Five Key Post-Secondary Preparations

  Bridging The Greatest Opportunity Divide The heart of Amy Carrier’s model and mission. This work is copyrighted 2012-2016 © Perhaps the greatest opportunity divide that exists for all American K-12 public school students is the unsupported transition between high school and adulthood. Students are ill-prepared and sent into the world without adequate knowledge, skills, and…

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A Call To Action for All Grown-ups

Dear Awesome Grown-up, Do you know how important you are?   You are important for many reasons. You do important work, you make a difference in the lives of those you love, and you’re so darned witty – and generally more so on Friday nights for some reason. You’re important to your team at work. You’re…

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The Fallacy of Career Pathways in Education

Your Career Path Wasn’t Mapped Out Ahead of Time. Our Kids’ Won’t Be Either. But We CAN Prepare Them. Imagine being handed a plan, a prescription of steps to take if you will, at the age of 16 or 17 that will get you to age 30, or 45, or 65. It’s laughable, and kind of depressing to…

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The Case for Innovation in School Systems NOW

Our current education system has changed little since the industrial revolution in America. The system as it exists was designed to meet the needs of a society that existed over 100 years ago. Designed by business leaders to meet the needs of the new booming factory town times in America, schools were built to meet the…

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Differentiation for Real Life (Part 2)

Okay, so you get the concept of differentiation and its role in helping students think about where they belong in society. (Haven’t read Part 1 of this series? Click here.) Your dreams are different from mine, so our kids’ dreams differ from each other child’s as well. Where, then, do we start differentiating for real life? Answer:…

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Differentiation for Real Life (Part 1)

Student-centered. Differentiated. Tailored instruction. Individualized learning plans.  No matter what you call it, we’re talking about helping our students take different avenues to the same learning objective. Each of these buzzwords and phrases suggests that we teach in such a way that we are reaching – and having an important impact on – the individual…

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Why guidance counseling isn’t enough

I remember meeting my high school guidance counselor twice.  TWICE.  I met her once in 11th grade and I believe it was regarding a scheduling conflict.  I then met her again during my senior year to discuss my post-high school options.  She actually apologized to me for being too busy to meet with me more often (she…

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