When I was in high school I attended Frances Kelsey Secondary School in Mill Bay. For those of you who are not familiar with the school it has a self paced learning system. This means that there are learning guides for each course that each student must follow, you have minimal interaction with your teacher (although there is more now then there used to be) and with the exception of provincially examinable courses there is little to no lecturing and the teachers are not responsible for constant planning. Nor is there much in the way of classroom management beyond the odd "stop talking" or "come back here and stop wandering the halls".
This has completely skewed how I experienced high school compared to what my own students will be experiencing. Unless of course I somehow end up back there at some point in my career. I have very little knowledge about what a traditional classroom experience looks like, and to be honest, it scares the daylights out of me. So I am wondering if anyone else has had more "alternative" high school experiences and how they are going to translate what they did as a student into their own classrooms. Or if anyone has any suggestions as to how I can deal with this. Any ideas will help!
This is the schools website if anyone wants to learn more about the self paced learning system.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
So my attempt at posting the link didn't work, so you can copy and paste the web address from here:
http://www.sd79.bc.ca/schools/Kelsey/index.htm
I didn't have a high school experience quite like yours, but I did have a few classes that were mainly self-paced, and for the majority of the class, it was not successful. I think it takes a certain type of person to motivate his or herself to that extent, but I've seen some students thrive in that kind of setting. They can move as fast or as slow as their lives/schedules permit, and they love being responsible for their own learning. I know in my experience, depending on the class, I lack some motivation. I need the pressure of a due date to get my work done sometimes (especially during summer classes!!)
You could set your class up differently if you and your school think it is appropriate, but just keep in mind that the students that went to your school might be different than the students you'll have a "regular" school. They may not be as easily motivated, or they may struggle to learn the course content on their own. I think it depends on the person, the school and the course.
I have a follow up question if you read this: If you taught in a school like this, would it change how you feel about your role as a teacher?
In my last year of high school, I took part in an AP Calculus class. It was the first of its kind in my school, and there were only seven students (including myself). We called ourselves "the chosen seven"... little geeky, I know. Anyways, the course was partially self directed in that during the regular calculus class we would all get together in the library and try and teach ourselves the material and work through the assignments. Then, after school, we would get together with the teacher, and go over what we had learned, things we had struggled with, etc. I really enjoyed it, but I think a large part of that was the course was by choice, and so all of the other students really wanted to be there, and (being calculus) were at a similar level academically.
I guess what I'm saying is, I think that self-directed learning can be beneficial, but there should be check points along the way to make sure that the learning is on track, and that method of learning is actually working for the student. I doubt this would have worked for some of my other subjects that I wasn't so interested in.
What an awesome experience! I think that your students would really benefit from you having this experience. I think it might give you a lot of creativity that others might not have....given that you can think outside of the traditional highschool box. It might be a challenge, but I agree with Alicia, perhaps you could look at setting up your class differently, if that's ok with your administration. Or maybe incorportating the strengths you saw in your school system to the strengths of a "traditional" class. This also made me think about something a few of us discussed in class, why don't we set up classrooms to allow for students to participate when they are feeling ready to...and if we want to do that how can we incorporate that into a classroom setting. Perhaps your experiences could help with this kind of learning.
I think this also poses the question, how much do we just reenact the type of education we were exposed to, and how much will we depend on our teacher training to inform our classroom methods? Obviously a lot of our discussions have been based on how our experiences have shaped our learning and teaching styles, but most of us will find that we are teaching in situations that we have never faced before.
For example, while teaching in Japan, I taught "normal" classes like we expect in a high school, and then I had classes with one or two physically handicapped students. I had never sat through a class with only myself and two teachers!
I think we all feel scared to face situations in the next (and following) years, it reassures me hearing that other people are as worried as I am. At the same time, I am confident in the education program (at least hoping like mad!) that they are not just throwing us into the wolves unprepared.
Post a Comment