Community Development Agenda – Futuraskolan – March 13, 2020
Good afternoon amazing students of Futuraskolan,
I hope you are all doing well and are ready for your hard earned, relaxing weekend 🙂
I am writing to you today just to reach out and check on you guys and to ask for your help. This whole Corona virus thing has me and many of you confused and a little bit nervous. There are a lot of emotions and concerns going around these days.
I know we are all a little bit unsure of what is going on with our school, with our parents work and stress and with our grandparents and how they are feeling. Some of us have family that lives far away. If you are like me, you’re excited for the chance to see them again soon.
One of the things I think is important for a leader is to find the experts in the world and have them lead the things they are good at. That’s why I’m writing this letter to all you guys. I think in certain areas of school development you are the experts and I would like you to be the leaders in the next few school days.
My aim is to put some specific goals to you guys so that together we can help our community in this really strange time.
Grade 1 to 3 students, I think you are the most important people in this whole process. Your parents and teachers tell me all the time how proud you make them. You all work hard every day, you are all kind and supportive of each other in your lessons, and you all help others when they are having a tough day. I am so grateful for having you here and I want your help in making Futuraskolan a more welcoming place for everyone in Sweden.
The task I would like you to work on next Monday to Wednesday is to create a ‘’Futuraskolan Handshake’’. I know that for me a handshake means ”I am happy to see you, I recognize you, and I want you to know that I care about you.’’
One of the weird things about when we have a cold is if we hug someone or shake their hand we can give them a cold too. And we don’t want to give anyone else a cold. We care about the people we meet and want to be a healthy friend to them.
Next Monday to Wednesday, please talk to your class teacher, your parents and your friends and create for us a healthy and happy ‘’Futuraskolan Handshake’’.
Maybe you want to touch elbows like me and my friend Mr Ferdie. Maybe you want to wiggle your toes at each other like my friends Ms Nicole and Mr Kevin do (they are silly). Maybe you want to create a dance and a little song.
When you’re done your teacher will help you get connected to Google Hangout so you can stream your handshake to all the other grade 1 to 3 kids in Futuraskolan. These handshakes will also go on our website and social media pages, so you will be showing the whole world what an amazing group of students you are.
Thank you for being the experts in this challenge. I really look forward to seeing what cool and crazy handshakes you create for us.
Grade 4-5 students, your challenge is a bit more complex.
All of the great scientists in history have done their most innovative thinking when they were young. Albert Einstein, Marie Curry, Sir Isaac Newton all came up with their genius ideas when they were young people.
Your challenge is to think of creative and innovative ways that you can do assignments for art, music, crafts, home economics and technology that you can then video from home and send to your teachers so they can grade them.
Maybe you want to do something like the following example:
‘’For my Home Economics and Chemistry assignment I would like to make a chocolate cake. I will use chocolate, flour, butter, milk and loads of sugar. With my parents help, I will measure each ingredient and put them into a baking pan. My parents will help me set the oven to 200 degrees and I will take my phone and time it for 12 minutes. I will video the whole process and save it on my phone so I can send it to my teacher and they can give me an awesome gradeJ.’’
Please use your most radical ideas guys and bring them to your teacher next Monday to Wednesday. They will then write your ideas down and all the teachers in Futuraskolan can share them, so that you are being the leader of the learning process.
I am super grateful for your efforts guys. Your ideas will be used by your teachers across all of Futuraskolan, so thank you for leading us through this process.
Grade 6 to 9 students, ok. Now we are getting to the nuts and bolts of this development process.
The Swedish Government has told me that all students have to be in school, or be learning on a school based platform, for 178 days each year. We are currently set to finish school June 11. Other schools may close which means their students will have to go to school maybe on weekends and through the July summer break.
I think that this is a very bad ideaJ
SO, what I need from you is to train your teachers how to use the Google Hangout function.
Next Monday to Wednesday your teachers and you will be going over our User Guides so you can create classrooms and lessons so that you can sit at home on your sofa and receive a video conference math lesson.
There’s one big problem with this plan. The big problem is that you know 1000 times more about computer usage than your teachers (or your schools CEO for that matter). So what we need you to do next week is pound this system, and be very vocal to your teachers on how they should set it up, how do you find your lesson plan requirements, and how you can submit your work for grading.
Theoretically, if Sweden decides to shut down schools we will still be able to do teacher to class teaching, by the national curriculum, so that we can all get out of here before Midsummer and enjoy our summer holidays as planned.
So students, we have to all roll up our sleeves and focus from next Monday to Wednesday. When we work together we can all help make Futuraskolan and Sweden a more healthy and welcoming place where students can grow and learn together as a community.
Thank you so much for your help everyone. I am grateful to be in a world where we have so many experts like you who can help us put together a process where we can grow and learn together.
I wish you all a warm and sunny weekend and can’t wait to see what you create next week in your lessons.
Have a super weekend everyone.
Your biggest fan,
Tom Callahan
