Educators mission to encourage continuous learning

Last month the Whitefish School District Board of Trustees invited the community to attend an interactive workshop. Community members, teachers, support staff and administrators watched the new movie “Most Likely to Succeed.” We asked the audience to think about the components of deeper learning as they watched the film.

The six components of deeper learning are to master academic content, think critically and adaptively to solve complex problems, work collaboratively, communicate effectively, monitor and direct a student’s own learning, and to develop growth mindsets. I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight this last component — that all of us have the ability to grow and learn regardless of where we are at, in any part of our life.

After the lights came up in the theater, six different session groups had engaging conversations focused on a specific area of deeper learning. The conversations were focused on stimulating additional ideas so we can continue to meet the needs and challenges of our students in the modern era.

It was great to see us all working together to talk about the ways we are involving kids with hands-on projects and real-world learning opportunities while also visualizing more ways for doing so. Going beyond academic content, we discussed many of those soft skills we know are important for success in life — for developing the whole child—things like perseverance and grit, trying again when you fail, working until you get it right.

When we are fixed in the way we look at the world, we cannot improve. But with a growth mindset, we recognize that through our effort and learning, we can grow and improve in whatever challenge we may face. This is such a critical skill that we want to ensure all of our students have as they go through our school system and on into careers.

As educators, we face the challenge of preparing students for jobs that have not even been invented yet, in a world that grows increasingly complex by the day. In the quickly changing world, we seek to challenge our kids to think creatively in order to prepare them for the innovation era we are in.

Our economy now demands fresh, creative skills, and we seek to give our children the intellectual freedom to be creative, resourceful and resilient in order to thrive when they leave our school system. Computers and robots will be able to perform many jobs that do not require creativity and critical thinking — and they will be able to do it faster and more efficiently than we’ve ever imagined. We must ensure our students are prepared for that future by teaching creativity and critical thinking skills so they will be able to do the innovative work that lies ahead.

We have exciting innovations happening at Whitefish Public Schools in the areas of coding, robotics, engineering, design, Makerspace areas, farm to school programs, sustainability, entrepreneurship, community mentors, writing coaches, and more. They are all based on these deeper learning philosophies that drive our strategic goals and I will continue to share news about the great learning happening in our schools.

Ultimately, we want the community in our schools — and the schools in our community. We always invite the public to join the Board of Trustees for our monthly work sessions and business meetings as we take additional steps to ensure that Whitefish students are prepared for the future.

Our mission as educators is to cultivate and support a community that engages students to succeed in continuous learning, career and citizenship. I am grateful to all of the members of the Whitefish community for taking the opportunity to engage with us as we continue to dig deeper.

Heather Davis Schmidt is the Superintendent of Whitefish schools.