Video- Joplin High School at the mall to close soon

A report from KODE's Gretchen Bolander *** Read about Joplin's first year in the mall high school in Spirit of Hope: The Year After the Joplin Tornado. The book details Joplin's remarkable recovery from the tornado, starting with first-person stories from the storm itself through all of the major events of the following year. The book is available from Amazon.

National magazine spotlights Joplin's 21st Century schools

Tne new Joplin schools, particularly Joplin High School, are featured in the latest edition of Emergency Management magazine:

Joplin officials took the opportunity to incorporate 21st-century learning environments into the new schools. District leaders engaged high school staff, students, administrators and parents to brainstorm new ideas. A team of administrators toured tech-savvy schools around the country, as well as innovative companies like Apple in Cupertino, Calif., to examine cutting-edge work environments.

“We didn’t take the traditional approach to school construction,”  (Superintendent C. J.) Huff said. “We are creating schools that have a very open environment and collaborative spaces.”

The new schools have moveable walls that allow educators to create flexible spaces where students can collaborate in large and small groups. In addition, small group “think tank” areas are located in all the new buildings.

Technology also plays a key role. Franklin Technology Center will be incorporated into the new Joplin High School, and thanks to a $1 million donation from the United Arab Emirates Embassy, all 2,200 Joplin high school students now have a dual-platform laptop computer. All new buildings are also wired for current and future technology opportunities.

From a curriculum perspective, Huff said they have developed a new Career Pathway framework for course delivery.

“In essence we will be creating interdisciplinary teams that are in the process of delivering rigorous, project-based instruction in the students’ areas of interest,” he said. “We have five broad career pathways kids can choose from.”

Care was also taken to ensure the new school buildings would be efficient. While they won’t be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rated due to the high cost of certification, the buildings were built with sustainability in mind, with everything from the materials used, to rain water collection for irrigation, to natural daylighting, and motion on/off switches in the classrooms. In addition, the new Joplin High School has a conduit in place to incorporate solar power once it becomes cost effective.

Video- Angie Besendorfer hopes to be remembered for design of Joplin schools

From Jet 14