MetWest High School Archives

Eagle Rock’s PDC Checking Off Items on its “To-do” List

Once again, a quick look at our “to do” list here at Eagle Rock’s Professional Development Center (PDC) shows we’re running in all directions to get things done. And by get things done, we mean working hand-in-hand with educators who seek us out for our expertise and thoughts in retaining, reinvigorating and re-engaging the students in their particular areas of the country.

In February, we hosted researchers from the University of Michigan to study our approach to personalized learning. Researcher Jeremy Golubcow-Teglasi heard of us through his study of the Big Picture design and connected to our work.

Later that month, on Feb. 25 and 26, Opportunity Nation heard from our very own Dan Condon (Associate Director of Professional Development) at a conference in Washington, D.C. (read: Eagle Rock Participates in National Opportunity Summit).

During that same week, Innovations High School in Reno, Nev., invited Sarah Bertucci from Eagle Rock and Eunice Mitchell from Big Picture Learning to collaborate on supporting staff as they shift into Year Two of their Big Picture journey. They have a well-established student culture in Year One and we are working to help them sharpen their focus on instructional practices going into Year Two.

In mid-March, we hosted representatives from Holy Heart of Mary High School (St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada) and New Village Girls Academy (a Big Picture School) from Los Angeles. New Village was working on integrating outdoor education more seamlessly into their school, while Holy Heart was working toward more fully engaging their disengaged young people.

Later that month, we began a search for a new Public Allies Director to replace Mark Palmer, and that search resulted in the hiring of Christi Kramer from Family League of Baltimore.

Dan Condon was at MetWest High School on March 26 and 27 and we have been providing ongoing support for them around their strategic plan and making data-based decisions as they work toward achieving their goals.

At the end of March and into April we conducted observations of competency-based systems for the Iowa State Department of Education. We also visited a pair of school districts in Collins-Maxwell and Van Meter near Des Moines. This is all part of a larger project where our team is developing a cohort of trained student observers and interviewers to look at schools through the eyes of students. Our professional development center fellow, Kelsey Baun, has contributed significantly to the design and delivery of the student trainings and will soon accompany students to Iowa. Her efforts are part of her contribution as a Public Allies fellow to build Eagle Rock’s capacity to better use students to extend our national reach.

Also in early April, representatives from Innovations High School in Reno, Nev., and Big Picture Learning came to Eagle Rock for a leadership retreat focused on sharpening focus for the year ahead.

The second week of April saw Kelsey Baun travel with Eagle Rock students to conduct focus group interviews of students at four schools: Health Leadership High School, ACE Leadership High School, South Valley Academy and Amy Biehl High School (all in Albuquerque, N.M.). The intent here is to assist our partners at New Mexico Center for School Leadership to better understand personalized learning.

Below are some of the activities scheduled from now through the next several months. If you would like to know more about our work or how your school or organization can work with our Professional Development Center, please contact our associate director of professional development, Dan Condon, by emailing DCondon at EagleRockSchool dot org.

April 20 — 24, and May 27

Eagle Rock’s professional development associate, Anastacia Galloway, is leading our work in Bronx, N.Y., at Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School (FLHFHS). There, Anastacia is following up on two previous FLHFHS visits focused on deploying Fred Newmann’s Authentic Intellectual Framework. This time around Anastacia is Continue reading…

Eagle Rock Participates in the CES Fall Forum: The Recap

The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) Fall Forum was held last month at Mission High School in San Francisco, and Eagle Rock was well represented with a total of eight staff members and two students attending this annual event.

The theme of this year’s three-day forum was the 30-year Celebration of Common Principles and Uncommon Schools. CES remains at the forefront of creating and sustaining personalized, equitable and intellectually challenging schools. Essential schools are those where all students have the chance to reach their fullest potential. With a focus on the ten common principles, CES works with educators to support and promote innovative and effective teaching and learning.

The first day of the forum saw our six Professional Development Center team members co-hosting a school visit at MetWest High School, a Big Picture school that we support. MetWest is one of the first “new small autonomous schools” in Oakland, Calif., designed to foster student success through experiential learning and an extensive internship program.

Educators from Southern California and Ohio joined us on the visit and we had the opportunity to sit in on student exhibition presentations. Afterward, we facilitated a two-hour CES Affiliate Center directors meeting where we reconnected with other CES centers and shared what we face at our own locations. Later we broke up into small groups to discuss potential improvements.

In addition, a pair of our Eagle Rock students participated in a student leadership forum held at the Boys and Girls Club in the Mission District, where they met with 20 students from around the country for a discussion about, “What can students teach their teachers about what works when they are teaching them?” Meanwhile, two Eagle Rock School staff members participated at other school visits at Arise High School in Oakland, Calif., and Oceana High School in Pacifica, Calif.

Keynote speaker Pedro Noguera (the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University) kicked off Day 2 of the Forum, speaking to participants from Continue reading…

Recapping Our Work With the Staff at MetWest High School

MetWest High School — a partnership between the Oakland Unified School District (Oakland, Calif.) and the Big Picture Learning Network — prepares its students to recognize and take advantage of all the resources that can further their personal well being, as well as the well being of their communities.

Here at Eagle Rock, our Professional Development Center has been working with MetWest for two years now — with associate director Dan Condon as the lead — on ways that the school can use relevant, key data indicators to guide them in their work.

In particular, MetWest is interested in using data to support existing efforts with respect to their students:

Real world thinking
Critical thinking
Social and emotional intelligences
Literacy and communication
Resistance to oppression / social change agents / promoters of social change

Our most recent engagement with MetWest took place in Continue reading…

Saying Goodbye To Six Eagle Rock Faculty Members

Goodbye-Image-Eagle-Rock-Faculty A half dozen of our faculty members are moving on, as they say — departing our campus for new ventures, but doubtless with a look behind at what they accomplished and experienced during their times here at Eagle Rock.

It goes without saying we’re going to miss them, and it’s also probably unnecessary to say we wish them well, because they’ve been receiving hugs, handshakes and tears since they announced their plans. It’s fairly obvious we want the best for them in their new pursuits.

Among those departing are Karen Ikegami, Holly Takashima, Berta Guillen, Ike Leslie, Jonna Book and Denise Lord. For each of these faculty, we’re devoting space below focused on what transpired for them professionally while here at Eagle Rock, and where they’re off to — or where they’ve already arrived.

Karen Ikegami came to Eagle Rock in 2008 as the math instructional specialist and also became the Juniper houseparent that same year. Karen is staying in Colorado and is working at Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver. She will be the Wallace Fellow Principal Resident and will be working on getting leadership training and her principal license through Get Smart Schools.

Holly Takashima started here stint here in 2011 as the English fellow, and then was hired as the English instructional specialist, becoming the Lodgepole houseparent in January of last year. Holly has moved to Nashville to be with partner Brandon, and has been hired on at John Overton Comprehensive High School, teaching American literature to high school juniors.

Berta Guillen became the Societies and Cultures fellow when she joined the Eagle Rock School staff back in 2008, and was soon thereafter hired on as the Continue reading…