Guerilla Educators

Target at CEFPI

At the risk of sounding like a corporate shill, I was impressed by the many ways that Target, Sponsor of the 88th Annual CEFPI World Conference in San Jose, made the experience there comfortable and first rate.  From the food to the gift of Keynote Speaker Thomas L. Friedman's book, The World is Flat, to all the behind the scenes support, Target was an invaluable, yet discrete resource.  Rich Varda, Target's lead architect and the face of that company at the CEFPI World Conference was an ideal spokesman.  While Target As Sponsor was of course sensitive to the positive public relations that accrues from such sponsorship, the focus of their support was to highlight CEFPI and my impression was that Mr. Varda's low key was responsible for that.  I don;t have a horse in this race and have never publicly offered such praise on behalf of a corporate sponsor, but looking back over the outstanding weekend in San Jose, it feels right to do so.       

CEFPI San Jose Postscript

Just back from the CEFPI conference in San Jose.  Well, it's official.  The Young Lions in CEFPI have now taken the reins from the Old Guard of Educational Facilities Planners.  San Jose was an exponential leap for CEFPI.  More educators, more International attendees, certainly more focus on technology, and a genuine desire to learn and listen to the needs of those on the front lines, in and out of classrooms.  This year, more than at any time in CEFPI's 85+ year history there is now more focus on actually learning about educational trends from educators and others from outside the school architect community.  In terms of technology applications, we saw what is truly exhilarating about living in this golden information age and the entrepreneurial leveraging of the web.  We also experienced at first hand some of the real challenges of living in a wired world.

2010 CEFPI World Conference in San Jose

To all CEFPI friends and colleagues; see you in San Jose!  The CEFPI World Conference will be held in San Jose, California from September 25-27.  There are great seminars and quite an impressive group of Keynote Speakers scheduled at this year's Event, headed up by the New York Times Foreign Affairs columnist, Mr. Thomas Friedman.  Instead of being a presenter, as has been the case in past years at Regional and National Conferences, it will be good to just attend, mingle, and network with old friends.

The Barack Obama Green Charter High School's First Day!

Congratulations to Ms Safiyah Sadiq, Mr Steven King and all the hard working educators who have made the Barack Obama Green Charter High School a reality!  Obama High officially opens its doors to their 9th and 10th grade students this very morning.  Guerilla Educators has had the privilege of working from the beginning with the people who have brought the school to life, from conceptualization to all phases of the charter application process through Professional Developments and now to implementation of the real-world, hands-on Project Based pedagogies.  Again, congratulations!

MaST Charter School Opening Convocation Celebration!

This video was created by Sole Productions for use at the MaST Community Charter School's Opening Convocation for Teachers, in Philadelphia. It demonstrates key aspects of the Project Based Service Learning methodologies and especially the idea of CELEBRATION! Too often, in the rush to achieve our personal, curriculum, and standards-based objectives with our students we overlook how vitally important it is for both students and educators to celebrate our achievements and to have FUN! These slides capture that essence of fun and celebration even while our students make rigorous, data-based academic and civic advances.  Take a look...

MaST Charter School Opening Convocation Celebration! from John Sole on Vimeo.

Best Practices in 5th Grade Math

Donna Sole, Teaching for Understanding Coordinator at MaST Community Charter School has created another "Best Practices" video.  Here, 5th grade students have created  restaurants.  In the process of cooking, calculating tips, billed, divided bills, etc. these students have covered a wide range of Standards focused on math and across the curriculum. Take a look... To view a great example of Best Practices; Science, click here

Kohls Cares at MaST Community Charter School

MaST Community Charter School in Philadelphia is competing for a $500,000 Kohls Cares grant.  They would like to use this grant to integrate teaching and learning spaces into their Community Garden located at the school.  In this way, MaST students learn about environmental issues that are relevant to them and then take leadership roles in their community in the area of environmental stewardship.  Everyone may vote 5 times for their choice.  Just click this link to vote for MaST.

Best Practices; 2nd Grade Inquiry Based Science

This video documents best practices in inquiry based science at MaST Community Charter School in Philadelphia. These second grade students see themselves as scientists and are already adept at applying higher level thinking skills to the scientific process. The students are fully engaged and the learning is fun.  Take a look...

To see a great example of Best Practices; Math, click here.

Hummingbird Garden

Hummingbirds, butterflies, and goldfinches in our Philadelphia flower garden...

Little Cayman Sun

The Sun, shot on successive days and in various ways from the deck of Condo del Sole, on the western tip of Little Cayman, BWI