When I reflect on my journey, I never intentionally said, “I will become a Compass Facilitator”; it was more a product of experiential processes. If I break my journey down into steps over time, there are four distinct steps over a period of 8 years.
Step 1
I worked closely with my service learning coordinator at a previous school who is a Compass Facilitator. When working with student organizations I needed some frameworks or tools to go deeper into the areas and topics that define their organizations’ actions. After a reflective conversation with the service learning coordinator, The Compass Iceberg was suggested as a tool to use with the students.
The action/result: The student leaders started to reflect on the fact that they were always focused on the Event and never dug into the Patterns, Systems and Mindset that were needed to grow the organization and connect to lasting change.
Step 2
My current school has a Sustainability Strategic Initiative as one of its seven impact goals of the school’s Strategic Plan. One of the four long-term Sustainability Goals is to “integrate sustainability in our curriculum at all levels”. After having some conversations with the administration on the “How,” a few staff members decided to start micro-credentialing in a variety of PD around sustainability, starting with the Compass Level I Course.
The action/result: The Sustainability Compass Tool was embedded in the PYPX (Primary Years Program Exhibition) for all Grade 5 students. It also was starting to be used by teachers in other grade levels as they looked to unpack topics in a sustainable way in their classrooms.
Step 3
For teams to bring our school’s Impact Goals to life, a tool was needed to co-create solutions and proposed actions. As there was a group that had finished the Compass Level I course and had some tools they were familiar with and were using, a small group took Compass Level 2 course to better understand another Compass tool, the VISIS Pyramid. This is a tool that brings systems thinking into a step-by-step process to create sustainable action. For the final course project, we unpacked “Explore creative scheduling options to allow students and teachers the time necessary to promote student agency” which was a Priority Action in the school’s Strategic Impacts under Personalized Learning.
The action/result: Our smaller school campus rebuilt their schedule including a Flex Day; one day out of an 8-day cycle. This day’s focus is on students leading their learning.
“To create a master schedule that utilizes resources, space, and personnel to provide opportunities for meaningful interdisciplinary work over extended periods of time.”
Campus schedule Vision the “V” starting the VISIS Pyramid
Step 4
With more and more students and teachers using the Compass tools, the demand for training students and teachers increased not only at our school but in the European region. Compass Education reaches out to all who completed their Level 2 course with the opportunity to become a facilitator. At this point, I found that “information was responsibility”. I could see first-hand the impact of the tools and wanted to personally take action to join the “Global Movement of educators and change agents who believe that a flourishing, sustainable world begins with our students and school” (taken from Compass Education Mission) as a Facilitator.
The action/result: I completed my facilitator training as a shadow facilitator at ISB (International School Basel) and a group from our school is going to introduce some Compass tools at AGIS (Association of German International Schools) in the Spring of 2023. We have also created a group to scope and sequence tools related to the process of Personalized Learning and Global Citizenship at school from Primary to Grade 12 and there will be Compass tools in this “Toolbox” going forward.
As my grandmother always said, “All opportunities are not doors, some are windows.”. I am very grateful I took the window into the Compass Education Community.
Be well.
Donny Hansen
A husband of one and father of two living in Germany currently. Spent school and college days in the midwest of the USA between Wisconsin and Iowa. Followed by working in International Schools in the Middle East. Enjoy working to strengthen systems to build a community working toward a common goal of growing global citizenship.
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