Shift to the Future

I don’t know about you but I’m finding the pace of change, driven and accelerated by technology, to be a little overwhelming at times.  When I was a kid, talking to someone on a phone meant picking up the handset of the only phone in the house, hoping the party line wasn’t on, and using my finger to dial (turn a dial) number by number.  Now we carry our phones (which is a limiting description) around with us in our pockets.  We call from our cars, anywhere in any building, from the grocery store, or the top of a mountain.  Call is maybe too narrow a descriptor – we can text, instant message, Facebook, tweet, BBM, or e-mail.  Our phones, let’s call them devices, know who’s contacting us, know where we are on a map, take pictures and videos and let us post them for the world to see, and connect us to each other in live video calls.  Instead of dialing we say “call Home” or “call John at work” or do any of the other contact actions using people’s names stored ...

Michael , Tyler’s older brother by a year, is teasing him about how much he likes school.  Tyler attends Centennial High School as a grade 9 student while Michael, in grade 10, is learning 100% online from home.  Michael had some difficulties “fitting in” at high school so he and his parents decided that this would be best for him.  Tyler on the other hand is loving grade 9 in his new school.  Tyler’s younger sister Stephanie also loves school and in particular her amazing grade 2 teacher.  Stephanie likes to call him“Ty”. Centennial is a brand new school designed and built for the future.  Back in 2010, a vision for Centennial was developed to create a school that would best serve the needs of students over the next 50 years rather than the past.  It is designed to have many small learning communities of about 150 students in multiple grades and content areas.  In a school of 1400, it still has a small “family” feel to it.  Most lear...