Redesigning Back to School Night at Campbell School of Innovation

This week's 2nd annual Back to School Night event at Campbell School of Innovation (CSI) was the most fun I've ever had at a back to school night!

Last year, our inaugural year as a school, we committed to rethinking back to school night. If we are a school of innovation, focused on design thinking and creativity and innovating the education experience for students, we couldn't very well host a "traditional" sit and get back to school night for our families. So last year began our journey into rethinking what back to school night would look like in our learning suites and our school, and this year, in our 2nd iteration, we had an opportunity to build on last year's event to create something even more engaging and meaningful for our families.

Our plan-- allow parents and families to experience a "day in the life of a 2nd grader".

We began by having all of our 2nd grade families enter our Wonder Lab together-- a shared workspace between our learning suites in the 2nd grade building. We regularly have all the 2nd graders work and learn together, with all three teachers (rather than the old school model of having them spend their time solely with their one teacher in their one classroom) so we wanted our families to experience that as well. We had some fun music playing and a welcome message up on our TVs while families had a few moments to meander in and socialize a bit.

Last year, with just two 2nd grade classes, we had families circle up for a pared down morning meeting (a la Responsive Classroom) during which they introduced themselves and read a morning message, but we're much bigger this year so this time we just had families stand around the Wonder Lab while we read a welcome message to the group.

The 2nd grade team then used 10 minutes or so whole group to introduce ourselves and also other team members that we, and the students, work closely with on a regular basis; to run quickly through some FAQs (mainly about our communication tools-- and that we'd send home weekly all the things info they'll need this year); and finally, we played a video that we made of the students describing what makes CSI unique and special to them.

Finally, it was play time! My team and I set up three different stations that we thought best represented the 2nd grade experience. In one learning suite we set up a BreakoutEDU game--the first game that students completed with us this year. In another suite we set up a mini design challenge-- parents were given a planning sheet and were asked to empathize about their kids, ideate, and then rapidly prototype a gift for their children. In the third room, we asked families to design and color in dots for their children (as we celebrated Dot Day all of last week) that the kids will be able to view in 3-D with the Quiver augmented reality app.

Families chose how many stations they wanted to visit, we opened up all of our learning suite walls just like we do for our students, and the families spent the rest of their time designing, creating, prototyping, and playing together with the entire 2nd grade community. In the process we had a chance to model the ways that our 2nd grade students engage in learning choices, creative thinking, collaboration, empathizing, exploration, hands-on experience, authentic learning, reflection and play.

The feedback was beyond what we could have asked for! Below, some quotes from families, & observations made, during and after the event:

• "...we've decided that this is so relaxing..." (comment from parent coloring a dot)
• "... this is so great!"
• So fun to see families taking so much thoughtful time on their design planning pages & really diving into their prototyping work
• The gorgeous dot art that families spent 15, 20, 30 minutes creating for their children
• "I hope he/she likes it..." (when talking about the prototypes they were creating)
• Shouts of excitement from the BreakoutEDU room as families began to solve puzzles & open locks!
• "But we're not done yet!" and "...we're having too much fun!" (comments from parents as Back to School night was ending and they were still making)
• "Our children are so lucky to have you!"
• "I was a little underwhelmed at the thought of doing a back to school night for the 13th straight year (and did feel guilty about it) but have to say your school/grade/classes made it such a fun experience... Love the concept and now can confidently say execution of the school!"

photo by @thehughes2