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Thinking on Her Feet: The Making of an Educational Innovator
By Katie Klinger
7/10/07When single mom Kelly Stern moved to Hawaii in 1990, she did not know the local public school system was poorly rated in educational quality compared to those in other states across the nation. Private schools were financially out of her reach, so Stern reached out to other families in similar situations.
Proficient in home-schooling techniques, yet insecure about going solo with her two young sons, she created a consortium of home-school families to share the responsibility of learning based on the concept of a one-room schoolhouse. She assigned curricula according to each parent's talents in the group, coaching her friends on how to engage their collective children during "class." Each year, her consortium focused on one main project in addition to the daily lessons that integrated art, music, science, math, language arts, geography, social studies, health, and physical education. Parents who opted not to teach were instead involved in maintaining school safety and monitoring school behavior.
That was seventeen years ago.
Stern is now director of student-support services at a conversion charter school on the Big Island. She is also busy designing her own business, SmartKids International, a company that facilitates decision making for families by connecting them to innovative options and resources that enhance their children's intellectual capital and skill sets.
One day not so long ago, Stern was asked to substitute teach one period for a sixth-grade class. Following is Stern's own third-person description of her experience:
"With a flinch of anxiety, her mind races as she dashes to greet the eager students waiting for a teacher who did not show today. Thinking on her feet, since there are no lesson plans, she has one hour and eight minutes to kill. She decides to have the students envision the school they would design, given the opportunity.
"She greets the students and quickly calms them by asking each of them to close their eyes and imagine coming to school this morning: The yellow bus that usually picks them up is unlike any they have ever imagined. This one is a Porsche bus. Every seat has air-conditioning and a place to plug in a laptop so they can check their email (with an imaginary advance in technology allowing Internet access from your car).
"When they arrive at school, the students discover it is no longer just a set of rectangular buildings. Trees have grown like an Ewok village of tree houses right from Return of the Jedi, and a new school has replaced the old one. Each student climbs ladders and crosses bridges to each tree-house classroom. They are greeted by teachers eager for today's lesson; as each student nestles in their beanbag chair with their laptop, the teacher whispers, 'What is it you want to learn?' and each student responds with three ideas."
As Stern ends the kindling of these students' imagination, she asks them to write down three things they want to learn. She collects the lists, and, as she begins to read the answers, she has one of those "A-ha!" moments that reminds her that teaching is the greatest profession, for in her hands she holds the treasures that would lead her and a classroom of sixth graders into a year of discovery, should each one have the chance to actualize the very thing they are curious about.
Following are some examples of what they wrote:
- "I would want to know more about how music was started!"
- "Why was black history so important?"
- "How did the ancient Greeks build the Parthenon with such heavy materials and without modern material?"
- "How did soccer get started?"
- "How did the Greeks forge weapons?"
- "What's at the very top of all the food chains put together?"
- "How can I make inventions that no one has seen before?"
- "Can a twelve-year-old kid write books and actually get them published?"
- "How was sign language created?"
I invite you to comment on this article -- and let me know if you have any visions of a perfect school.
Amazing Educator!
Submitted by kathryn Eisler LeMay (not verified) on August 25, 2007 - 17:30.
Kelly’s insight and concrete examples of how to advance our educational system is filled with an excellent combination of common sense and wisdom. Her concepts and programs for education are exactly what the U.S. needs in regards to allowing our children to become healthy, intelligent, well-rounded citizens of the World.
Having a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a Masters in Educational Psychology, my education and work experience have focused on assisting students (and staff members) who have experienced challenges in various areas in education on 4 continents. I specialize in counseling individuals between the ages of Kindergarten to City College Students.
Having the privilege to know Kelly as a person, one is able to see that she not only generates innovative, exceptional educational concepts - she lives them on a daily basis.
Sincerely
Kathryn Eisler LeMay
(805) 452 - 6026
KLEMAY1064@aol.com
Kelly seems to have made an
Submitted by Jeff Jennings (not verified) on August 24, 2007 - 16:53.
Kelly seems to have made an insightful and lifelong commitment to education based on creativity and pragmatism. That is, she commits to methods that really work. For kids this means that education is interactive and self-actualizing, where the student builds knowledge and thinking skills based on their natural delight in learning and on their curiosity about the world about them.
The home schooling Kelly promoted is an exciting educational avenue. While it often presents itself as an alternative to formal school, I think of it as an extension of schooling and leaning where the extreme case is no formal schoolhouse. There should always be home schooling going on for kids. Leaning is, in my view, a life-long adventure for all people of all ages, including students and their parents. The home is a learning experience, and insightful parents and teachers like Kelly understand this and live this.
The process of learning happens most naturally when everyone buys into the process. Kelly’s students imagine what they want to learn and thus take the first step to buying into schooling. While kids (and adults) are natural learners, it is also their choice to learn and to think. This choice can easily be sidetracked. Children and adults can decide that for one reason or another that they are satisfied with what they know. They can also decide that they do not want to learn or that they are incapable of leaning something. The student may decide not to listen or participate in class or at home with teachers or adults. Likewise adults may decide not to listen and learn from their children. Kelly’s students begin by choosing and buying-in.
Kelly’s students also imagine the where and how of their learning. I think this is very important to the successful process. Marshall McLuhan postulated the now famous, “The medium is the massage.” That is, the medium or environment or learning is actually more important than the content of what is happening. The medium of learning sets the environment in which parents and kids either do it or don’t. It’s sort of the “if you build it right” they will learn and prosper. The classroom and the home are inter-connecting mediums to be built right.
As for the mediums, Kelly’s “build it right” is based on mediums where positive interaction and active participation with other learner-teachers (everyone is a learner-teacher) in so-called learning environments means parent-child, teacher-child, teacher-child-parent, and world-me. I’m sure you get the idea… And, so does Kelly.
Creativity and Teaching
Submitted by Julia Harper (not verified) on August 24, 2007 - 10:35.
Kelly,
It has been a joy to know and work with you. I was part of the foundation of teaching with creativity with your team in the co-op school. My expertise in the Stucture of the Intellect by Dr. J.P. Guilford provided an awesome foundation to understanding the creative process in learning. It is something that I think is even more relevant today than it was in the 70's through the 80's.
Every teacher would benefit from understanding the process of challenging students to think creatively and focused. You keenly demonstrated that process in your imaginary tour that you took your students through in that example. Kudos to you, Julia
focused engagement
Submitted by holley (not verified) on August 24, 2007 - 10:22.
A number of years ago I worked with Kelly at The Institute for Family Enrichment on the Big Island. Her upbeat, creative engagement was evident with coworkers as well. Love of focused engagement with the world transfers from one to another like a torched being passed in a relay race, lighting and enlightening in and of itself. The ability to meet student and co workers where they are, using their images, values, materials creates a dynamic that is education.
Kelley Stern -educational innovation
Submitted by Marc Pilisuk (not verified) on August 24, 2007 - 10:15.
At a time when exit exams are pushing schools to become training camps, when schools are pushed for results without given resources, and when the arts, humanities and social sciences are being gutted, Kelley Stern has bought in an inspirational model for educators to bring out the creative potential of all students, in fact of everyone involved in eduacation.
Marc Pilisuk, PhD
Professor Emeritus, The University of California
Professor, Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
Author of The Healing Web and Who Benefits from Global Violence and War
I am privileged to have
Submitted by Marianne ThalkenAnonymous (not verified) on August 24, 2007 - 09:55.
I am privileged to have worked with Kelly Stern in the delivery of services to West Hawaii children. She is an even more dynamic, inspiring and creative individual than she seems in this article.
Her devotion to children and her magical Pied Piper charisma beckon children to follow her into the realms of discovery and challenge them to achieve amazing things. I hope that we can find a way to turn her loose in the educational systems--here in Hawaii as well as around the world--and give all of our children the chance to fall madly, irretrievably in love with learning, forever.
Kelly Stern's teaching experiment...
Submitted by konastef (not verified) on August 24, 2007 - 09:16.
Great article! ...and every means necessary already exists *today* to have that classroom. Today, I have Internet in my car, in the park, by the riverside and at the beach. Neither my learning nor my interaction with others is limited to the classroom, the library, the bookstore, or the office. And, today, without the use of a single paper book I can find sources that begin to provide answers to every single one of those 'fantasy questions,! ...single answers within 30 seconds and deeper research within minutes. In fact I compiled a fairly comprehensive list of sources for 'instant answers' to all of their questions in less than 30 minutes (a feat that would have been impossible just 10 years ago).
"I would want to know more about how music was started!"
http://www.answers.com/music?cat=technology&gwp=11&method=3&ver=2.0.0.453
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_music
http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/history/music-history.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/16020/data/eng/text/education/theory/history.html
"Why was black history so important?"
http://www.answers.com/black+history?gwp=11&ver=2.0.0.453&method=3
http://www.biography.com/blackhistory/
http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory
"How did the ancient Greeks build the Parthenon with such heavy materials and without modern material?"
http://www.answers.com/Parthenon+?gwp=11&ver=2.0.0.453&method=3
http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/110Tech/Parthenon.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon
http://www.ancient-greece.org/architecture/parthenon.html
http://www.ancient-greece.org/architecture/parthenon2.html
"How did soccer get started?"
http://www.answers.com/topic/history-of-football (soccer)
http://www.all-soccer-info.com/
http://expertfootball.com/history/
http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-soccer.htm
"How did the Greeks forge weapons?"
http://www.ancient-weapons.com/greek-swords.html
http://www.answers.com/bronze?cat=technology&gwp=11&method=3&ver=2.0.0.453
"What's at the very top of all the food chains put together?"
http://www.answers.com/food+chain?cat=health&gwp=11&ver=2.0.0.453&method=3
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FRO/is_3_133/ai_62297320
"How can I make inventions that no one has seen before?"
http://inventionshowcase.com/inventions1.htm
http://www.marketlaunchers.com/
http://inventors.about.com/od/firststeps/a/lesson_money.htm
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/invention/
Profile of an Inventor
http://www.answers.com/topic/dean-kamen
"Can a twelve-year-old kid write books and actually get them published?"
http://www.write4kids.com/
http://www.writerswrite.com/books/
http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/author/index.html
"How was sign language created?"
http://www2.uic.edu/stud_orgs/cultures/daa/ASLHistory.html
http://deafness.about.com/cs/featurearticles/a/signhistory.htm
http://www.answers.com/sign+language?gwp=11&ver=2.0.0.453&method=3
The time has come to begin teaching our young people "how to learn' quickly, independently, and on an as-needed, as-curious basis. Today's smart teachers are facilitators. They make no attempt to 'know everything'. And, even when they do know they opt to say 'let's go find out (together)' instead of giving away the answer before the student has *earned* it.
Your article shows how Kelly Stern began this process beautifully by asking THEM what they wanted to know while inspiring them to seek the answers to their own questions. The time has come for us to create wireless, virtual, networked, and mobile 'schools' that provide these students (tomorrow's leaders) with the unfettered means to pursue the discovery of those precious answers to their marvelous questions.
Thinking on Her feet
Submitted by Sandro Ribeiro (not verified) on August 24, 2007 - 08:15.
Fantastic!Kelly Stern is a amazing woman ,very smart,with great ideias and a good sense of humor!
I am Sandro Ribeiro,half Norwegian and half brazilian,business man and single father of a nice boy 6 years old !I have just move to USA and face the school system and health system,and i dont understand why is like this here ,and why the american people dont fight back to get beter schools and health care !?
I am glad is people out there like Kelly Stern trying make our planet a nice place to live.
Sandro Ribeiro
My reflections...
Submitted by Kelly Stern (not verified) on August 24, 2007 - 01:13.
There was only one way to ensure a creative environment for my two boys and their budding imaginations... it was to collaborate with my friends and create a school that embodied the 3 R's with lots of room for advancing academic achievement through thematic learning opportunities, plus the ability to tap into the magnificent resources that each parent had to contribute for all our children!
Thank you to Eva, Liz, Mary-Sue, Matt and the many, many others who enriched my/our children's lives in our homeschool co-op. It truly was OUR cooperation that made our Co-op school such a success!
My side-business is leading me toward free community forums that share what kind of educational options are out there. It is no longer just Public, private, or home schooling... now we can have a combination of many virtual venues that create learning opportunities for our children. Stay tuned...
And the students in the public charter school... well, they may have had their imaginations sparked, but truly, it was each eager face that beamed up at me that day that inspired my story, and finally their responses... I learned once, that to educate means "to draw out"... As a teacher, I truly want to be a facilitator of curiosity!
Kelly Stern
Thinking on her Feet
Submitted by Zanada M (not verified) on July 28, 2007 - 13:03.
Amazing! What a shame you had to go to Hawai'i to find this environment. But guess what, you did find a type of paradise in disguise: young minds waiting for some inspiratoin. Seems to me, that school you experienced is located in most school districts, especially the ones that have a small tax base, and is either very inner city urban or very rural. Let's hope the readers don't assume that this condition exists only in Hawai'i.
That being said, teachers here on the mainland have to contend with the NCLB which allows little or no time for dreaming the dreams, envisioning the possibilities that kids can work towards bringing into reality. Fortunately we have a break in the NCLB forced march learning for a little while, until the next baffo who has not spent any significant time in the classroom recently designs a new white house federal program.
Don't misunderstand, there are some positive workings as the results of NCLB. Schools have been forced to document why many of their children are behind, and do something about it that can be measured. It was a definite wake up call. It required teachers to do more than just give out coloring pages so that the students who could not keep up had some busy, mindless drivel work to do.
Meanwhile, one of the best teaching practices ever is to promote the dreaming of what could be, then pick parts of the dream to make into reality.
You were not alone as a substitute walking into a classroom with no lesson plans to work from. I'd say that any substitute teacher worth having could seize the opportunity to inspire the students to aspire, and have a little fun all the way engaging the students to be part of the plans of success!
Substutite teachers who simply sit there waiting for the sky to fall, and then complain that the teacher left no plans need not be called back at all. Even with the lesson plans, we teachers still constantly reposition our teaching to match the teachable moments that present themselves daily. Substitute teachers who are worth their salt are the same way.
It is the dreams that drive the shaping of reality. It works every time, all of the time. Take some of those sales and management seminars. What do they teach as setting ourselves up for success? The dreams and visions come first, then the plans to achieve those dreams and visions. If we are not teaching our students these strategies and using these strategies as opportunities arise, then we might as well sit down in a corner with a coloring book and color. No one will know if we are brain dead or not, because we will no longer count the dreams and visions of shaping our world as important.
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