This year we are making a shift to becoming a full fledged Big Picture School. I say full fledged because it seemed to me that we were Big Picture Lite. Our focus was combining our CTE instruction, which students are naturally interested in, with internship and LTI opportunities. This was really awesome stuff. We have students working along side some of the area's best chefs, students flying in emergency helicopters, and a group of students fabricating a train for a budding entrepreneur. But our core academic classes remained detached from these experiences. Kids rarely got credited for work they were doing for their LTI or in their CTE instruction.
When Covid-19 hit, teachers were thrown into panic mode. But schools like ours had a different approach that adapted well to this new landscape. More than just PBL, our curriculum is driven by student's personal interests. With the help of our brilliant English teacher, BE.Tech was able to pivot from its CTE core and help students put together projects that reflected work they could do on their own. Some cooked and baked, while others pursued coding, or took time to learn new art forms. Our spring exhibitions were rich with the new skills student's acquired, and the lessons they learned from those experiences.
Picking up where we left off, we are fully implementing the Big Picture Learning philosophy by integrating our core academic content areas with our CTE pathways and student's personal interests. We have also made the change from offering LTI days only on Friday to BOTH Tuesday and Thursday. This move cannot be understated because I think the value of having a consistent internship two days a week versus just the one increases the visibility and accountability of the student which will translate to increased autonomy and responsibility.
These are not new changes, they are refinements, and the response has overwhelmingly been positive from our students and parents. I look forward to sharing more of this journey as the year continues.
When Covid-19 hit, teachers were thrown into panic mode. But schools like ours had a different approach that adapted well to this new landscape. More than just PBL, our curriculum is driven by student's personal interests. With the help of our brilliant English teacher, BE.Tech was able to pivot from its CTE core and help students put together projects that reflected work they could do on their own. Some cooked and baked, while others pursued coding, or took time to learn new art forms. Our spring exhibitions were rich with the new skills student's acquired, and the lessons they learned from those experiences.
Picking up where we left off, we are fully implementing the Big Picture Learning philosophy by integrating our core academic content areas with our CTE pathways and student's personal interests. We have also made the change from offering LTI days only on Friday to BOTH Tuesday and Thursday. This move cannot be understated because I think the value of having a consistent internship two days a week versus just the one increases the visibility and accountability of the student which will translate to increased autonomy and responsibility.
These are not new changes, they are refinements, and the response has overwhelmingly been positive from our students and parents. I look forward to sharing more of this journey as the year continues.