307. Make Learning Meaningful Through Student Agency with Garrett Smiley

Yes, we're built around a few different pillars.

I'd say our most prominent from an outside perspective is our commitment to project-based learning, which means that students, yes, they're still doing, you know, they still have worksheets every once in a while.

You got to practice things sometimes.

You got to, you know, this is important.

So content is still in there, but content is a tool for students to do new things is what we believe.

So how do you have a student? They learn biology, they learn chemistry, blah, blah, blah.

to work on every 12 weeks a project that they present that synthesizes that knowledge connects to a real world issue they care about they can present be proud of and out of their portfolio to tell the story of what they're capable of but also who they are right that every 12 weeks and this is every class we do and i'll talk about our class structure but including math including you know Every class has this project sequence.

So that's a big part of of who we are as an institution that dovetails with our assessment system.

So students are not given multiple choice tests.

There's no high stakes, you know, sit down, take this test and you know, stop learning on this day sort of thing.

Yes, we have classes that have a start and end date, but that does not mean that you have to stop learning that day.

In fact, most students use the classes, which I'll talk about in a second, but they're like group inquiry.

But every student is designing their own project, defending the standards they need to learn, connecting to their thing, blah, blah, working on it, not only until the project showcase, but through, right? And they get mastery-based assessments on each of those standards and kind of competencies therein.

So that's the mastery-based or competency-based assessment.

But then my, I'll say my favorite part, which is hard to translate is our, because it's less known, is our interdisciplinary education.

Which effectively means that, yes, you still learn the standards largely that you'd expect.

Students still learn about World War II.

They still learn about stoichiometry and chemistry, right? These are still standards.

But you don't learn stoichiometry and chemistry class.

And then you waltz over and then learn history.

No, we've taken the standards and we've recombined them into these classes where students go to a class like how to build a Martian civilization.

That's one of my favorites.

So I always talk about it.

where you learn chemistry, you know, about balancing the rocket fuel or something, then civics to draft your constitution for your Martian civilization.

And then, you know, we mash all of these subjects that students are able to see.

Yes, we're built around a few different pillars.

I'd say our most prominent from an outside perspective is our commitment to project-based learning, which means that students, yes, they're still doing, you know, they still have worksheets every once in a while.

You got to practice things sometimes.

You got to, you know, this is important.

So content is still in there, but content is a tool for students to do new things is what we believe.

So how do you have a student? They learn biology, they learn chemistry, blah, blah, blah.

to work on every 12 weeks a project that they present that synthesizes that knowledge connects to a real world issue they care about they can present be proud of and out of their portfolio to tell the story of what they're capable of but also who they are right that every 12 weeks and this is every class we do and i'll talk about our class structure but including math including you know Every class has this project sequence.

So that's a big part of of who we are as an institution that dovetails with our assessment system.

So students are not given multiple choice tests.

There's no high stakes, you know, sit down, take this test and you know, stop learning on this day sort of thing.

Yes, we have classes that have a start and end date, but that does not mean that you have to stop learning that day.

In fact, most students use the classes, which I'll talk about in a second, but they're like group inquiry.

But every student is designing their own project, defending the standards they need to learn, connecting to their thing, blah, blah, working on it, not only until the project showcase, but through, right? And they get mastery-based assessments on each of those standards and kind of competencies therein.

So that's the mastery-based or competency-based assessment.

But then my, I'll say my favorite part, which is hard to translate is our, because it's less known, is our interdisciplinary education.

Which effectively means that, yes, you still learn the standards largely that you'd expect.

Students still learn about World War II.

They still learn about stoichiometry and chemistry, right? These are still standards.

But you don't learn stoichiometry and chemistry class.

And then you waltz over and then learn history.

No, we've taken the standards and we've recombined them into these classes where students go to a class like how to build a Martian civilization.

That's one of my favorites.

So I always talk about it.

where you learn chemistry, you know, about balancing the rocket fuel or something, then civics to draft your constitution for your Martian civilization.

And then, you know, we mash all of these subjects that students are able to see.