Hudson Lab School is proud to be a founding member of Innovative Schools Cooperative (ISC), a new consortium of 10 like-minded innovative schools from around the country. Founders from these schools gathered in NYC at Portfolio School and the Klingenstein Center at Columbia’s Teachers College for an inaugural two-day summit. The summit “started with respect and humility: respect for the accomplishments of everyone around the circle and humility that allows for honesty, learning and growth.”

Gever Tulley, founder of Brightworks, put us in the right frame of mind with a team tinkering challenge. Using simple, grooved pieces of wood and tape, we were challenged to create a marble run that allowed us to experience the same process mistakes as our students.
Gever also presented 2.0 of his popular TED talk focusing on schools. In “5 Dangerous Things Every School Should Do,” he recommends “Trusting Children” first.
Everyone presented Pecha Kuchas. Not only did we learn what a Pecha Kucha is and how to pronounce it (it’ll surprise you), we learned that good speakers can deliver great impromptu presentations when equipped with confidence and humor.
On Day 2, we used Open Space Protocol to discuss hot topics like assessment, recruitment, finance and operations, human resources for unicorns, etc.
Jane Shore from Revolution School got us thinking about connecting research with classroom practices.
In small groups, we listened to one another’s challenges and lent our creativity to brainstorm and reframe those challenges.

It was an energizing and inspiring meetup and we are so grateful to the kickoff team for their amazing organization, hard work and leadership! In coming together as the ISC, we’re amplifying our individual voices around a shared vision and enabling a bigger impact on education.

The 10 founding members of The Innovative Schools Cooperative:

Brightworks (San Francisco, CA)
Hudson Lab School (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY)
Millennium Middle School (San Francisco, CA)
NuVu Studio (Boston, MA)
One Stone (Boise, ID)
Portfolio School (New York, NY)
Revolution School (Philadelphia, PA)
Synapse (Palo Alto, CA)
Workspace Education (Bethel, CT)
The Workshop Independent School (Brooklyn, NY)