7/18/2014 Ngee Ann Academy

Ngee Ann Secondary

"True educators put the child at the heart of all they do and believe they can make a difference to a child's life."   

-From Our Singapore Educator's Philosophy of Education

Imagining Beyond Boundaries Being a Future School

The Reconstruction of Ann Arbor Public Schools as a 21^st Century Institution

3. What challenges if any, do you foresee in applying what you observed?

The partnerships formed with local and global companies and Ngee Ann Secondary School is the catalyst to their success as being a future school. The corporate investments contribute to Ngee Ann’s creative places and spaces, innovative technology, and equitable support of their students and staff so that they meet the demands of the 21^st century.

Ngee Ann’s creation of school values, are at the core of their school environment, which permeates the school culture. They are an autonomous school achieving excellence in all areas of curriculum and academics. Their success factors of their staff are strong leadership and planning skills. They are derived from their access to relevant professional development leading to innovative teaching and learning, contributing to their staff seizing opportunities to promote themselves and their school by presenting papers at conferences, universities and seminars, creating strategic partnerships which celebrate their success.

I do not visualize what I witnessed at Ngee Ann Secondary as a challenge but as an opportunity to help build supportive structures for Ann Arbor Public Schools educational system. As teachers we share the same responsibilities and burdens that are schools face, the lack of partnerships, corporate, government funding and spending on education.  So, with this in mind we must seize our own opportunities to develop local and global partnerships with Google, Toyota, Apple, University of Michigan and D.T.E for innovative technology. We must go back to our schools and transform our physical learning environments our spaces and places with creative design and ideation with little or no money available. We must implement plans for our student’s to use their own technological devices in the classroom or become a one on one school. We must create a cohesive school culture that represents our students and staff values that initiates support, respect, responsibility and resilience. To promote ourselves as 21^st century teachers we must demand relevant professional development to enhance our learning, teaching and lecturing skills so we can be innovative teachers using 21^st century skills, celebrating our success as highly qualified professionals working in a supportive network of Future Schools.