Education Reimagined: A Space for Risk

(Hardback)

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Taking risks is how humans learn. It is how humans have always learned. A person sees a problem, takes in the available information, and tries a solution. It is in that process - whether the goal is understanding a Shakespeare play, figuring out an algorithm, or writing a theory of history - that engaged learners make breakthroughs, be those breakthroughs individual, group, or societal. In this book, three experienced practitioners describe how to re-imagine teaching spaces - conventional schools - as learning spaces, spaces where risk is encouraged, celebrated, and actually taught in every area of endeavor: from how, where, or if to sit, to how to find the right pathway to learning. In bringing the stories of a central office Innovation director together with an elementary teacher and administrator and a veteran secondary teacher leader, Education Reimagined: A Space for Risk demonstrates how fundamental change is possible in any school

Reviews

After a long span of test-centered schools and classrooms, many educators are mapping routes to student-focused environments that are livelier and more enlivening. This book provides readers an opportunity to hear the voices of colleagues who are committed to such classrooms and who understand what it means to make students their partners in teaching and learning. -- Carol Ann Tomlinson, William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
Mistakes are not the flaws of learning; they are the learning. Contemporary classrooms are places where mistakes and risks are not only supported, but celebrated!Education Reimagined: A Space for Risk will challenge teachers to make bold decisions about improving their professional practice. -- Michael Fisher, author of "Upgrade Your Curriculum"
When educators take risks to try new approaches to reach all learners, children find multiple pathways to successful learning for not just school but for life. Such educators think about aligning learning systems with learners' needs rather than trying to fit kids into the box we call school. Ira, Michael, and Cheryl have created spaces for learning that flex the learning to the children, supporting them to find success through their interests, curiosities, connections, and friendships - truly in communities of learning for all. -- Pam Moran, superintendent Albemarle County Public Schools, 2016 Virginia Superintendent of the Year, finalist for National Superintendent of the Year
As educators, it is vital that we understand the value of honoring students learning needs, not only through the differentiation of academic content and instruction, but also meeting physical and affective needs through the creation of flexible spaces for learning within the classroom. This book, authored by educators in the field, offers teachers innovative, yet straightforward ways in which they can transform their classrooms into spaces where students feel safe to embrace risk and experience autonomy in learning. Education Reimagined: A Space for Risk is a must read for any teacher, novice or seasoned, who seeks to provide all students with unlimited space for critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity within the classroom. -- Courtneay Kelly, Assistant Professor, Education Department, Longwood University
As a Principal on a campus currently under the school improvement umbrella, I found this work to be timely and necessary. Through the gradual release of responsibility as is demonstrated through the strategies shared in the book, my teachers will be sending students home tired instead of themselves! The purposeful redundancy of the content helps support the sense of urgency one must possess to be successful in today's ever changing classrooms. Every teacher on my campus will be reading this book. Success, here we come! -- Traci Smith, principal and novelist

Author Bio

IRA DAVID SOCOL, formerly the award-winning chief technology and innovation officer for the Albemarle County Public Schools in Virginia, is the senior provocateur and learning environment specialist with Socol Moran Partners. CHERYL WALCHACK HARRIS is with the Albemarle County School Division in Charlottesville, VA. She earned her masters of education from the University of Virginia in administration, supervision, and curriculum. J. MICHAEL THORNTON II is an educator with a bachelor of arts in history, a master of arts in teaching, and a masters of education. He has been an administrator and teacher in Albemarle County, VA, and is currently an administrator in Sioux Falls, SD.