Quarter one exhibitions are 94.12% complete! Pilot students that have presented their work this week have highlighted their triumphs, explained new insights in learning how to learn independently, and questioned how to best move forward. I will let their words do most of the talking. Below you will see excerpts from either their exhibition or their narrative. The image next to their words is a map of the walk that we took together last week. I now realize that when I committed to doing walking meetings with everyone in one week that it is as wonderful as it is tiresome. We guided each other through the woods, around the track, and to many places I have not explored in the last ten years working at U-32. It was very interesting, but not all that surprising, how each walk told me a little more about each person. Each path was unique in some way. It was an excellent way to prepare for exhibition week. We got to stop sitting in front of a screen for a minute and appreciate the great weather that we’ve been having. Remembering to breathe. Cameron - I’ve realized that creating a person is hard work. Yes, in the literal sense, creating a person scientifically must be hard but I’m talking about a personality. Who is this person? What does he like to do? What is his favourite food? What is the one thing that can make him cry? These are all things I’ve realized that I have to consider when writing a person.
Ford - This is clearly very important when working in kitchens because if you cannot safely handle the tools and equipment, then you will never be successful cooking anything. This is especially true when I cook at work because the knives are very, very sharp, and will cut you immediately upon contact. I have already cut myself a few times at work, but not within the past few weeks. I can already see my knife skills develop throughout this first quarter. I can cut vegetables, and meat three times as fast as when I first began, and much more precise as well. Scott - It’s not easy being the teacher and the student. But you get to learn about things that you’re into, or you learn about things that you’re into. Wyatt - After a quarter of self directed learning I have grown as a confident independent thinker. I have structured each hour, each day and each week of this quarter to create a system that works best for my learning. I have experienced both failures and successes, nonetheless I am still here. This is what I have learned. Kristina - For the first time in my whole life I have freedom in my learning, but so much responsibility comes along with it. Now I actually need to have awareness of “how” I learn, now I am teaching myself! Kayla - The program has given me hope for my future education and has allowed me to combine school with my interests, where a traditional classroom setting would not. In my last couple months in the pilot program I feel like I've accomplished some great things and learned a lot about who I am as a person and my independent Learning habits.
Izzy - I asked myself: How is the pilot working for me? I had a hard time answering this question because from my point of view it is tough to see where pilot stops and my life begins. All of my studies are so close to me as a whole person that it is difficult to consider my studies a part of school instead of a part of my life.
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you notice it all starts and ends with fire it rolls back once more - excerpt from Kristina Martske's blog post this week One from the TGIF archives, written in mid-October six years ago. Notice how our learning cycle repeats: I know that this first month has been a tough waiting game for many of the people reading this: when will these people blossom into self-directed, amazing learners? Where are all the paradigm-shifting projects, already? Why are those people allowed to have a couch, and to come and go as they please, seemingly at random? Why do they look so happy? I thought this was supposed to be school! (ok, maybe I am making up those last two.) I know that I have certainly been feeling it, working hard to stay patient, to trust the process, to trust that whatever data sets of memorized facts or procedures or vague conceptual frames they might have been working with in their classes are outweighed by the learning to learn work that is necessarily happening as they struggle to identify interests, to reach out to the wide world, to perform tasks when nobody is looking. The difference, perhaps, is that I have known this day was coming. What I hope is that the reality of these exhibitions [starting on Monday October 23rd] will cause them to get working like they haven’t (in some cases) yet. I want to turn the heat of rigor up a notch, because (and I think rightly) I have by far prioritized relevance and relationships. Those are Doc Littky’s new 3 R’s of education, and they are the magic formula: get kids convinced that we care about them and their minds and their success, then encourage them to generate projects that are relevant to them, and finally build in the rigor, defining what is good enough for them. The pride that comes with success at a rigorous project, in a field that is relevant, among people whose relationships matter to you, is our target. That motivates us (see Pink’s recent book Drive if you don’t believe me). It is a time consuming process, but it’s the only one.
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