Session+One

**Session 1 - Philosophy of Education & Mission Statement (1.5 Hours)**

**Essential Questions ** How can educators integrate a variety of educational philosophies to create a mission that meets the demands and needs of our students, local community, businesses, and the world?

**Enduring Understandings ** Reflecting upon a variety of educational philosophies, including our own, is essential to developing a mission statement and guides the goals and objectives for our district.

**Overview** The staff will be placed into groups prior to the staff development day. Each group will have a member of each content area where appropriate. For example, one group should have a teacher of foreign language, science, math, language arts, social studies, special education, unified arts. Where possible, multiple unified arts teachers could be placed on the same team so each team would have each type of unified arts represented. For example each team should have an art teacher, computer/technology teacher, physical education teacher, etc. Team members do not have to be from the same grade level or schools in the district. It may be better if there is a mix of grade levels and schools to get a more diverse mix of ideas. Finally, each team should have at least one “technology specialist” to assist with some of the basic

Each group will be assigned one of the main philosophies of education (Perennialism, Extentialism, Progressivism, Reconstructionusm). They will work independently and with their small groups to complete the following tasks:
 * Read about the group’s assigned philosophy of education, identify key components. Discuss the philosophy with the group. (30 minutes)
 * Examples of Suggested Resources
 * Oregon State
 * Dr. Peter A. Theodore
 * Using the video application on the iPad/tablet, create a three minute video that presents the main components of the assigned philosophy and post the video to the appropriate page on the staff development wiki. (15 minutes)
 * View the presentations related to each philosophy and discuss with group (30 minutes)
 * Write a mission statement that reflects the philosophies they feel best represents the goals of the group and the direction they believe the district should be headed (30 minutes)