EXPERIENCIA (NOW CALLED JOURNEY WORLD) FEATURED ON ABC-TV SEGMENT ON THE GIRL SCOUTS from HOWARD TULLMAN on Vimeo.
HINDSIGHT - WRITE SOMETHING WORTH READING ABOUT OR DO SOMETHING WORTH WRITING ABOUT
Showing posts with label Experiencia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Experiencia. Show all posts
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Important City Visitors to Flashpoint Academy
We were so pleased to welcome back Jerry Roper, President and CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and his guests, Hill Hammock, Chief Administrative Officer for CPS, and Lance Pressl who heads up the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation as President, for a tour of Flashpoint and a lengthy chat about Experiencia as well.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Wonderful Experiencia Write-Up in Arnstein & Lehr Newsletter
Teaming up to help students advance through learning and leadership program
January 17, 2008 | Chicago
Arnstein & Lehr recently sponsored two Smyser Elementary School classes to attend Exchange City, a 25,000 square foot simulated city with the look and feel of Chicago, located at 770 North Halstead Street.
Students who visit Exchange City can learn more than 90 occupations. And, as citizens of the city, they are taught to create resumes, apply for jobs, write business plans, develop products, deliver mail, publish a newspaper, vote in an election, produce a TV show and learn to be conscientious consumers and voters. If they break the law by stepping on the artificial grass or running, they can be ticketed by a police officer that patrols the city on a Segway. Offenders can then have their say in court if they wish to contest the ticket. Exchange City is a division of the Experiencia Immersive Education Foundation.
"Cash" they earn can be spent on t-shirts, snacks, and other Exchange City goods. A snack shop owner, for example, might start their business by taking out a $250 loan from LaSalle Bank, calling the AT&T office to set up phone service, and then spending the rest of the day selling popcorn and Eli's cheesecake.
Arnstein & Lehr's contribution covered special training seminars for two Smyser Elementary teachers, and over 40 hours of in class teaching and preparation, as well as attendance at this special day at Exchange City. The Illinois State Board of Education designates Smyser, a Chicago Public School, as a high-poverty, high-performing institution. For the past several years, several Arnstein & Lehr attorneys have been volunteering to teach three classes per year at Smyser, through the Constitutional Law Foundation Chicago's (CRFC) Lawyers in the Classroom program.
Our two sponsored Smyser School classes attended Exchange City on December 21. Attorneys W. Toby Eveland, Laura Lau Marinelli, and Sharilee Smentek attended a special training seminar and then accompanied the students to Exchange City. Paralegal John Fuller, an active participant in CRFC, first heard of Experiencia/Exchange City and thought it would be a wonderful opportunity for Arnstein & Lehr to support. He met with Smyser School's principal and teachers to pitch his idea and then successfully solicited the firm's involvement.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Nice Blog Commentary on Flashpoint Academy and Experiencia For-Profit Models
Monday, January 14, 2008
For Profit Schooling?
For the most part, schools are ran as non-profits. One man in Chicago is using the idea that running a school like a business will provide the best outcomes. While I do not know much about running schools for profits, the business like structure makes sense to me. I have always thought that schools would be better off running like businesses, encouraging competition to drive excellence. School choice follows this train of thought. If people were given the choice, the worst schools would lose students, which would then force them to improve to get students back. You can't be a school without the students, right?
Now, a look at the the new Flashpoint Academy of the Media Arts and Sciences vocational school and Experiencia science and business education center for grade school students in Chicago. Entrepreneur Howard Tullman believes education should be ran like a business with profits. These schools are state of the art that offer the best equipment and tools. For profit schools face some issues, such as not being able to offer tax breaks to donors and required to pay property taxes. They have set up foundations that allow charitable donations to be used for scholarship funds. So they found some ways around losing the perks of a non-profit. Additionally, they can offer teachers bonus pay and merit pay. This would attract and retain the best teachers around. "We treat education as the most important business there is, because it's our future," Tullman said. The Chicago Tribune posted more details on the schools and on Tullman's philosophy and history.
It is an interesting idea, and one that backs the ideas behind school choice. Running it like a business allows for competition, freedom, accountability, and pressure to improve. The schools need to try something different. We are not getting better results they way things have been going, it is time for something different.
Posted by Missouri Reform at 6:29 PM
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