Educational innovation out, public alternative in
Learning environments are more colorful and stimulating, the teachers see the children and have an on-going dialogue with them, they provide better enrichment and they allow for a larger variety of intelligences and learners.
Only a few succeed in becoming a barrier braking alternative facilitating educational processes that do not toe the line with traditional concepts.
In IDE’s Amitzim Program operating in dozens of schools statewide, we have discovered that more and more parents choose to enroll their children in “alternative” schools.
We have resolved to find brave school principals who wish to take their public schools a step forward and turn them into such alternative schools.
Alternative how?
An alternative school differs from the project-oriented school in its adaptation of 21st century learning through pedagogical, administrative, routine and content aspects. School staffs lead extensive educational, organizational and community changes. An organizational culture is created, whereby all partners are connected and constant change is encouraged to promote innovative learning.
Professional literature shows that successful reforms were instigated and carried out by school principals and not by outside forces. It is also evident that principals have the power and the authority to initiate changes and reforming principals have never been deterred or stopped by the community or by the supervision system.
However, we at the Amitzim Program know that groundbreaking principals and revolutionaries also need a little outside help and a lot of inside help.
A brave change
A public alternative school is not created through innovative, pedagogical or fashionable technologies, nor by superficial changes, it comes from people. The heart of the change is a professional community who learn together and create a vision shared by many partners within the school. Surrounding this community is a horizontal organization based on an infrastructure of exchange and agreement, from which they advance to innovation and the adoption of tools and routines. This is a vision of a democratic organization promoting shared responsibility, social involvement and dialogue – critical components in the management of organizational changes.
With school year 5779 coming, we are looking for more brave principals who care about the public system and are willing to take the extra mile towards an extensive and profound educational alternative.
Contact:
Hagit Agur HaLevi at 972-54-4869641
