Lucie

"Play is our brains favorite way of learning"  Diane Ackerman

Hashtag #boggsedcenter on twitter.  Tweet about us.

Mapping Helps

While mind-mapping for the DFM web class, Tyrone and I came up with a really cool idea that I am EXCITED about!  Mapping!  Follow me.......Maps. Place.  Pedagogy of place.  Place-Based Education.  Detroit.  Grace Lee Boggs.  The Boggs Educational Center.  Where am I going with this?  We are going to choose 3 different dates between 1900 and 2012.  We are going to find maps of Detroit during these times, and research what was happening socially, politically, and educationally.  We are going to scan the maps and add them, along with our research, to the BEC blog that we will be developing.  Tyrone is conducting interviews with folks in the community and we want to add those interviews/stories to add to the BEC blog to illustrate the transformation of Detroit through the years.  Ending with, where are we now and where are we going?  Grace told Julia that a school could only be in her name if she promised to re-imagining education completely.  That's what we are doing.

An Interview with Marisol

Interview with Marisol Bien Teachworth:

Why is there a need for the Boggs Educational Center?

     According to Arne Duncan, the current US Secretary of Education, Detroit is the “ground zero” for pubic education in America.  Much of our city’s population is functionally illiterate and living well below the poverty lines.  The majority of youth in Detroit are dropping out of high schools.  Highland Park High School is in consideration to be shut down entirely.  There is an educational crisis!  Schools are closing.  Teachers and administrators are loosing their jobs.  An Emergency Financial Manager has been put in place having unilateral power.  

Why is there a need for the Boggs Educational Center?  

•Because our schooling and education model HAS to change!  

•Because learning should not be constricted to a boxy room with four walls!

•Because there are rich stories, ready to be heard, nestled in our   environment.

•Because there are passionate individuals and organizations who are asking for a 

community-based school, ready to help build it.

•Because Grace Lee and Jimmy Boggs have paved our way for a new sustainable community, which includes a school.

As a critic, I am always seeking to create a new world, to find an escape, to liberate those who see only a part of reality.  What new world or reality do you want to be created with the Boggs Educational Center?

     Children and families who attend The Boggs Educational Center are proud of where they live.  They have taken a read on the lay of the land and understand it’s unique history.  Children are playing on the giant sculptures they designed and built through math and science.  They are planting, growing, harvesting, preparing, cooking, and eating the food from the school garden. At the BEC, we develop relationships with families.  Learning through play and experiential activities makes school fun and engaging.  We welcome all of our talented community members and friends to share lessons, stories, and skills with us as we learn to network and build relationships.  Children who attend the Boggs Educational Center observe, question, and develop actions that lead to solutions on social, environmental, and digital justice issues from kindergarden.  We want students to feel safe, loved, challenged, and self-motivated.  The Boggs Educational Center will be one of the main hubs for re-spiriting our city.

Human beings tend to recognize three fundamental postures one can take with respect to the human condition: feeling, knowing and acting.  How will the school culture and curriculum help shape the development of students and the community around them?

     School culture is something well developed and forever changing.  We are rooted in love, missioned  to nurture creative, critical thinkers who are empowered to contribute to the well-being of their communities.  Our goals, values and traditions, and ways we celebrate successes all shape our school culture.  We are modeling a school-wide Place-Based Education curriculum which promotes learning that is grounded in what is local, including, Detroit’s unique history, environment, culture, and art.  Students learn in many, many ways including through participating in service projects around the local community.  The students, the staff, the parents and families, and the community members will feel proud and confident about what takes place at the BEC.  People see and experience positive results in multiple domains and know that children are learning and growing.  Education should not be stagnant or constricted, it should be an action.  Learning occurs every moment in a variety of ways.  Student who graduate from The Boggs Educational Center don’t feel like they need to leave Detroit to become successful.  They are able to think critically and are prepared to make that decision because they know it’s the right one, not because they feel as though Detroit has nothing to offer them.

Three Questions

I met with a man this afternoon named Antoine Dubeauclard.  He works for a company called Media Genesis. Mr. Dubeauclard oversees the creative department and studio. He is an expert on Internet and application development strategy, and speaks and writes on technology-related issues.  Amanda, one of the Boggs Ed Center project team members, went to high school with him.  They were both in Japanese class together, his Japanese name was Kenji.  Antoine is Tyrone Burris's mentor.  I met with him this afternoon to learn about Media Genesis.  We discussed web development and design.  After reviewing it, he asked me three questions about the Boggs Educational Center website. 
•Who are the people interacting with the site?
•What is the message?
•What is the action? (As a result of looking at the site, what am I expected to do?)

NDSG 2012 Mapping

Detroit Future Media: Education Track

Output to Input

1. In one sentence, what is your purpose of education (OUTPUT)?

The purpose of education is to gain the skills and knowledge to be able to solve problems, develop healthy relationships, and contribute to one’s community (and/or society).

2. What SKILLS will a student of yours need in order to manifest this purpose of ed?

People need strong literacy (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) skills.  People need to experience things that are meaningful to their lives.  People need to problem solve.  People need to be able to use their imaginations.  These are the skills that need to be learned in order to manifest this purpose of Ed.  In this age, I would also add, they need to have strong media and use of technology skills.

3. What CONTENT will a student of yours need to build these skills to manifest this purpose?

The content should be relevant to their lives and to the health of the community they live in.  The should learn where they came from and how they got to where they are.
    
 4.  What PRACTICES and PRINCIPLES must you INPUT so that content and skills are learned and enacted towards your purpose of education?  

Our Guiding Principles- The Boggs Educational Center

Community

Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Humans are social by nature, and connected to one another through our interactions and the spaces we occupy. Our lives are interrelated through dependence on one another. Community is the manifestation of this dependence.
Our students will understand that, even as children, they are vital members of multiple communities and therefore have the opportunity and responsibility to contribute to them. By nurturing a sense of belonging to community and accepting a responsibility within it, we will foster an environment where students learn to become empowered members of society. From their classrooms to the expanding global community, students will develop their academic skills and a social consciousness by identifying community needs, proposing and mapping out innovative solutions, and putting realistic plans into practice.
In this sense, the community itself is also a classroom. Conscientious participation in our communities deepens the humanity of our students and all others in our school community.

Creativity

The essence of creativity is the ability to generate new ideas or concepts. Creative expression is a joyful process that harnesses human potential and inspires imagination. Creative thinkers are empowered by the ability to pursue ideas from a rich perspective and can communicate both emotions and ideas in a variety of ways. Education should nurture curiosity by embracing creative expression. Creative expression is imbedded in our approach to all learning disciplines. Those with creative minds are innovative problem solvers and will contribute to a progressive discourse that helps us understand our world.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinkers question assumptions that appear obvious. Critical thinking leads us to rethink our perspectives, develop questions, and solve problems. It transforms our curiosity and rudimentary questioning into a powerful intellectual ability.
Critical thinking not only aids the acquisition of content-specific knowledge, but also is itself a valuable tool for understanding and altering the world in which we live. We will encourage reason, reflection, and questioning as powerful tools our students can use to examine their world.

Multiple Literacies

Literacy is the ability to understand and communicate thoughts and ideas. Becoming literate is a process that grows from a number of human interactions: family, school, neighborhoods, and work. It is a skill that goes beyond competence in reading and writing and includes media, technology and even our emotions.  Too often, we are rendered mute in situations where the language being used is different from our language of origin, or the words are unfamiliar, or the speaker is of another age, gender, class, ethnicity, or value-set. Our students will learn to employ multiple literacies, empowering them to communicate across these dividing lines and powerfully in a variety of exchanges, through a variety of media.