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Thursday, March 6, 2014

SXSWedu: Weingarten and Ravitch on Schools: Highlights from the education conference - News - The Austin Chronicle

SXSWedu: Weingarten and Ravitch on Schools: Highlights from the education conference - News - The Austin Chronicle:



SXSWedu: Weingarten and Ravitch on Schools

Highlights from the education conference

BY RICHARD WHITTAKERFRI., MARCH 7, 2014

Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch
PHOTO BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
SXSWedu – the education intro to the high festival season – kicked off on Monday, March 3, but American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingartengot an early start. Prior to her formal panel on the value of community schools, she had a chance to see in action two of the Austin Independent School District's most collaborative campuses. Accompanied by AISD trustees Gina Hinojosa and Lori Moya, Education Austin President Ken Zar­i­fis, and Council MemberMike Mar­tinez, she visited Webb Middle School in North Austin and Travis Heights Ele­men­tary in South Austin. Both campuses have been through major changes, but under very different conditions. Last decade, Webb was under a state threat of repurposing before the neighborhood rallied to save its school, while Travis Heights is Austin's first "in-district" charter.
The AFT has a particular connection to Travis Heights: It was a union grant that provided seed money to enable the community to reshape its campus while remaining in the district. In a series of classroom visits, Weingarten saw the results of that newly won latitude, including new analytic tools in "blended learning," using game-based computer education to supplement and guide classroom instruction on a child-by-child basis. She was particularly impressed by project-based service learning. Fifth graders explained how they had taken a survey of bullying on campus to understand its roots, while second-grade students discussed how, as part of their lessons on conservation, they will carry a bucket of water nearly four miles – a common experience for people in parts of the developing world. The result, Weingarten told the school's Thunderboard parent/teacher advisory group, was a testament to "the underlying notion of caring and relationship building."
There was much discussion of how to use the Travis Heights model elsewhere in Austin.