October 2nd Class Reflection

In this class, we took a field trip to the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry(PSII). We met with the founder of the school, Jeff Hopkins, who gave us a tour of the school and answered questions about the school and the method of education. PSII is a high school that uses inquiry-based projects for teaching. This has students pick an area of interest and make a question that they will spend the year trying to answer. This has students decide they’re area of interest and the teachers build a curriculm based around this and help guide the students.

Teaching in this way helps students develop so many real-world skills, like… Collaboration, entrepreneurial skills, learning how to make decisions and learning how to manage time. Students work with teachers and peers to work towards their big question or wonder. Some students may be interested in things like textiles or music, and this school helps them develop entrepreneurial skills. Students get control over their inquiry, what they want to research and what direction they want to go. This school helps students learn how to make decisions, big and small, that affect their lives. Finally they learn so many time managment skills becuase their projects are student led. They have a lot of freedom but that comes with the repsonsability of learning to manage your time to be able to accomplish what you want to accomplish.

After going to PSII, I think their method of teaching is so interesting. As Jeff mentioned, it’s quite an adjustment to start at this school as either a student or a teacher. I think this method of learning works well but won’t be the best method for all learners. I do think, though, that there are many aspects of this that could be adapted to fit into a public school classroom. The idea of an inquiry-based project is great for a school project. It would help students with the same skills of collaboration, decision-making skills and time management. I did a similar project in school called Genius Hour, where we picked a subject to research and create a presentation about this topic for the class. To conclude I really enjoyed our time at PSII and I think it’s a great model of teaching that we should take notes from.