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Problem: Our students have limited exposure to life in the Middle East.

-How might we expose our kids to other cultures and countries?

-We will establish a partnership with a school in Istanbul, Turkey beginning in fifth grade and going through sixth grade.

-Hook: Invite Jenna Morton to speak with our fifth and sixth grade students about her experiences growing up in Jordan.

-Our students will begin communicating with fifth and sixth grade students from the Sezin School.

-Communication Tools: If You Learned Here (global ebook designed for students to communicate in an ongoing basis while creating their own stories)

Skype Classroom/Virtual Exchange

Podcast

Denise Donohue and Dana Walton

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PROBLEM:
HOW MIGHT WE EXPOSE WHO WE ARE TO POTENTIAL FACULTY/STAFF?

ULTIMATE IMPACT:
TO BRING IN A MORE DIVERSE FACULTY/STAFF

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS ALONG WITH CONTEXT/CONSTRAINTS
*community outreach/exposure
*scholarships (more) - partnerships with parents to have sponsored scholarships
*partnerships with community members as a method of getting our name out there so that students/parents want to take the steps to find out more about Dawson
*recruitment fairs hosted at Dawson for the entire Vegas valley
*other events for the community hosted at Dawson (open the gates!!!)

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1.  How would students and teachers benefit from being exposed to other cultures and perspectives?
2. It will give children a better understanding of the world in which they live and help them experience the life-changing effect of compassion, generosity and personal action.
3.  Research other schools that would mutually benefit from this experience (Research sisterschool.com, www.waclv.org, schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org)
4. The school could participate in the donation drive (books, school supplies, etc.). A delegation of teachers and Middle School students could travel to the sister school to deliver supplies, make connections and establish relationships. Some constraints might include funding, parent permission, approval for the trip and the limited number of participants.

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1. Providing more travel experiences for all our students
2. How can we provide more travel experiences for all our students to create global competency (both to more diverse areas of the US and internationally), and how can we implement and fund an 8th-grade capstone international experience?
3. Successful implementation would provide both the in-US travel and experiential MS grade-level trips we have now but would scaffold them by keeping the camp experiences at 5th/6th, moving the DC trip to 7th grade, and providing an international experience for 8th graders, perhaps with also a service component. Also, success would look like funded trips for MS language classes with combined 7th/8th grade, so each student could go at least one time in MS. At the LS and lower MS grade levels, success would be implementing family trips that families/students could choose to travel on.
4. One of the biggest problems is funding for 8th grade capstone trip and upper MS language trips. We've created a tentative partnership/contact with Amazon through our work with them at their conference here. We could reach out to them for help with funding or lesser expensive travel options in locales where they have headquarters/offices.  Also a potential problem is that it might be too early in the year in terms of maturity for 7th graders to go to DC - would they need to go later in the year? For funding trips in LS with families, reach out to local sources for scholarship assistance or grants.
5. We have constraints with age ranges, funding, and family buy-in.

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Problem - awareness of other cultures
Q: How may we relate our MS life  experiences with kids in another culture?
A: An interactive image and journalism posting site

IMPACT: Increasing authentic connections abroad

I. Virtual exchange of themed pictures and ideas
A. e.g. Photo Journalism
(Students xchg pictures to see firsthand the similarities & differences of friends, families, and fun.

Physical exchange
A. Student opps - sem or year?
B. Teacher opps - month, sem,  year?

II.

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1a. How can we empower staff to seek out individual enrichment within the school year?

2a.  Teachers given PTO as opposed to sick time have less burn out, feel more empowered over not justifying days off and can be used as a recruitment tool.

3a. Possible solutions: change time, use accrued time off for sabbaticals, etc.

4a. Human Resources, accountability amongst staff

1b.  How can we plan/allow for our students to have more fluid experiences during the 7th/8th grade?

2b. Students will be more engaged, sufficient, responsible, etc., if given real world tasks. Separates us from competition.

3b.  Define a segment of time to concentrate, find areas of interests among students

4b.  Shared resources, community acceptance, staff buy-in

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Question - How might we begin to foster international relationships with other early childhood classrooms around the world in a meaningful way?

Ultimate Impact
- Creating an understanding of other cultures/schools as it relates to their own life experiences.

Solution
- Creating an exchange program using our school mascot with other schools around the world.

Constraints
- Finding schools and teachers who are willing to participate.
- Time zones for skyping
- Age

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Problem:  bringing multiple perspectives into the classroom
Question:  How might we bring in Global perspective into different areas (English, History, Math, Science)of our curriculum?
The ultimate impact:  students that think beyond their own personal experiences.
Success looks like, no matter what the grade level, students should be able to convey various perspectives using a variety of modalities.
Solutions:
*  Being intentional about the literature that is in the classroom.
*  Challenging accepted traditional ideas.
*  Use technology to help change the student's perspective.  (i.e.  Skype with another student/school)
*  Across the grade level interactions
Constraints:  schedule (LS vs. MS)
* Bias/lack of perspective of the students
*  Age range
*  Sixth grade science class

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Group 12- Experiential experiences and field trip

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Group 12- Experiential experiences and field trip

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What is the problem you are trying to solve?

how to make our field trips more meaningful, have a global connection and keep it student driven.

Frame your problem as a design question.

in what ways may we make learning for relevant for students.
we want our instruction to be more engaging. experiential learning versus a legacy trip.

State the ultimate impact you are trying to have (what does success look like)?

meaningful, student led, align with our core values.

What are some possible solutions to your problem (think broadly)?

students would brainstorm field trip ideas. They would came up with the ideas that interest them (research groups), they are invested in the choices. The students present a proposal for which field trip they want to go on.  The selection process: students would share their choices with the groups. they would ultimately narrow it down to 4 choices.

allowing students the opportunity to reflect/share their experiences with the community. Students investment would lower discipline issues. This would eliminate students just going on a field trip because their friends were on it.

we could use an agencies: world strides

Write down some of the context and constraints that you are facing (age range, demographics, type of school, organizational mission, etc.).

budget, time, safety,

Before you move on, does your original design question need a tweak?

https://www.smore.com/j0e6w

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What is the problem you are trying to solve? Additional language options/support for students whose first/second language might be different than English/Spanish/Mandarin.

Frame your problem as a design question. How do we offer more language options to students, either at a higher level or in different languages?

1. State the ultimate impact you are trying to have (what does success look like)? Students would be able to learn their "mother tongue", giving them greater access to English acquisition.

What are some possible solutions to your problem (think broadly)?

1. Bring in modules to improve literacy and/or speaking in other tongues/more advanced level.

2. Internet language teachers.

3. Bring in volunteers/small stipend to speak/teach/language exchange. (Parents as Partners?)

Write down some of the context and constraints that you are facing (age range, demographics, type of school, organizational mission, etc.). More staff supervision. Cost. Admin buy in. Time constraints (20 min a day).

Before you move on, does your original design question need a tweak?

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Problem/Challenge:
Better connecting our Dawson community with the world.

Design Question:
How can we better connect our Dawson community with the world via online learning tools?

Impact:
Allow student, parents and teachers connect their learning as global citizens by regularly accessing the online Google site.

Solution:

Create a user friendly online Google site that provides resources and implementations that better connect our community with the world.

Context & Constraints:

must be user friendly

accessible to teachers, students and parents

private access to some information as needed

possible problem - teachers needing time to contribute to the site

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Welcome to the Alexander Dawson School at Rainbow Mountain Planetary Paws site. This site is designed to better connect our Dawson community with the world via online learning tools.

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Problem: Continuity and cultural awareness school wide.

Question: How might cultural diversity be celebrated throughout the year SCHOOL WIDE? (Maybe through PAW PRESS)

Ultimate Impact: To integrate and increase cultural awareness throughout ALL of Dawson/community.

Solution: Creating a new calendar of possible school wide community events.
SEP - Nat'l Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month & International Peace Day
OCT - Nat'l Italian American Heritage
NOV - Nat'l American Indian Heritage
DEC - Winter Holiday Stuff
JAN - CNY
FEB - African American Heritage (21st - Int'l Day of Mother Tongue-Paws Press interviews)
MAR - Nat'l Women's History
APR - Earth Day & World Heritage Day (One Drop)
MAY - Asian Pacific, Jewish and Older American Heritage
JUNE - End of the School Year Event
* INTERNATIONAL WEEK IN OCTOBER (NV DAY WEEK) AND APRIL (AROUND THE 18TH)

Constraints: Community buy-in, time, resources, budget

Does our original design question need a tweak? NO

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Problem to Solve
Our students need to get out in the community, become hands-on, have a 'real' experience. Students don't always have passion and ownership behind current projects.

Design Question
-How do we improve service learning commitment and engagement?

-How do we build it into the curriculum? Advisory?

Ultimate Impact
-Advocacy
-Student Choice
-Advisory Involvement
-*"Service Learning Legacy Portfolio"

Solutions
-Outreach Programs with representatives to come talk to kids.
-Allowing kids to choose what they are passionate about.
-Building the service learning into the advisory and/or student council.

Context and Constraints
-Time and Planning
-An advisory time given once every 6-day cycle (ex. every A Day)
-Must get the buy-in from teachers and students.
-Mission: saying vs. doing

Resources
-edutopia.com
-"Kids Guide to Service Projects" - Amazon

https://media.globalcitizen.org/thumbnails/0a/8d/0a8da7a0-09c8-4298-8839-09673064b51c/global-goals-full-icons.png__2318x1180_q85_crop_subsampling-2_upscale.jpg

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1. Double click on this Padlet to make a sticky note.
2. Answer the following prompts:

What is the problem you are trying to solve?

Frame your problem as a design question.

State the ultimate impact you are trying to have (what does success look like)?

What are some possible solutions to your problem (think broadly)?

Write down some of the context and constraints that you are facing (age range, demographics, type of school, organizational mission, etc.).

Before you move on, does your original design question need a tweak?