Download pdf - Brightworks Head of School: Summer 2016

Head of SchoolLeadership opportunity

San Francisco, California: Summer 2016

sfbrightworks.orgHead of School: Summer 20162

Fast Facts

2011 65

12 3

Opened in September with 19 studentsCurrent number of students (K-12)

Mission district San Francisco, CATotal staff

sfbrightworks.org

resident dinosaur sculptures


Brightworks is a school based on the principle that everything is interesting. We trust that children are

naturally motivated learners and partner with them

as co-authors of their educational path. The school

sets topics for exploration and encourages children

to take on projects they are passionate about, while

also fostering the development of a multitude of

skills. We educate and inspire students in a flexible,

mixed-age environment that breaks the traditional

walls between school and the community outside

the classroom. We offer a learning environment that

encourages creative capacity, tenacity, and citizenship.

We don’t teach this way as a means to improve

traditional educational metrics; we believe these

qualities are a more important end in themselves.

The school has grown and developed significantly

in the five years since it was founded. Building on

the pedagogical framework of the Brightworks

Arc and driven by a vision of engagement-based,

child-centric education, Brightworks has attracted

global attention as a truly innovative school.

The strong collaborative partnership between

the school’s Founder, who serves as Educational

Architect, and the current Head of School is one of the

cornerstones of the school’s success. Together, they

have built a unique learning environment, and we are

seeking a new Head of School who will continue that

partnership. Over the next few years, the school will

expand and acquire larger premises to accommodate

growth. The new Head will lead the school’s growth

and evolution while maintaining the core values and

qualities that make Brightworks uniquely valuable.

Overview

TL;DR Brightworks is a school that says “yes” to everything. A school that gives kids both power tools and mental tools to conquer things the world thinks only adults are allowed to do. An extraordinary school. If you are a leader who loves empowering kids with confidence, giving them the ability to create their own futures, and spontaneous group hugs, then Brightworks just may be the place for you.


“What Brightworks is doing is important, unique, and real. Most schools aren’t really doing what they say they are doing - you are.”

- Jeeva Roche PhD

Director, UC Berkeley Global School Project


About Gever Tulley and Tinkering School

Eleven years ago, Gever

Tulley started a sleep-

away camp based on a

simple idea and a question

that he could not answer.

The camp was called Tinkering School, and the

idea was naively simple: that children can be

trusted - with tools and with themselves.

The question was a bit more complicated: “Where does

competence come from?” Gever asked this question

because competence is a common characteristic in the

adults he most admired, and it appeared that schools

did not really look at competence. One of Gever’s

students once asked him what he hoped she would

get from coming to Tinkering School and building a

sail-powered rail car (which her team sailed nine miles

on an abandoned railroad track). He told her that one

day he hoped she would be the kind of person he

would choose (if you could choose!) to be shipwrecked

with - a very competent person who would never give

up, never stop trying to survive and could build her

own rescue solution. The Tinkering ideal is that we

should all be that sort of person - cheerful, tenacious,

playful, resourceful, curious, resilient, and competent.

It was while working on Tinkering School that Gever

conceived of the notion of experience-first education.

The idea is that if you design a meaningful and

engaging experience, the rest (learning goals, core

skills, social and emotional development, and so

forth) you get almost for free. Engaged, discovery-

based, self-motivated, self-challenging learning

happens only when the experience is good. From

that point on, the primary research effort at Tinkering

School has been to discover and develop ways to

reliably create engaging learning experiences.

Tinkering School (and perhaps the wooden roller

coaster that we built during the very first camp, with

120 feet of track and big enough for students and their

parents to ride) excited kids, intrigued parents, and

caught the attention of big names in education and

engineering. Gever’s TED talks have over four million

views, his book 50 Dangerous Things (You Should

Let Your Children Do) was a best-seller, and NPR

calls him “The Father of the Tinkering Movement.”

School History


After seeing so many students eagerly take on

seemingly impossible challenges that required them

to work 8- to 10-hours per day, Gever began to

wonder: since it’s clearly feasible to create deeply

engaging learning experiences, why isn’t school

the most interesting place in every child’s life? This

led to the development of the Brightworks Arc - a

flexible pedagogical framework - and the founding

of Brightworks. The school opened its doors in 2011

in a 9,000-square-foot warehouse in San Francisco.

We had a small staff, 19 students ages 6 to 12, and

a vision for a different kind of school. In much the

same way that Tinkering School was a laboratory,

so too is Brightworks, where we are dedicated to

developing an engagement-based, experience-first

learning environment as a complete education.

Now in its fifth year, Brightworks has grown from

a dream to a thriving K-12 institution that is widely

considered to be one of the most innovative schools

in the world. Gever and the Brightworks team have

realized the vision of a school that thrives on kids’

curiosity and ideas and provides a place for them to

think big and be a part of a community of learners.

The School

Brightworks is a school that reimagines education. By

taking the best practices from both early childhood

education and hands-on, project-based experiential

learning, we strive to meet students’ needs in a flexible,

mixed-age environment that breaks the traditional

walls between school and the community outside

the classroom. We offer a broad-spectrum learning

environment designed to encourage creative capacity,

tenacity, and citizenship in students from K-12.

Using the Brightworks Arc as a framework for deeply

engaged learning, children develop the ability to find

wonder and delight in the exploration of any topic, to

practice working together to turn ideas into reality,

and to learn how

to communicate

what they have

done and why – all

in the context of a

diverse community

of collaborators,

families, volunteers,

and supporters.

Brightworks


The Brightworks Arc

The Arc is the fundamental rhythm of a Brightworks

education. Each Arc has a topic; a major theme that

is the connective thread of

the experience. From Salt to

Maps to Fairness to Clocks,

the topics are as varied as

human experience. With three

arcs each year, students move

through a diverse course of

study in a series of intensive immersions, emphasizing

depth over breadth, integrating and contextualizing

the development of skills and domain knowledge.

The beginning phase of the arc is Exploration, a

time to delve into the fundamental questions about

a topic – what is it? why is it important? – and

also to expand skill bases and introduce concepts

through work with related experts as well as field

research, structured games, and practice.

In the next phase of the arc, Expression, students

go deeper by proposing a project centered

around a facet of the arc topic that has caught

their intellectual interest. Collaborators and

experts support students in project management,

documentation, perseverance, collaboration,

and specific skills to complete their project.

The final phase, Exposition, requires students to

explain their work to their community and themselves

through written and oral presentations, question

sessions, and demonstrations. In doing so, they

develop robust and flexible communication skills

and integrate their most recent work into their

continuing intellectual and social-emotional growth.

Scheduled time for reflection and assessment is an

essential moment of pause between arcs, intended

for students to have time to write/reflect on the

process and presentation of their work during the

arc. There is also time for collaborators to fully assess

each student’s experience of the arc in a written

narrative to be shared with students and parents.

Then it’s time to begin again.

Because the basis of a Brightworks education begins

with the Arc, we choose topics with great care.

Those that work best are simple at first glance; things

that even young children could be expected to be


familiar with. In proving the school motto “Everything

is interesting,” good arc topics contain multitudes

of surprises and fascinating possibilities for project

work. A topic works best when it functions as a seed

rather than an umbrella – when it has facets that

reach into many academic disciplines, but when

students can start small in their understanding of it

and build outward through the phases. An arc topic

stimulates curiosity, discovery, and insight when a

5-year-old can grasp it, a 12-year-old can dive into it,

and a 15-year-old can push its boundaries outward.

Brightworks and The Institute for Applied Tinkering

Brightworks is a small school with a big impact - not

just on its immediate community, but on the global

community of educators. Brightworks was recently

called “one of the 13 most innovative schools in the

world,” and is frequently mentioned in articles about

the future of education in The New York Times,

NPR, The Atlantic, and other national and global

publications. Kim Saxe, Director of the Innovation Lab,

The Nueva School and lecturer at Stanford University,

says, “I’m drawn to innovators in general, and to

innovators in education in particular. I’m involved

with Brightworks because I feel Gever, Ellen, and their

team are pushing the envelope to actively invent and

deliver programs that foster the ‘making’ mindset.”

Part of what makes this possible is the support of

the Institute for Applied Tinkering (IAT). The IAT

is a 501(c)(3) and the parent organization of both

Brightworks and Tinkering School. The Mission

of the IAT is to “Explore, develop, and promote

new methods for helping children learn using real

tools to solve real problems in the real world.” This

ensures that innovation in education and the open

sharing of ideas with other schools and educators

are core elements of Brightworks goals and values.

Over the coming years we plan to formalize the

role that Brightworks and Tinkering School play in

the 21st century education space by establishing

a small research center as a third project of the

IAT. This Center for Engaged Learning will host

educational researchers, offer educator trainings,

and publish our pedagogy and methods, giving

others around the world the necessary information

to establish Brightworks-style education programs

in their communities. Brightworks will remain the lab

school where ideas are tested and demonstrated.


The next Head of School will enter a thriving community

with many strengths and unique challenges. These include:

• A pedagogical framework developed by the Founder

and current Head of School that has resulted

in transformative experiences for students. Our

emergent curriculum is always in development,

and the pedagogy needs further definition and

experimentation. This position needs to work closely

with lead and individual collaborators and Gever

Tulley on ongoing experiments and implementation

of curriculum throughout all bands at the school.

• A broader mission to influence the national and

international conversation about educational

reform beyond this one private school community.

As such, we need to continue on our bold path

toward creating truly unique pedagogy rather than

drifting toward the progressive school mainstream.

This position is critical in balancing that mission

with supporting the journey of families who have

taken a significant leap on behalf of their children.

• A creative, committed community. Our families

are brave, thoughtful people who care about

the school, the staff, and each other.

• A student body that is deeply engaged in their

education. Our kids care, and they question. The

new Head must be committed to fostering an

environment where that is more than allowed,

where it is welcomed and encouraged.

• A startup school with an early reputation for

education innovation that we need to continue

to earn. We are already in the public eye in the

educational world; balancing the risks and benefits

of that, supporting the many educators who

want to visit, and eventually collaborating with

a more formalized program to disseminate our

curriculum and methods will be important.

• The school recently secured the current location

for 5 more years, including a new expansion

space that will be occupied beginning with the

2016-17 school year. To accommodate future

growth, the board of directors intends to raise

the funds to acquire a building or other location

that can serve as a permanent home for both

Brightworks and Tinkering School, as well as

future educator training and research programs.

• Brightworks is a K-12 school with fewer than 100

students and a limited budget. Operating a small

school with broad ambitions presents opportunities

and challenges. Individual staff members, including

the Head of School, perform many functions

that would generally be the responsibility of a

dedicated individual or team in larger schools. The

small size helps us stay nimble and spontaneous,

which is critical to our pedagogy; but it requires

substantial flexibility and resilience from the staff.

Opportunities and Challenges


• Has experience developing, supporting, or

implementing emergent or alternative curriculum.

• Has meaningful past teaching experience

in a K-12 classroom environment.

• Has a “nose for talent” and is able to

attract, mentor, evaluate, support, train and

retain exceptional faculty and staff.

• Ready to lead recruiting and admissions, and

alumni and parent engagement, as well as work

closely with committees on marketing and

outreach, fundraising, and development.

• Is financially literate and comfortable managing

school budgets and related administrative matters.

• Is a genuine, inspiring communicator and avid

listener, who models the values of the school

with students, parents, faculty, and staff.

• Is eager to work in close partnership with the school

Founder in innovating, documenting, and spreading

child-centric, engagement-based education methods.

• Is a fearless advocate for the student

educational experience.

• Understands students’ varied intellectual,

developmental, and emotional needs, and is able

to coordinate strategies for support with parents,

staff, students, and outside services when needed.

• Brings an entrepreneurial spirit to education.

• Excited to get hands-on along with

our staff and students.

• Embraces the challenge of leading a truly

innovative school that both delivers an

exceptional educational experience to students

and inspires educators around the world.

• First-time Heads welcome to apply.

Qualifications and Qualities of the next Head of School

How to Apply

Please submit resume and cover letter to

[email protected].

Applications will be handled

confidentially by the search committee

in the initial stages. Brightworks is

an equal opportunity employer.

Finalists will also be interviewed by

a staff panel and a parent panel.

Thanks for your time and interest!


“Brightworks is on the leading edge of fostering creativity in children. Gever and his team are real visionaries in pushing the frontier of human potential.”

- Sal Khan,

Founder and Executive Director of Khan Academy