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CONCEPT NEWSLETTER JUNE 2020
For the last two months, three times a week, we have been dedicated to listen to people from all around the world and hear about education, innovation, mindfulness, disruption and the new normal. These conversations brought many inspirations and also some important affirmations to show us that we are on the right path by teaching our children and young people to cultivate curiosity and the love for learning, even if times are challenging or if educators are not physically nearby - for these situations, we develop critical thinking, autonomy, collaboration and digital fluency. The habit of mind “Listening with empathy and understanding” will be the guiding theme of this special edition of our monthly Newsletter, by bringing together the most important things we have learned in last months. Enjoy your reading and get inspired! With hope that we can hear from you soon, Leadership Team
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As the new normal
became the only and indefinite reality, the anxiety to return to campus was replaced by the feeling that we should take advantage of the opportunities the isolation period brought us. In this regard, Escola Concept decided to get its community of parents, educators, and learners involved in deep reflections on topics that could change our perspective on the Covid-19 crisis. Through the in.MIND talk series on YouTube, we stopped asking ourselves WHEN we would be back to focus on HOW we would be back. Every Thursday at 5:00 p.m., during the months of May and June, we listened to big names in education from Brazil and other places around the world. We asked them about their understanding of the current challenges and the learning opportunities we should not miss as a school and a community. The answers we received deeply inspired and helped us to accomplish what the in.MIND series was intended to do: open our minds to Mindfulness, to Innovation, to the New Normal, and to Disruption. On the following pages, you can find selected excerpts from the in.MIND talks. Through short texts and videos of about 1 minute we gather some of the most significant content that will ensure a happy return of our virtual village, when it’s time to do so.
“When I started my teach-
ing career nearly fifty years ago, it was the twilight of the industrial era and people were beginning to talk about the new knowledge economy. Now, we live in the innovation era and jobs that merely require manipulating information are rapidly disappearing, they are being replaced by computers. Knowledge became a commodity growing exponentially and changing constantly. It is on every internet connected device, you don’t need a teacher to acquire knowledge anymore, and in fact employers no longer care how much knowledge the job candidates have. What employers care about, what the world cares about, is not what you know, but what you can do with what you know”.
May 7th
Tony Wagner
“There is a crucial ques-
tion that has aroused when thinking of this new normal and getting feedback from our teachers, principals, and students: What is the very essential thing that I believe is the reason why we will need schools in the future? And that is the development of social-emotional skills. How to build up a society without it? A society that takes social responsibility for each and everyone’s well-being and that shows empathy towards our fellows in the community?”
May 14th
Marjo Kyllönen
“You should develop an emotional emergency plan for yourself. I talk about this because I have always been fascinated by the concept of practicing for fire, earthquake, hurricane. We make a plan to be prepared for when those things happen. But we don’t do the same thing for our feelings, while we know that we will need to manage our emotions every single day. So, the first step to start this plan is to understand who you are, what triggers you. The second step is to investigate how you deal with stress and figure out what makes you feel better. Then, put the plan in , again and again, until you start rewiring your brain to the point that you no longer have to think about the technique, you just do it.”
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May 21st
Dido Balla
“What to do when there’s no plan? When there is no deadline? When not everyone in your team, not everyone around you, and maybe not even you, signed up for this? Overcoming that stress is really important and the way to do it is to DESIGN your way out of it. Don’t let the crisis define this brief for you, you define your own briefs, you set your own deadline. That means that you have to design with intentionality, you have to know what you’re trying to achieve, you have to test and check assumptions. If it’s not possible, the best question you’d ask back is why not? Why not is the most powerful question that anyone can ever ask because it tests people’s assumptions and really makes people think about why we’ve always done things the way we’ve done it and then do a reality check, which takes you back to the initial point of Transition Design:
listen to people!”
May 28th
Ewan McIntosh
“Certainly in this time, when everything is a matter of concern, with the pandemic, the debate on racism and other things that are going on here in the US, I like to see when kids have the chance to make a difference to others, or to invest in a personal goal, or to explore All those beautiful ideas you shared of how the learners found ways to show gratitude, to be kind, to be helpful, to build a community... I mean, everytime I have been to Escola Concept, that is what I feel and experienced in those schools. And I think that is a beautiful experience!”
something new to learn.
June 4th
Art Costa Bena Kallick
“For parents in search of the right school, I suggest you ask yourselves: What do you think is the purpose of school? What we find out when we start to talk about that is that what matters will be really different for different people: the mother, the father, the learner in 6th grade or Primary. So the first step is finding out for yourself what matters in a school. And when you visit a school, ask to read the To compare the mission to your thoughts is a great way to make sure you are making the right decision.�
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June 11th
Damian Bebell
“The moment we are living in is a paradigm shift related to the use of technology in education. Am I saying that students have to stay in front of a screen all day? Of course not. But we can see that technology is a great ally to provide efficiency, agility, generate engagement… And then we have to reflect, because there is a new standard learners have become used to. And I think it will be very difficult to go back to a less technological school or to an analog classroom, although the school has a fundamental role in socio-emotional development. So the question now is: How do we have the best of all worlds in the world that we will live from now on?”
June 18th
Daniel Cleffi
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The “new normal” has led us to evaluate the way we are living and has opened our eyes to our priorities. Although there are many doubts about the future, we have had incredible opportunities to exchange experiences with people from around the world. Through the Morning Bites series, with two weekly live conversations, on Tuesdays and Fridays, at 10:00 a.m., we were able to focus on some specific topics of interest. There were meetings focused on Child Education and others aimed at teenage learners,
who are getting closer to the moment when they will have to make their first professional choices. In one of the sessions, held on June 16th, Concept learners met 3 young Brazilians and 1 American in their early 20s. They all have the best American universities on their curriculum and a collection of good advice that we would like to recall next. Morning Bites videos are available in full on our YouTube channel for anyone to watch or rewatch at any time!
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Clarissa Passarinho is pursuing a master’s degree at New York University, after initiating her career in Law Firms in Brasília and São Paulo, focused on anti corruption law. Clarissa shared some tips on how she managed to seek her interests as she stated,“What I’ve learned in my career, and it actually started when I was a student, is to always be curious, to try to understand more about new issues, to take different classes and to just kind of go around ONG L L EA with an open mind, FE I L trying to learn as much as you can.”
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José Guilherme Costa is the founder and CEO of iNovaBank do Brasil, and he is back to College seats in São Paulo, pursuing his second major in Marketing, after studying Entrepreneurship at Babson University. As he continued to follow his academic journey, he tried to start Law school, but this opportunity was not very successful. José found some challenges during his Law studies. In this quote he shares some thoughts with all young learners: “I honestly think failure is the most important part of the learning process because that is when you are actually forced to adapt. If you experience that, and you keep on making the same mistakes, you will not go anywhere. But if you stop to reflect on the reasons, on how and why you acted like that, and try to make a plan to restart and to try again, pursuing whatever you were doing, that’s when you actually learn.”
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How to achieve success? When deciding which path or choice to follow in a given situation, whether choosing the university or carrying out an academic project, one of the main points that were considered by our young guests was having passion and purpose for what you desire. Pedro Farias who graduated from Harvard University with honors, had an inspiring message to share with Middle School learners: “It’s not just about getting things done, it’s about making sure that you’re getting things done and being happy about what you got done. So think about what you specifically want to achieve. Think about what it is that you want to get done and then dedicate yourself
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The participants of the talk suggested that Concept learners consider leaving their parents’ house when they go to university – you don’t have to go abroad to live away from home. Stepping outside the comfort zone and living with other people always bring lessons of self-knowledge and respect to the differences. “One of the greatest highlights over the past three years for me is to just have been exposed to individuals with completely different interests and backgrounds, who are also super passionate about fixing the world’s problems. Having intellectual explorations with them and trying things outside of my field has never failed me,” shares the Yale scholar, Ryan Sandler, who
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With the mission of creating solutions to real problems of small business owners, learners from Middle School went to look for people whose businesses were impacted by the pandemic. The project was part of Phase 3 of the Virtual School and happened in a similar way in the three Concept schools, inspired by the #MatchMyStory movement. The hashtag #MatchMyStory has gained prominence in our social media channels in recent months, with the aim of bringing our community closer to people who have had to adapt to what we are calling the “new normal”, generating practical action in the form of help, support, or even a “like.” Inspired by these stories and motivated to engage in a real challenge, Grade 9 learners at Concept Ribeirão Preto are dedicating themselves to finding a solution to help a small business owner in the city who has an Italian restaurant and had to adapt the restaurant’s dining experience and menu to delivery service. Check out the statements of some learners about their experiences since the first conversations with the young businessman and cook Gabriel Nogueira, owner of O Pastificio.
“We use a lot of Design Thinking during our projects. Do you know what it means? Design Thinking is a creative approach to data organization that helps us think about solutions to possible problems. Many things happen when we do a project, we have to explore many topics to develop a solution. So, to make everything clearer and more visible in this period of isolation, we are using a platform called “Jamboard,” a framework shared with the entire class. This program is very interesting and is helping a lot during classes, making everything more organized,” reports Sarah Segantini Diniz.
“In order to help a small business owner adapt to the quarantine period, we did an interview with Gabriel. During the video call, we noted several changes that the owner had already made to readjust his business to this new situation. However, Gabriel still faces a problem, which is finding suitable packaging for the deliveries. With this challenge in mind, we have adopted this problem as our “case study,” and we are committed to find a solution. To this purpose, we are researching microbiology in food, design, and marketing, to propose the creation of appropriate and functional packaging,” explains learner Lucas Ciosaki.
“To solve the problem, we are making a plan that involves several stages and lots of research, and that interweaves with the school’s contents as follows: Art - materials, colors, branding, a message that can be included on the packaging so that it conveys the essence of the business. Humanities - how major crises impacted the world, the economy and how countries responded to each one. Science - microbiology, temperature and other issues that impact food conservation, even food transport. Languages - the format that we will adopt to communicate about this project to our community,” learner Luma de Melo Guião and the educators involved tell us.
According to the educators involved, Patrícia (Art), Daniel (Humanities) and Tauanne (Portuguese), the learners will next week present a pitch to the “client” Gabriel, showing the entire process, including budget, expenses, prototypes, bibliographic references, visual references and suggestions for packaging that meets the needs and reality of his business: packaging that is viable and that conveys the taste and the essence of the handmade Italian food served in the restaurant.
“One of the challenges we faced was the design of his packaging, which is neither sustainable nor elegant so, in the subjects of English and the arts, we are working to develop an idea for a sustainable and beautiful package for him,” adds Lucca Ferreira Bianchi.
“Statistics is very important for those who want to study and compare data to determine gains and expenses. This content is intended to guide entrepreneurs in their decisions and to support them when applying it to their business. We work with statistical data of sales by sector (delivery, frozen food and pick-up orders), to help find a solution for this project. We develop and interpret data, something essential in an entrepreneur’s routine,” says Antônio Augusto dos Santos Daneze.
UNBOXING YOUR CREATIVITY
To encourage creativity is one of the greatest aspirations of Escola Concept. The learners should be able to be life enthusiasts, and to find inspiration in simplicity and to have a desire to learn in any situation, even if it is in their home routine. This is certainly a gift that will last a lifetime! With that main idea, our Early Years educators launched the action UnBoxing Your Creativity. Each Early Years learner received a box containing endless possibilities for games, reading and lots of fun! The resources were carefully selected by our pedagogical team, with the focus on giving wings to the children’s imagination, transforming the process of learning at home into an even more pleasant and enriching activity! For the family of Isabela Gomez Viggiano, a prek4a learner, and Luca, a toddlers 2 learner at Concept São Paulo, the initiative was very meaningful and rewarding! It provided moments of unity and reflection, where collective thinking gave room to creations in 8 hands. “I
thought the initiative was wonderful!” says the learner’s’ mother, Paola Viggiano. It was a very cool experience from the moment of picking up the box and having the kids in the car, wearing masks, to the moment the box was delivered by the educator to Isabela’s hands. She was very excited,” shares Paola. At home, they opened the boxes and explored what was inside; glue, paint, cellophane paper, Durex tape, nature materials, letters and numbers, pictures of friends, cardboard, clay, ice cream sticks and balloons. “My children ran straight to the paint and colored glue, probably because they miss doing collages, then we made an ice cream factory with the chopsticks and clay.” Over the weekend, dad, mom and kids literally unboxed their creativity! “We used the boxes to make a truck and a fire engine. It was great!”.
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SustaINnovate is the name of a group of mothers and educators from the Escola Concept community that has been meeting since March to learn about Human Centered Service Design, an approach to create a service focused on the needs of a specific group of people. Although SustaINnovate was started in the three schools, only the São Paulo group resisted quarantine and continued with the meetings online via Zoom, every fifteen days. “We faced great challenges, as part of our group stopped participating, but we persisted and now we are confident that the project will be launched,” says Fabiana Brant de Carvalho, mother of Fernando and Francisco, Grade 2 and PreK 4 learners. After the initial phase in which the participants learned the basic principles of the approach, and after several ideation exercises (better known as brainstorming), the group decided that the goal will be sharing Concept practices with public school teachers.
“We are now in a crucial phase, in which the idea is to define the service right away and to start testing,” comments Luciana Pölönen, Head of Service Design at Escola Concept, and SustaINnovate facilitator. “However, it is very important to first listen to the people who will benefit from the project because only they know what they exactly need.” This is the main reason why a platform to collect information will be launched in the upcoming weeks. The main goal of this platform is to collect information on what teachers may be in need of during COVID-19. The answers may range from the need for professional development over virtual learning platforms to technological devices. We might as well be surprised with the answers we get... “Participating in SustaINovate represents for me a motivation to apply knowledge and return something to society, in addition to meeting incredible people and deepening this new knowledge that will surely become more and more relevant in my daily life,” says Fabiana, who is also involved in other socio-educational projects.