Mineola School Wins Grand Prize In Follett Challenge

Press release from SyntaxNY:

April 17 2020

Mineola High School was named the grand prizewinner in the 2020 Follett Challenge for changing the traditional methods of teaching and learning. According to its website, the Follett Challenge was started in 2010 as a library advocacy contest that has evolved into a program designed to help all K-12 educators empower innovation.

Mineola won based on a questionnaire completed by Mineola High School’s librarian Jeff Appelbaum and its video submission, “Empowering Students: Preparing Students for the 4th Industrial Revolution,” which highlighted its student-directed learning and ability to prepare students for the future. Submissions were judged on how well the highlighted program encouraged communication outside of a traditional library setting, how well it engaged higher-order skills and how well the program encourages students to create and innovate using a variety of tools to convey their own ideas, interpret the ideas of others and produce new works which address contemporary 21st century challenges.

“While many schools are talking about engaging students in their learning, we’re talking about empowering students. And empowering students is a lot different than engagement in that students are directing a lot of their learning,” Principal Whittney Smith, Ed.D., said in the video.

Mineola joins nine semifinalists and 10 people’s choice winners who were announced in March. As the grand prizewinner, Mineola High School will receive $30,000 in Follett products and services. The video can be viewed on the homepage of the district’s website: www.mineola.k12.ny.us .

This press release was produced by the SyntaxNY. The views expressed here are the author’s own.