Tullahoma City Schools: The beginning of the beginning

Tullahoma City Schools: The beginning of the beginning

At Tullahoma City Schools, Tullahoma, Tennessee our orientation is changing. We are moving from looking inward to looking outward.  Old thinking had learning happening inside. Our emerging thinking is that learning can happen anywhere at any time with empowered learners who own their learning. Projects and “homework” are no longer done for an audience of one-the teacher-but shared with the world.  In this new modality, students demonstrate content proficiency, moving from consumers of content to creators of content. This is the beginning of the beginning of Tullahoma City Schools moving from GOOD to GREAT!

TCS is a system 3,500 students on seven campuses; 4 elementary schools, two junior high schools and one high school.  Historically, each elementary and the two junior high schools operated independently of each other.  From each “silo”, students moved through the system into the high school.  TCS has been very good on graduation rates and students going on to college and careers.  The new desired way forward is for students to move from conformity and order to creativity, collaboration and imagination.  The change in thinking: It’s not what company am I going to go work for, it’s what industry and new jobs am I going to create

Beginning at the beginning: Bel-Aire, East Lincoln, Jack T. Farrar and Robert E. Lee Elementary Schools.

TCS is seeking emerging practices and new research. We are taking lessons learned from others, evaluating and synthesizing them into our new design for learning. No use reinventing the wheel. 

East Lincoln, Jack T. Farrar, Robert E. Lee and Bel-Aire elementary schools are each investigating different learning concepts. East Lincoln is working on relationships and building GRIT with Ringbeller.  Partnered with St. James Regional Catholic School (Pennsylvania), Bel-Aire is working on distance learning.  Farrar is focused on physical space to support learning and Robert E. Lee has been tasked to explore personalized learning in elementary.  The plan is that lessons learned from all investigation and research will be shared throughout TCS and become part of our thinking and design.  This builds capacity and gives each campus an opportunity to contribute new thinking to share with colleagues. Each has an important part in redesigning teaching and learning.

Teachers learn best from teachers!

In previous posts, Harrisburg CSD (Sioux Falls, South Dakota) elementary instructional structure and design was shared.  On February 8, 2019 a TCS TEAM was on site at Harrisburg CSD as part of the due diligence in bringing this to Tullahoma City Schools. TCS teachers, leadership and a board representative saw firsthand this design in operation. Further exploration and dialogue will either affirm the plan or will reveal the need to go a different direction. A second TCS TEAM visit is scheduled for March 8.  What has been observed by our school leadership seems very promising.

Tullahoma High School, East and West Middle Schools: redesigning teaching and learning.

Tullahoma High School, and East and West Middle Schools are pushing the envelope. With site visits to Arlington and Collierville (TN) school districts completed more are being scheduled.  The overarching goal to help students discern their passions and connect them to professions.  Our actions are in concert with and supports Tennessee Governor Lee’s priority in creating a STEM-ready workforce.

Accomplishing this means thinking outside the box and creating a flexible system that positions and empowers young people to start the next chapter in their lives. TCS is up for the challenge.

A snapshot of what learning looked like last week at TCS!