9.17.20

About five years ago, I read the book, 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times by Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel. Written in the early 2000s, the authors advocate for changes in teaching and learning to prepare today’s students for a 21st-century workforce dominated by artificial intelligence, globalization, and technology. Over the past few months, I have returned to this book with the realization that change in education isn’t in the distant future. It is here and now. 
The authors ask, “How has the world changed and what does it mean for education?” In a blink of an eye, the world has changed significantly and so too the manner of teaching and learning. FCS has tried to the best of its ability to be nimble and responsive in this moment. We are as Trilling and Fadel write, “learning to innovate, innovating learning.” In the last few weeks we have found new ways to connect with our students through one-on-one in person meetings, the Peace Circle drive-by, Middle School Flex Time, Lower School Community Gatherings, and the delivery and pickup of supply kits. We continue to rethink what it means to be a community through Meeting for Worship, advisory, and Firecircles. I am proud of the creative and innovate work underway and the collaborative community in which it is all taking place.
 
“In a world of increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, our abilities to understand ourselves and each other, adapt and innovate out of problems, and work together in doing so, are key to shaping the future we aspire to.”  Charles Fadel
 
In Peace and Partnership, 

Angela
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Located in College Park, MD, Friends Community School is a progressive Quaker K-8 day school, founded on the belief that every child is a valued member of our community. We offer a challenging curriculum imbued with strong values of equality, integrity, community, environmental stewardship, simplicity and peaceful conflict resolution, rooted in our Quaker heritage.
Friends Community School
5901 Westchester Park Drive
College Park, Maryland 20740
301-441-2100