Claire Amos

Over the next few days, I am lucky enough to be attending the Deeper Learning conference at High Tech High in San Diego. This morning I went on a pre-conference tour with two senior students and a teacher. You'll be glad to know that teachers are an unruly bunch wherever you are on the globe. The students did a stellar job of managing the constant questions fired at them.  From the outside, High Tech High is relatively unassuming, a series of school buildings that fail to prepare you for the creativity and visible learning that is evident on every wall and every space in the interior.  The Elementary and High School is a series of classrooms, many with glass walls and connected by shared common spaces. The feel is something in between more traditional school structures and the ILEs such as Hobsonville Point Secondary School and Albany Senior High School, possibly most similar to the spaces at Albany Junior High School. In Elementary learning is either integrated or connected w...

Larry Rosenstock speaking at Future Schools I have enjoyed stalking Larry Rosenstock for some time now. I first came across him when I heard about High Tech High a couple of years back and then last year I was lucky enough to sit on a panel with him at EduTech. He was also one of the central players in the recent documentary 'Most Likely to Succeed'. So many reasons to be a ardent fan girl. Larry began his talk by giving a background and insight into the path that led to High Tech High - a K12 charter school, now a chain of charter schools. He then talked about the first teachers and schools, such as the basket weaver who taught others to weave baskets. He also talked of the great teachers he had and talked about the importance of thanking the teachers we loved and acknowledged the importance of the passion that they shared. He talked about the importance of the Socratic Method - a technique that we see used at the beginning of Most Likely to Succeed. Rosenstock wor...