Franklin Middle School hopes to reinvent itself
What's next
This spring: If the Janesville School Board approves it April 9, the Franklin Middle School charter-school grant application would be submitted to the state by April 15.
2013-14: The state likely will respond to a grant proposal by August. If the answer is yes, the school year would be spent planning for the changeover, including visits to similar schools, training staff in project-based education and related topics, and informational efforts aimed at students' families.
2014: The Franklin STEM Academy would open for business in September.
JANESVILLE — Hundreds of Janesville middle school students would spend grades 6-8 working on projects in science, digital technology, engineering and math if the school board and the state agree.
The Janesville School District administration is trying for a second time to get a state grant to transform Franklin Middle School into a charter school with a "STEM" emphasis. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.
The grant would supply startup funding of $300,000 a year for three years.
A Janesville School Board committee listened to Franklin Principal Charlie Urness discuss the plans at a meeting Wednesday.
The committee sent the grant application to the full board for approval at its meeting April 9.
The school would employ project-based learning, much like the district's TAGOS Leadership Academy does, Urness said.
Committee member David DiStefano noted that Franklin has the lowest enrollment of the district's middle schools and asked about the potential for drawing more students to the school.
Urness said officials have "optimism and hope" that this would happen, with students choosing to transfer from Marshall or Edison middle schools or from other school districts, although: "It's not my philosophy to go out and steal from other districts."
The district applied for the same grant last year but was rejected. This year's application is improved with suggestions from the Department of Public Instruction, Urness said.
The application states that "the loss of a major manufacturing base" means "Janesville needs to prepare students for global entrepreneurship. … Traditional educational strategies do not align well with the requirements of the 21st century innovation environment."
The school would rely on "community partnerships for project-based learning" with a variety of local businesses and organizations.
The Janesville Schools Outdoor Lab would be used "for project-based environmental and ecology studies."
Students would be divided into "small learning communities" and would spend about a third of their days on projects; a third on courses of personal interests, which could include the arts or other non-STEM studies; and a third on classes in math and reading.
The proposal's origins go back more than a year, when the school district was considering moving the Rock River Charter School, a school for at-risk high school students, to Franklin.
Superintendent Karen Schulte met with Franklin parents and other residents at that time and found opposition to the plan, but also suggestions that Franklin become a magnet school for the gifted and talented or a STEM school, according to the grant application.
The Franklin STEM Academy's mission statement would be taken from the school's namesake, Urness said.
Benjamin Franklin is believed to have said, "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn."
What's next
Mar 22, 2013 at 11:50 a.m.
Suggest removal
The old lecture methods must go.
Hands on with project based technology learning is in. Move out of the way archaic union mentalities.
Mar 22, 2013 at 10:18 a.m.
Suggest removal
Yes, this could work. To clarify my earlier post on this article I add the following:
Getting kids involved in project based learning is a great way to keep them interested. My only caveat would be that in no way should the basic core academic study be lighten up. Having kids spend time in the Outdoor Lab on environmental and ecological studies is a great way to increase environmental awareness, and perhaps even an interest on the area. But if that child decides to pursue a career in the field they will need to master a number of difficult core areas of study at the college level (chemistry, biology, geology, and perhaps even physics) and will need to be preparing for this coursework during high school. Junior high, moving backwards, will be preparing the student for the more difficult high school coursework.
It's cool and trendy to say one is an environmental scientist, but the reality is that they must become a strong basic student of science, first.
Mar 22, 2013 at 9:50 a.m.
Suggest removal
You've got that right Sandman! Neither schools or most parents are actually preparing kids for the real world that awaits them. These kids need to be taught that the world and the employers in it don't give a crap if your feelings get hurt. When you're applying for jobs or trying to get a promotion, everyone doesn't get a participation trophy just for showing up. If you're lucky, you'll get out of life what you put into it, but nothing is free, and life sure isn't fair.
I say give this a try and see how it goes. We need to be giving kids every opportunity to learn, work at something, then see actual results (good or bad) and move forward accordingly. That sounds more like real life to me than any of the current educating going on. Clearly the current track of education is not particularly successful for what is getting closer and closer to the majority of kids. If there is a down side to this proposal, I can't see what it is.
Mar 22, 2013 at 9:23 a.m.
Suggest removal
Tough words, Sandman, but I tend to agree with you.
For example--You can't "teach" kids to be adult environmentalists; they have to have a very good foundation in the basic sciences in order to move onto environmental sciences and truly understand the underlying scientific principles behind environmental studies. If they don't have the basic academic tools they will not go very far I assure you. The same could be said for economics, political science, history, and any other field of study.
We're taking too many shortcuts in education if ya ask me. Education is getting very faddish to the detriment of real deep understanding of academic basics.
Please, let's get back to the basics. Everything else is just gravy.
Mar 21, 2013 at 11:22 p.m.
Suggest removal
Why does the shcool need a grant or to initiate a "reinvention" process in order to teach "science, technology, engineering and math"? Just do it! What do they think schools in China and India are doing right now? "Reinventing" themselves - or teaching difficult subjects and expecting students to work hard to succeed?
We need to quit with all the soft, euphemistic, pop-psych/pop-mgmt stuff and move on to the real world...that's the problem. We buy the students iPads on the taxpayers' tab, "teach" nonsense subjects, and overreact every time some parent complains that their little special snow-flake angel didn't get a fair shake. But the rest of the world doesn't care about that issue - it's hungry and wants to sink it's teeth into our lazy, idyllic, and oh-so-temporary, fleeting lifestyle...and draw blood (or at least money)!
Before you post a comment, consider this:
Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy AgreementPost Comment
Commenting requires registration.