person.
2. I will make sure you know #youmatter and how important you are to me and the students.
3. I will step back and let you make mistakes.
4. I will push you outside your comfort zone.
5. I will celebrate your successes with you.
6. I will respect you as an individual and give you space to be yourself.
7. I will share resources and ideas with you.
8. I will make sure that you create a positive digital footprint.

To get started, feel free to use/modify this letter as you wish (it is a welcome letter inspired by my weird and wonderful friend, Doug Robertson in his book, "He's the Weird Teacher").

Why and how do you work with student teachers? What do you wish you had learned from or with your mentor teacher(s) when you were a student teacher?

This is one of my 330 (not exaggerating, in fact, that's where I lost count. There are probably 400 of them by now) posts in a series I'm calling "Purge the Draft," wherein I attempt to purge my draft posts by completing and actually posting them. Don't expect these at any regular interval. That's too much pressure.

The Myth of the Super Teacher

The Myth of the Super Teacher from EdWriters on Vimeo.

Dean Shareski directed his students to this video on a website for an online class that I've been visiting. Soon, my class will be getting a "Virtual Student Teacher" and he's linking us up with one of his pre-service teachers! The kids and I are very excited.

After watching this video, I sent it off to my Junior colleagues almost immediately. Roxanna Elden did an incredible job validating me and I couldn't wait to share her words with my friends! I also quickly searched up the book she mentioned, thinking that I might actually need to start an educational Book Club (and not just the one in parentheses that my current colleagues and I hold some Fridays after work!)! Fortunately, I have my new Kindle and I ordered a digital copy of her book, See Me After Class.