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Thinking Technicians

Developing people for the new economy

 

 

Project Overview

Need
  • Understanding remote communication technology
  • Thinking skills
  • Supply-chain innovation
  • Process management
  • Distribution infrastructure
  • Customer focus
  • Digital tools
  1. The world labor movement is going thru a large disruption due to the Corona Virus outbreak with people out of work.
  2. Countries need to increase the skills of their work force to handle work levels that support critical process and thinking skills needed by companies.
  3. Business will need people who understand innovative practices to help companies recover during and after the pandemic is over.
  4. System thinking to create strong customer service and the ability of bringing people together for learning and training.
  5. New work models based on organization use of AL, Analytics, IOT  and Robotics  
Opportunity To support companies to create "Smart Creature's" the term Google used for innovative employees  This will be an on-line program that teaches the life-skills that companies in in this level of their employees. These employees will be a multiplying factor for existing levels of personnel. Bring corporations & employees together with an improved culture and value system.

 

Next Steps
  • Create a board of advisors to develop the concept and get feedback from corporations
  • Continue to finish the curriculum based on the project academy's design
  • Developed funding sources for this concept
  • Role out concept (Marketing) to potential trainees and corporations and get feedback
  • Develop relationships with on-line tool companies to use to train people
  • Set-up a program to test and update the process; get feedback from people and corporations.

 

Outcomes
  • Be seen as a leader in education for career readiness' in  3 years
  • Be welcomed in the community as adding value within 3 years
  • Create a recognized process that fosters a learning culture in students by the second year

 

Vision

Create an organization over the next three (3) years that achieves a benefit to society and skill learning for youth by creating a training organization that facilitates Skill learning for College & Career readiness process.   

Our organization will provide work space and tools for its employees that will create an excellent culture and team work that will be viewed by industry as a model.

Our students will support and assist the community .  

We hope to become an educational institution that spreads across the USA 

 

  • Get potential students excited about learning (life-long learners).

     

    Quickly build Thinking Technicians needed in the market place.

  • Have students build the reasoning skills to manage in today’s society and begin to build a set of skills to use in multiple careers.

  • Understand that problems are opportunities.  The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity.

  • Have students better prepared to be better citizens.

 

 
Skills:

Sacred thoughts

Elements

Wisdom: good decisions and taking the path that provides value to all (society)

Thinking skills (creative, critical, system), SEL learning, Decision making, Reflection, Innovation

Community: People and relationships count

Listening skills, communication skills, teamwork, Interpersonal skills, Relationship, Measurements

Social justice:  leaving the world a better place than you found it

Problem solving skills, positive outlook, Curiosity, Process skills, Executive functions 

Purpose: Sense of direction that you achieve,  the goals you set

Put first things first,  Pro-active outlook, Begin with the ends in mind, and Win-Win for all, Time-management,  Project planning, Trust, Honesty  

Student Engagement: Have a discuss about the following;

Why do you think its important to learn life-skills?  What key words would they use to describe them? Have you use them in a sports team?

Student centered documents
Tasked prior to starting Charter of learning-Student-Contract

 

Ask the students:

  • What class they had that made them feel good about learning? 

  • What was it about it that did it for them?

  • If they have no answer, what teacher did they have that did not help them and why?

  • Why do they think it is important for them to be good learners?

  • Identify your highest hopes and deepest fears in life?

 

Recognize that you own your learning and are responsible for its success

Think of yourself as in your own business of learning,. What are you going to do to be successful?

 

“Students  need to change their disposition toward school away from being directed by someone else to an attitude of working for your-self—agency, self-discipline, initiative and risk-taking are all important on the job.”

 

Students should use a to-do list, develop a personal learning plan and create a portfolio of their best work

They learn to self-manage their time, reflect on how things are going again the plan and how to check-in when they know they need support.

Image result for cornell learning method

 

Cornell System

 
Our commitment to the student:

We are firm on expectations and principles but flexible on pathways give students time to engage deeply and opportunities to succeed and fail, and support the development of self-direction.

High engagement schools start from a different conception—knowledge co-creation and active production. They design a very different learner experience and support it with a student-centered culture and opportunities to improve self-regulation, initiative and persistence—all key to self-directed learning.
Project Academy Culture Statement
Overview Presentation:

 

Engineering Mind-set (Thought concept for the program )

Role of the facilitator

 

Emphasis on building learning skills by facilitating meta-cognitive questions during the process

The definition of facilitate is "to make easy" or "ease a process." What a facilitator does is plan, guide, provide feedback and manage a group event to ensure that the group's objectives are met effectively, with clear thinking, good participation and full buy-in from everyone who is involved.

Flipped Learning Flipped Learning is a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.
Discussion of Life-Skills
Boost your career

Preparing our students for the 21st century society and careers

 

 

The ultimise list of skills

 Everyone knows that employers look at qualifications and work experience on your CV, but what you may not know is that they also look for what are known as ‘soft skills’, and these can sometimes be more valuable than what you studied at school.

They relate to your attitude and how you approach certain situations in the workplace.

Life-skills-career-ready Starting-pre-employment-program 
Design Themes  Social media Skills description  

 

Creativity-module   Boost your career

 

 

 

 Program (PBL)

Professional Development (PD)
Overall review document File
Thinking skills & Emotional skills File
Good review of PBL elements File
 Supportive Manuals / Handbooks

Overview Training plan for each section

 

This learning concept is a combination of on-line web based self-learning (Flip process), collaborative web team software and a facilitator to tie it all together. The basic process is learning about self, being part of a team, problems solving, presenting your conclusion to the community and reflection.    Life skills are infused during this process.

 

 

 



The instructional ingredients of success, the sites found,

  • include short videos of six minutes or less,

  • interspersed with interactive drills and tests;

  • online forums where students share problems and suggestions;

  • and online mentoring and tutoring.

 

 

          Detail project Plans 

The basic project for the students:

The learning can be broken into major parts

0.0 Start the class by first breaking up the class into teams of 4-5 people.  The learning will progress in order of starting at unit 1.0 thru 9.0.  The team members are to read the FLIP pages prior to the class.  The goal is to get the students to begin self-learning.  When looking at the FLIP learning, it is best to have a learning buddy studying with you.   Peer Learning
1.0  Ice Breaker ...   Marshmallow project (Begin our thoughts on the problem to be solved)

Brain Plasticity (Mindset)

 2.0 Your strengths & Attitude

Valuing yourself, attitude, confidence, Social & Emotional learning, your goals

FLIP     About You 

3.0 Forming teams and setting community values, norms

see forming team-work-2 handbook above

Flip learning page

4.0 Tools for Corporate Design

Process, Customer focus, Measurements, Communication, Questioning 

FLIP  Tools

Questioning

5.0 a) Picking a project ...  b)  Requirements & Measurements

 

Flip Problem framing, Design

6.0 Problem solving process...  another design process  Circular design

 

Flip:  Problem-Solving

7.0 Testing:   Testing and Reflection 

FLIP: Testing

8.0 Public reporting and feedback

FLIP:  Reporting

9.0 Follow-up refresher meeting's

·   ``

  • During each of the sections, Life-Skills are cognitively infused while the students are doing their tasks 
  • Life-skills versus learning project elements
 
Image result for right and left brain functionsHire “whole-brained” talent. Today’s in-house roles require a broader skill set, with  a balanced mix of left- and right-brain skills. This means, for instance, content producers and experience designers who are comfortable using data, and data-driven marketers who are willing to  hink outside the box and move closer to consumers. McKinsey research shows that companies able to successfully integrate data and creativity grow their revenues at twice the average rate of S&P 500 companies. Most importantly, modern marketing organizations don’t need managers to manage people; they need people to manage output and track performance.

 

 

Project data:

 
 Overview slides File (PDF)
Schedule overview

Approximately 10 one hour sessions

Tenets of the organization File
Outcomes & Uniqueness' File
 

 

 

Tools/Quick notes:

Web site for links to Life-Skills descriptions Link
Team members questions to themselves What do I bring to the team? 2. What are our commitments to one another? 3. What differences exist between us? 4. How will we operate? 5. How will we know we are succeeding?
Assessment/Rubrics File
Questions & learning File
Picking the problem File
Planning & schedule File  Getting set-up to do the project
Elevator pitch File    Short presentation of key items that you did
Learning Process File

Brain Plasticity

File

Thinking skills

Creative thinking

Critical thinking
Questioning
Meta-cognitive thinking
Reflection (feedback)

 

File  Maintain the state of doubt and to carry on systematic and protracted inquiry --- these are the essentials of thinking

 

 

Learning targets File Learning targets are short term goals or statements
Self-Reflection of the project File
Benefits of the process File
Preparing for the presentation check-sheet File
Scamper File   Coming up with ways to find new ideas
Links from home page of Project Academy

 

the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual

 

Interesting web sites;

Did you know? Today's learners will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38
TED talk Ken Robinson
TED talk Benefits of self-directed learning ... Motivation
TED talk Carol Dweck     ...Your Mindset

21st Century Learning

 

web-site
TED talk Tony Robins .. What shapes you; You define who you are; Need rituals to make things happen.
Service learning To create a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world with young people, their schools, and their communities through service-learning
 

Coaching Students How to Study from Faculty Innovation Center on Vimeo.

 
   
 
Problems as opportunity  
   

It is the policy of Project Academy not to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin, color, homelessness, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability in its education programs, services, activities, or employment practices.