Why Blog

Hello to all the readers out there. I have decided to create this blog to talk about a transition, a transition in education. The school I am currently employed with, North Valley Academy Charter School, is moving to a model of education that has me extremely excited. This school is moving to a mastery based, standards and objective based, student paced, blended learning model of education. I just have to say that anytime change happens people are wary. North Valley Academy did not originally come up with this idea, oh no, this idea has been growing for years, but the school is modeling its design after Innovations Early College High School in Utah. I must say thank you to Ken Grover and his team, they have done an amazing job. The students there are excited about education, passionate about learning, and seem to enjoy their time spent at school. I am blogging this to share this change with others. I want you to think about your own education, whether it was many years ago or you are still currently in school. I know there was a time, we have all had them, in which you were sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture and you witnessed the students who were bored, the students who actually were learning, and the students so far behind they just did not care. This happens more often than not in education. Our government has tried to create laws to fix this. This cannot be fixed, it has to be changed. As our culture is changing so do our teaching styles and learning models need to change. Education has changed terms, has changed ideas, but has never truly changed it base method of instruction. I talk to my grandparents, with my parents, and they all learned the same way I did. I had the same teachers that my parents did as well. Teaching has not adapted to the times, it has placed bandaids on the problems. Education is ready for a change and so is the students who are engaged in the process. This mastery based system makes sense! Do all the details make sense, no not yet! We are working on the details, but the basic idea of this system, I feel, is a model that will truly benefit the learner. In this model students move forward at their own pace based on their understanding of the material. This model does raise many questions which I will address in coming posting. In the real world people do achieve more based on their mastery of the material and the situation, why not apply this idea to student learning. This model of course teaches academic material, but more importantly this model will help to teach life skills, skills that are need in everyday living. I am blogging to document this change in education, for good and for bad, I believe this system will be part of the future.