Our Purpose"In times of drastic change, the learners inherit the earth. The learned are usually equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." -- Eric Hoffer
There is no doubt that we live in times of drastic change. Yet the models of education we work within seem more suited to a world that no longer exists. The challenge before us, then, is to create deep, meaningful change in our schools that will prepare our students to inherit their futures.
If we are to be successful in our larger purpose of preparing our students to inherit their futures, then we must align our system and create support structures that will bring this vision to fruition. One of our district's main areas of focus has been to implement the Common Core State Standards within a 21st Century Framework. Our work toward this goal has been focused on creating innovative educational programs to foster students' creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and effective communication. We have taken bold steps to begin to implement 21st Century teaching and learning. Through our participation in the 21st Century Teaching and Learning Institute offered at the Sonoma County Office of Education, our hope is to build upon our foundation to fully align our vision with curriculum and assessment, professional development for staff, and redesigned learning opportunities for our students throughout our district. In his book Out of Our Minds, Sir Ken Robinson writes that: "A culture of creativity has to involve everybody, not just a few." We could not agree more. That is why our district looks forward to our participation in the 21st Century Teaching and Learning Institute. Our guiding purpose is to develop a vision and an action plan for creating a culture of creativity and innovation within our district to make 21st Century learning a reality for our students. |
Our DistrictThe Piner-Olivet Union School District, located in northwest Santa Rosa, serves 1500 students across K-12. Our students come from a variety of backgrounds that reflect the socio-economic, ethnic, linguistic diversity of our community. Our district consists of five schools: Jack London Elementary School, Olivet Elementary Charter School, Schaefer Charter School, the Piner-Olivet Charter School (7-8) and Northwest Prep (7-12).
Preparation for Our PathWe have taken initial steps toward transformation. Our participation in the 21st Century Teaching and Learning Institute will help us align our strengths to create meaningful change. To find out more about our path forward:
What our students say...Find out more about what 21st Century teaching and learning means to our students:
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