As I work with our AIW scoring teams at Monticello, the following question is typically asked, “How do you reach a higher score for Value Beyond School?” This question ties directly to the question we, as a district, are starting to ask, “How do we increase community support for our schools?” It’s not that community support at Monticello is lacking, it’s that we want more of it.
Through the book, Schools Cannot do it Alone, by Jamie Vollimer and through our work with AIW, we recognized that we needed a gateway to the community to start conversations that focus on increasing the value beyond school (VBS) in the lessons we teach. We want our community to be aware off all the positive educational opportunities that are happening for students within our schools, and we want them to be a part of it.
We know that instruction and tasks need to be designed to influence an audience beyond school in order for them to score high in VBS. Utilizing the local and global community has the potential to increase student engagement, which directly correlates with student achievement. As educators, we know this to be true, but our community may not. Here is how we have started the “great conversation.”
Our first step was to have teachers in the spring of last year write down one positive comment about something that happened in their classroom during the year. When the final comment was received, it was obvious that many of the positive things that were happening in classrooms tied directly to AIW.
We pulled the teacher comments together and created a video that conveyed the message that positive educational opportunities are happening in Monticello Schools. Next, we asked our staff (every district employee) to sum it all up in three little words. Staff could choose any three words they wanted in any format they wanted. This is a take-off on Good Morning America’s Saturday segment called Three Little Words. The result is over 1000 hits and counting on YouTube last week. The word is out, and as of right now, one of the major employers in Monticello is asking us how they can be a part of students’ education.
The door had been opened to increase value beyond school for each and every classroom at Monticello Schools. The “great conversation” has begun, I think I speak for everyone at Monticello when I say, “It is an exciting time to be a Panther!”
Three Little Words Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkJrp5oZCWE
Positive Comments Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecC2pe5vifw
Gretchen Kriegel, Monticello Curriculum Directions and AIW Local Coach