?Change should occur gradually but at all levels: teachers, students ...

As I look back on this year, the Partners in Learning Global Forum in Prague continues to be a highlight. I know this is also the case for many educators, including teacher Marilo Martinez from Spain. ?In Prague at the Partners in Learning Global Forum, I was able to work and reflect on different topics of innovation,? says Martinez. ?Those that I found most interesting and applicable to my school were project-based learning and game-based learning. Both attempt to motivate our students to work differently in a challenging way ? these are new models of learning.?

Martinez teaches at Colegio Marti Sorolla, a Microsoft Pathfinder School. The school strives to be continuously innovative in terms of best pedagogical and technological practices. But perhaps most important, they strive to educate students in values that represent the 21st century learner: cooperation, respect, tolerance, positive thinking, responsibility, commitment, honesty, creativity, solidarity and empathy.

Here, Martinez shares what makes Colegio Marti Sorolla unique, and why innovation is so important today.

What is your proudest professional achievement?

One of the best professional achievements for me was when Microsoft selected my school, Colegio Marti Sorolla, as an Innovative Pathfinder School. The recognition from this award was very much appreciated, and very motivational.

Can you describe the teacher who most influenced you?

One teacher who made an impression on me most was one of my elementary school teachers. In addition to teaching me, this teacher was an important counselor in my life.

Also, fortunately, when I started working at Colegio Marti Sorolla????, I had the opportunity to meet professionals who, despite all odds and daily problems, get excited about their work.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to make a difference in education?

To lead a change in education, there must be support from the school management, as well as from most of the teachers. Change should occur gradually but at all levels: teachers, students and administration. To be truly motivational, it must take into account all the players and their new ideas. On the other hand, when performing a new activity, feedback is a critical component that guides the outcome ? it is essential to listen to students.

Obviously, each school has different resources and needs, but the important thing is to use ICT as a tool to support specific methodology.

What is your greatest hope for the future of education?

In my opinion, working with innovation topics like project-based learning, schools and teachers can find a way to encourage our students to work across different curricula and get them involved in their own learning process. Students can then develop lifelong learning skills, supported by the teachers.

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MARTI SOROLLA School tries to be continuously innovative in terms of best pedagogical and technological practices.?Workspaces are changing from the traditional classroom to different learning areas, like music room, labs, computer labs and virtual spaces.?We have in mind the personnel?s work, innovation based improvement (pedagogical and technological).?We educate our students in values that we think the XXI century learner must represent: cooperation, respect, tolerance, positive thinking, responsibility, commitment, honesty, creativity, solidarity and empathy.
We belong to various school associations and we attend and give training courses.
Apart from teaching academic contents, we also pay attention to a full development of students as human beings in order to face real situations in their lives.?Our school vision is based on three main pillars: Innovation, Languages and Technology, without forgetting Sports and our Social Projects.

Interesting or innovative practices that take place at our school

Pedagogical innovations

• We have an I+D department that uses studies on how the brain works to find the best teaching methods.
• We use the MORE approach (Multiple Options for Results in Education). This method combines different procedures to offer multiple options to achieve success in learning.
• We use Spencer Kagan?s cooperative learning structures because we believe that working together is the best way to improve as a community as well as individually.
• We have a team of people focused on investigating new learning methods called Orion Team.
• In Preschool children are stimulated by means of Early Childhood Intervention using intelligence bits in order to wire their brains.

Technological innovations

Innovation is not based on any software or hardware but in how to use it to its maximum potential. That?s the reason we use technology not as a goal in itself but as part of the learning process (to get and produce information, assessment, communication, virtual workspaces ?).

How we are making an impact

We created a project called ?Pars Pro Toto?, it is part of a bigger one started three years ago. The main goal of this project is to link several subjects focused on the city of Valencia. Every year our students go for a walk to take pictures of the city related with a special theme. This year we connected Literacy with Valencia streets. At the end of it we display the pictures and the three best of them win a prize. Our families and the rest of the school can visit the exhibition. Last year this project won a special mention from de Spanish Culture Ministry as a Creative School.

Members of our staff are invited to share our ICT experience and participate as speakers in schools next to ours, in teacher training courses and CEFIRE;That shows that we are a reference to be taken into account.
http://www.cefe.gva.es/eva/es/c_formacion.htm ( (26/01/2012))

How our school is influencing others

We created a project called ?Pars Pro Toto?, it takes part in a bigger one started three years ago. The main goal of this project is to link several subjects focused on the city of Valencia. Every year our students go for a walk to take pictures of the city related with a special theme. This year we connected Literacy with Valencia streets. At the end of it we display the pictures and the three best of them win a prize. Our families and the rest of the school can visit the exhibition. Last year this project won a special mention from de Spanish Culture Ministry as a Creative School.
Members of our staff are invited to share our ICT experience and participate as speakers in schools next to ours (Soto Mic? Public School), in teacher training courses and CEFIRE.
That shows that we are a reference to be taken into account.
We have teachers specialized and certified in Spencer Kagan?s Cooperative Learning Structures at a national level in charge of training teachers from other schools

Our role as a leader

School cannot exist without innovation because we live in a technological society and school has to prepare for it.?If we want to move forward our students must be ready to face the challenges of a future that is becoming more and more technological.
We have learnt a lot about ourselves and the present and future of our schools.
We learned that innovation in school is a process which needs the implication of all the stakeholders in order to have a real vision where the school is and where it wants to go.
This commitment helps us to plan the actions to make these goals possible, and to assume the innovations necessary to achieve success.

Ways we involve our team

• Two teachers (Philosophy and Music) created Pars pro Toto project; they organizated an exhibition with all the photographs taken by students in a day walk around different neighborhoods in Valencia; every year (we have done three) the pictures are related to an idea: architecture,time and poetry . Last year this project won a special mention from de Spanish Culture Ministry as a Creative School.
• Second example : Arranged by the need of giving suport to the learning process it has been created a repository of materials; this platform was created by several teachers in a spontaneous way.

How we recognize and encourage student leadership

• We want to encourage our students to develop positive leadership skills, having in mind multiple intelligences, giving special importance to emotional intelligence.
• We encourage the active participation of the students in their daily school life (decision making, projects, problem solving ?.). As we said before, we use Spencer Kagan?s Cooperative learning structures so they assume different roles in the learning process and students are also encouraged to participate in external competitions and projects.

What we hope to achieve by being a Pathfinder School

We want to share:
-make worldwide connections with other institutions involved in the use of technology in schools. The next step is sharing our knowledge and best practices with other educational centers worldwide.
We want to improve:
-we are always looking for new ways of improving our teaching skills. We are sure to find many different points of view and solutions to challenge by being part of a wider international network; we believe that the self-assessment is an essential part of the process of being leader.
We want to learn:
-we think that our school can make a difference by taking part in the program with other leader schools.

Source: http://dailyedventures.com/index.php/2012/12/29/marilo/

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