Archive for the ‘High School’ tag
“Let Them Own It,” by Trevor Przyuski
Trevor Przyuski works as an instructional coach for Albemarle County Public Schools. In, “Let Them Own It,” he writes about the tension between children’s authentic engagement with personally meaningful work and their struggles with traditional school work. By sharing an anecdote from his own experience as a classroom teacher, Trevor offers a model of instructional decision making that favors following the “happy accidents” of authentic engagement over sticking with the teacher’s plans.
Trevor’s post makes a startling point: the genius of a lesson plan may be in its failure. If a plan prompts students to follow their interests and passions in taking the work in another direction, then its failure can provide more authentic engagement than its success. Indeed, to move past thinking about our own lessons as successes and failures, we need to make students equal partners in the differentiation of their learning.
After reading Trevor’s post, the big question for me is: how do we shift our mindest and planning practices to prepare for the “accidents” of authentic engagement? Even in a classroom rich with opportunities for authentic engagement, students will make discoveries about themselves and their learning that will take them in unanticipated directions. When planning for authentic engagement, what’s the right balance to maintain between familiar structures and the unknown?
Trevor’s blog is here, and you can follow him on Twitter via @trevorprzyuski. Please read on and comment!
“Walter’s Struggles and Accomplishments,” by Charlotte Wellen
I’m very grateful to be able to share with you the work going on at Murray High School in Charlottesville, Virginia. Murray High School is “the world’s first Glasser Quality Public High School.” The school uses William Glasser’s Choice Theory and Quality Schools framework to re-engage students with the joy of learning. The creation of “Quality Work” and “Quality Product” in a joyful place drives success at the school.
Murray specializes in making work personally meaningful to its students. The school engages students with both rigorous academics and an equally challenging process of self-discovery and -management through Choice Theory. The work Murray invests in building trusting relationships throughout the community also plays a key role in creating an environment safe for academic risk-taking.
Murray Choices Teacher, NBCT, and Practicum Supervisor for the William Glasser Institute Charlotte Wellen has written “Walter’s Struggles and Accomplishments” to share with us what authentic engagement with learning and authentic work look like at a Glasser Quality School. You can read about “Walter,” a composite of students’ experiences at Murray, here.
You can also hear from Murray’s students here, as well as see state measurement of the school’s impact on student achievement here.
