Portrait of a Graduate
In LSR7, our instructional work is guided by our Portrait of a Graduate.
Our graduates...
Contribute Globally
Characteristics
- Service Oriented
- Appreciation for Diversity
- Artistic and Cultural Appreciation
- Global Awareness
- Learning from and working collaboratively with individuals
- Representing diverse cultures, religions, and lifestyles in a spirit of mutual respect, and open dialogue in personal, work, and community contexts
- Actively valuing equity
- Giving back
- Engaging in service learning
- Participating in global citizenship
Practical Application
- Integrate current events into lessons.
- Make meaningful curriculum connections to the community and world.
- Expose students to literature, arts and culture from various sources.
- Using technology, connect with classrooms outside the Lee's Summit community.
- Offer opportunities for authentic service learning projects in conjunction with the curriculum.
- Cultivate a classroom environment that respects and values the the diversity of thought.
- Give students opportunities to practice civil discourse
- Lesson plan from PBS.org
Research
Benefits of Service Learning
Global Citizenship
Israel, Ronald C. "What does it mean to be a Global Citizen?" (2012). Kosmos Quarterly.
- “At The Global Citizens' Initiative, we say that a “global citizen is someone who identifies with being part of an emerging world community and whose actions contribute to building this community's values and practices.”
- "A global citizen is someone who identifies with being a part of an emerging world community, and whose actions contribute to shaping its values and practices."
Think Innovatively
Characteristics
- Critical Thinker who leverages critical thinking skills to act on creative ideas
- Risk Taker
- Self Motivated
- Curious
- Intrinsically Motivated
- Open Minded
- Visionary
- Independent Thinker
- Innovative Mindset
- Entrepreneurial Mindset
- Future Ready
Practical Application
- Tips for teachers: 5 Tips to Inspire an Innovative Mindset
- Asking open-ended questions and encouraging discourse
- Project-based learning
- Genius Hour Projects- student-generated ideas for research
- Math problems with multiple solutions in which there may not be one correct answer
- Socratic seminars
- Team building activities involving risk taking and trust building
- STEM Activities- creative solutions to problem-solving
- Makerspaces
- Coding/Hour of Code/Code.org
- Modeling and encouraging risk-taking and failure as the first attempt at learning
Research
Books
Articles
Couros, George. "8 Characteristics of the 'Innovator's Mindset'" (2014).
- Innovative mindset is the belief that abilities, intelligence, and talents are developed leading to the creation of new and better ideas. (Couros, 2014)
Denker, Robert. "3 Keys for Fostering an Innovative Mindset Within Your Organization."
- “Being able to generate creative or novel solutions to problems that result in improved performance.”
Practice Resilience
Characteristics
- Demonstrated ability to overcome obstacles to reach their desired goals
- Reflection
- Feedback
- Positive to change
- “Cognitive flexibility”
- Adaptability
- Capability in handling adversity
Practical Application
- Offer frequent opportunities to try new strategies and revisit challenging concepts
- Recognize effort and growth over mastery
- Offer choice and autonomy on projects and activities
- Build in opportunities to raise awareness of individual strengths and areas for growth to demonstrate uniquenesses among individuals
- Offer frequent opportunities to try new strategies and revisit challenging concepts
- Recognize effort and growth over mastery
- Offer choice and autonomy on projects and activities
- Build in opportunities to raise awareness of individual strengths and areas for growth to demonstrate uniquenesses among individuals
From ASCD Ed Leadership
- Provide them with authentic evidence of academic success (competence);
- Show them that they are valued members of a community (belonging);
- Reinforce feelings that they have made a real contribution to their community (usefulness); and
- Make them feel empowered (potency).
- Provide them with authentic evidence of academic success (competence);
- Show them that they are valued members of a community (belonging);
- Reinforce feelings that they have made a real contribution to their community (usefulness); and
- Make them feel empowered (potency).
Research
Cherry, Kendra. "10 Ways to Improve Your Resilience." Very Well Mind, 2018.
McHugh, Andy. "Building Resilient Learners," Teaching and Learning Guru. 2016.
Sagor, Richard. "Building Resilience in Students." ASCD Educational Leadership, 1996.
- "Resilience refers to how well you can deal with and bounce back from the difficulties of life. It can mean the difference between handling pressure and losing your cool. Resilient people tend to maintain a more positive outlook and cope with stress more effectively. Research has shown that while some people seem to come by resilience naturally, these behaviors can also be learned."
Pursue Life Balance
Characteristics
- Maintains healthy coping mechanisms
- Identifies stressors
- Manages goals and setbacks
- Develops stress management skills
- Feels pride, satisfaction, happiness, celebration, love, and a sense of well being
Practical Application
- Teach time management skills
- Break projects and timelines into manageable parts
- Teach goal setting
- Practice reflective thinking
- Be mindful of mental health needs of students- guidance
- Model healthy stress-reducing activities; breathing exercises, exercise, music, movement
- Make time in the school day for brain breaks, exercise, interactions with peers
Research
"Work Life Balance," Mental Health America.
- "Meaningful daily achievement and enjoyment in each of four life quadrants: work, family, friends, and self."
Work–life balance is the term used to describe the balance that an individual needs between time allocated for work and other aspects of life. Areas of life other than work-life can be, but not limited to personal interests, family and social or leisure activities.
Build Relationships
Characteristics
Employability
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Interpersonal Relationships
- Reflective practice
Practical Application
Regarding Collaboration (Excerpted from P21)
- Emphasis on collaboration remains traditional, reflecting older models of interaction.
- Students learn best from a mix of individual and group-based learning experiences.
- Collaboration can enhance the development of critical thinking skills.
- In a collaborative workgroup, use a variety of technologies to produce a digital presentation or product in a curriculum area.
- Use technology resources for communicating and sharing ideas with others.
- Participate in learning activities with or about learners from other countries and/or cultures.
- Use a variety of technology resources to explore questions or problems.
- Use technology to decide what information to locate and how to use that information to complete a project.
- Collect and explain data to identify commonalities or solutions to problems.
- Explore the different ways that problems may be solved.
Regarding Communication
- Vary the way in which students can show their comprehension of content.
- Model positive and open communication.
- Focus on district speaking and listening rubrics (elementary).
Research
-
Collaboration is increasingly mentioned as an important educational outcome, and most models of 21st-century education include collaboration as a key skill. The value of collaboration has been assumed for many years, and over the past two decades, we have seen leading businesses and organizations move to facilitate team building and team-based work. The ability to work effectively with others has become a critically important skill for career and life success. (from P21.org)
