About UsOur NameGuiding PrinciplesToolsPrintable VersionContact Us
| CrossPulse Consultants | |||||
| Arts and Cultural Connections | Entrepreneurship | Software Development and I.T. Support | Technology and Learning | Program Development | The WE's Have It |
|
|
|||||
| HomeAbout UsOur NameGuiding PrinciplesToolsPrintable VersionContact Us
|
|||||
We provide performances, workshops, and ongoing classes showing relationships among the arts (music, dance, visual arts) and mathematics-science. Exploring mathematics and science content in art and cultural contexts provides opportunities to increase student awareness of contributions to the fundamental development of mathematics and science from various world cultures, including those from the African Diaspora. As well, engaging mathematics and science learning in community-based and after school settings reinforces the ideas that academic learning is an ongoing activity, that school is a place but not the place of learning, and that learning and study extend beyond school hours.
Our presentations model the habit of mind of “making connections.” We are deliberate about showing the power of actively making connections across disciplines and areas of passion.
Finally, creativity is a thinking practice often underutilized in the service of mathematics and science learning, although, ironically, creative thinking is at the heart of these endeavors. Blurring the line amongst art, mathematics, and science helps inspire students to harness their own powers of creativity in the engagement of academic learning.
Entrepreneurship is one of the core values of CrossPulse Consultants in that we believe that it is important for young people to see themselves as producers as much as consumers. We provide workshops in entrepreneurship, using an approach that is attitude-based as well as skill-based.
Entrepreneurial thinking involves sharpening an awareness of one’s strengths and learning to activate them, guided by the aim to achieve excellence. Our workshops equip young people to set goals, plan strategically, and take focused action.
Our aim is to provide added capacity through partnering with you to develop a deeper understanding of your technology needs. Technology, used thoughtfully, can facilitate internal and external communication and can enable more intelligent and creative uses of information. An aspect of our development process involves, where possible, customizing tools that you are already using, such as Microsoft Office suite, or, where necessary, developing a new application.
Examples of potential projects include using technology to help create or enhance your mechanisms for communicating with families, for providing services via the Internet, for collecting, organizing, and analyzing data, and for generating reports. An additional example is supporting the planning, building and maintenance of a technology resource center.
We help organizations use technology thoughtfully as a component of student learning. This involves a combination of integrating technology into teaching and learning practices across disciplines as well as supporting student and staff mastery of a set of technology competencies.
As a meaningful way of gauging one’s own progress, we also support learners in identifying and preparing for appropriate certification exams (hardware, software, network, and database). An aspect of this process entails placing these certifications in a broader context, so that they are not seen as ends in and of themselves. At the same time, we help learners consider how to package and market their growing dossier of skills and experiences.
There is an increased recognition of the importance of extending learning across the day, beyond school hours. Achieving excellence in mathematics, science, and technology learning demands having expanded opportunities for extending, deepening, and applying learning that occurs during the typical school day.
Our years of content coaching and professional development experience in a variety of school and after school settings enable us to work with community-based organizations to identify, define, and/or develop mathematics, science and technology enrichment programs closely tailored to your particular needs. True to our guiding principles, we use a collaborative approach and engage staff, to the greatest practicable extent, in the development process.
Recently, there has been an intensified focus placed upon school-community partnerships. Generally, initiatives are organized around how schools can better engage families and communities. The organizing paradigm is that of outreach, of how schools/school systems can “reach out” into the community. At CrossPulse Consultants, we flip this premise around and have put thought into how communities and families can more effectively “reach into” schools, from places of power, intentionality, and authentic voice.
We believe that the critical leverage points for education reform are beyond the school walls. What goes on inside the school is heavily influenced by the attitudes and dispositions that students and staff bring to schools. Schools, typically, reinforce and perpetuate the values and expectations of the society at large and are powerfully effective institutions for preserving the socio-economic-political power dynamics that exist. Consequently, there is built in inertia that must be overcome for any type of significant change to take effect.
To help address these considerations, we have begun an initiative, “The We’s Have It”, a series of ongoing dialogues and planning meetings geared towards forging collaborative relationships among school, community, and business partners vested in academic excellence.