Reimaging school. As easy as riding a bike, right? We think it’s more like setting aside what you know about riding a bike and learning how to ride in a completely different way. Which has been done before. Check out Destin from Smarter Every Day and The Backwards Brain Bicycle. [...]
Faced with his students’ needs, young people of color needing supports in school that go beyond academics, Kevin Gold started something - a weekly lunch group for four young men. It was simple; they met for lunch, shared their stories, their challenges. They went deep, talked about being targeted in school, feeling like people [...]
Building 21 Allentown released this welcome video for their families. As Yanalit tells her younger peers, "One thing is for sure, you will work hard! You will also get a chance to choose what you learn based on your passion and interests." Yanalit, her fellow graduates, and Building 21 teachers and staff [...]
In July, we hosted 90 partners and colleagues for the Summer Design Institute, three days of learning, designing, and growing as professionals and adult learners within the Building 21 Network. We welcomed teachers and administrators from across the country, as well as many partners and supporters from across the region and beyond. This year’s [...]
As we countdown the days to summer break, school leaders are thinking about summer opportunities for staff professional learning and development. Many of our innovative school peers offer or seek out opportunities to improve their practice and to help teachers further personalize learning for students. Summer feels like a “reset” - a time to [...]
"Students and staff at Building 21 were honored Monday by the state for its student voter registration drive. The drive signed up 58 students, representing 87 percent of the students who were eligible to register. That earned the school a gold level Governor’s Civic Engagement Award." Building 21's accomplishment was highlighted in two articles [...]
"That’s a big budget! With resources of that size, smart teams could take on the most interesting opportunity of our time—quality elementary and secondary education for every young person on earth." "Platform networks that share outcome frameworks (we call them diploma networks like Building 21) have the potential to help schools adopt new goals and learning models [...]
“Do our students have a fair chance?” Reimagining the high school transcript and the impact on college admissions As college recruiters sit down to review applicants and choose their incoming freshmen class, how will a mastery-based transcript stand next to a traditional transcript and GPA from another school? Will those around [...]
Last Friday’s Town Hall Meeting brought surprise and celebration to Building 21 Allentown. Penn State Lehigh Valley leadership and the Nittany Lion hand-delivered an acceptance letter and scholarship award to Marilyn Reyes, a senior student who has committed to attend PSU-LV. Marilyn is the first student from Building 21 Allentown who was accepted and [...]
On February 6th, Building 21 students’ proposal for a Student Advisory Lunch Board (S.L.A.B.) took first place in the high school division of Design Thinking Philadelphia’s Compete 360. Nine students worked in two teams, alongside their mentor teacher, Kathleen Walsh, to learn and use all aspects of the design thinking process to address a problem [...]
