PAIS 2014 - 21st Century Assessment

#BringBackOurGirls @BalboaAcademy pic.twitter.com/bOYlTdlyrj
— Balboa Academy (@BalboaAcademy) May 12, 2014

I recently had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the inaugural Panamanian Association of Internationally Minded Schools (PAIS) conference on 21st century assessment. The organization is the brainchild of a small group of school leaders who saw a need for more collaboration and sharing between the ever growing numbers of private and international schools here in Panama. I was asked by my school’s assistant director Mary Ostrowski (@maryo_us) to give a presentation on using Google Forms in the 21st century classroom. This was my first conference presentation and I am happy to say it was a success.

My favorite part was the keynote address, which was given by a group of six students. These young, local and international leaders showed a group of almost 200 teachers exactly what 21st century education should produce. After an insightful keynote by PAIS president Nick Reeves (@reevos74) on the importance of teacher feedback, the stage was ready for two student keynote addresses.

Two groups of three girls gave impassioned presentations on the importance of global awareness, creating purpose, digital citizenship and the use of technology in school. I have to say that including these students was a great idea. Education is changing dramatically and we need to stop looking at schools as teachers vs. students, and more as learning communities in which students are clearly the majority members.

A group of three 8th graders (8th graders!) from the Metropolitan School gave a very insightful presentation on the need for schools to teach digital literacy and citizenship. Their argument was charming and simple: technology can solve tomorrow's problems, so we need to teach our students to be digitally literate today. It was well done, humorous and thought-provoking.

Another group, three 10th grade girls from Balboa Academy, focused their presentation on global awareness and using social media to create and foster this awareness in students. The tragedy of the Nigerian kidnappings has had a profound effect on people all over the world, including these students. To help raise awareness of the situation, students from Balboa organized a group photo of over 200 girls from their school (see above). The photo has been seen over three million times on Twitter and was even featured in The New York Times. This is global awareness. This is digital citizenship. This is leveraging social medal. This is purpose. But,  above all, this is learning.

During their presentation, one quote really resonated with me. One of the girls (I apologize that I don't remember her name) said, "the responsibility of privilege is purpose." This quote really helped me understand the importance of the international school community. I am the product of public schools and began my teaching career in public schools. I have always had a bit of trouble reconciling the idea that I now teach and work with very privileged students, knowing that if I left my current job, someone else would easily take the opportunity to come live in paradise and take my job. Whereas, my previous job, teaching inner city youth, did not come with such an assurance. "The responsibility of privilege is purpose." So profound. Perfectly said and perfectly concise. Now I  get it. The privilege we have as an international school community is a freedom from public regulation, and the ability to shape and craft our schools in a manner that will create purpose for our students, teachers and school community. I am thankful for this insight and I will now work harder to foster these ideas in my own school.