What They're Doing

To give folks an idea of what the students are working on, a list!

GarbanzoQueen: Woodworking! The goal is to build a bookcase; materials might be an issue. Right now, she's reading a book about techniques and apprenticing at work.

TuTu: MakeUp! Not totally sure what's going on, but it's involving a lot of construction paper and research.

BlackChrysanthemum: She's really into photography. She's conducting an interview with an art teacher, and working on a portfolio of photographs.

Afrodydii: This girl wants to be a special education teacher, and she's interested in autism. She's reading the book What Makes Me Jump.

Monae: She's exploring religion and how people make choices about their religion. She made a survey using Google Forms, and is analyzing the results.

Jun19r: Fashion! She's conducted an interview and is figuring out where to go next.

myfriendasha: Documentary film! She interviewed an expert and is figuring out where to take it from here.

Exploration Packet!

After some scrambling to get my students going on their packets, I opted for a very teacherly path, and I made a packet in order to provide direction. It seems to be going okay,  and I just witnessed a student freak out joyously because she received a response to a survey that she wrote using Google Forms. Sometimes I feel like progress isn't go as fast as I'd like it to, but then I remember how valuable these seemingly small skills can be. 

Exploratory Learning at UHS lets students meet learning targets through investigations of their own interests. In order to demonstrate growth and show their learning, Exploratory Learning students choose from a variety of Exploration Options. A few of these options are chosen and developed by the student, and a few are requirements for the course.

Required Explorations

1) Exploratory Learning Blog

On their blog, students will write weekly about their progress. Sometimes blog entries will be required by the teacher, particularly at the beginning of the class. At other times, blog entries will be used to document steps taken toward completion of their Exploratory Projects.

2) Exhibition

At the end of the course, all students will present their explorations to an audience consisting of their classmates, teacher, principal, and mentors. During this exhibition, students will reflect and evaluate their own learning process. How well did you set and meet goals and make responsible decisions? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What did you accomplish during the course? What went well, and what would you have done differently? What was your final project, and who does it benefit?

3) Civic and Social Responsibility

At least one component of each student’s exploration must in some way give back to the school or larger community. This aspect of the projects will be documented on the blogs and during exhibition.

Exploration Options

See attached pages for more guidelines for each option. Each student must complete at least five options during the semester.

1) Interview an Expert

2) Write a Research Paper

3) Apprentice With an Expert

4) Read a Book

5) Conduct an Experiment

6) Analyze an Artifact

7) Make a Resource Map

8) Make Art

9) Propose Something Else!

Exploration Project

Each student will also complete a larger project on a topic of their choice. Ideally, Exploration Options will fuel the fire for the Exploration Project, and the Required Explorations will further illuminate the direction the project takes. Examples of a project might be making a documentary/short film and hosting a screening, planning an event, developing a communication tool to help special education students, etc.

Library Field Trip!

We had a great day on Friday, exploring the library systems here on the UIUC campus. It was the first time for many of the students in the UIUC libraries at all, and it was the first time for all of them to visit Rare Books, the main stacks, and the Student Life Archives. Everyone left with a sense that we really do have some treasures right here in Champaign-Urbana.

Some things overheard from my students:

"I just learned more in two hours than I've learned in three years!"

"Is that Langston Hughes' read signature? I'm going to cry."

"College students smell so much better than high schoolers!"

"Ms. Koritz! I'm lost! I'm lost in the stacks!"

All in all, it was a great trip. Everyone had fun and learned! And I learned that I'm super proud of my kids. Many of the librarians were very impressed with their thinking and their enthusiasm.

So far, so good!

I'm typing this up right now, as my Exploratory Learning girls are all making open-ended presentations about "things that they're interested in," with the goal of breaking down their interests into various facets, and trying to get the rest of us tuned into their passion. We have everything from animals, special education, makeup and fashion, to throat singing. And yes, we have been practicing our throat singing at the beginning of every class.

We've done such a good job of building community that we begin every day just checking in with each other. (Thank you Paul Thek!) It feels totally relevant and important, but it also takes time! I can already see my students start to focus in on their interests, and I'm starting to feel the trajectory of our semester taking shape, BUT, I sure do wish we had three hours instead of fifty minutes! The social and emotional connections my students are making are pretty magical, and I think this time will serve them well as we get into the semester, but "progress" with our explorations feels slow-going, and has me slightly worried. I have to remember that we're only a couple of weeks into the semester, even if it may feel like summer never happened. 

In a couple of weeks, we're taking a field trip to the UIUC libraries. I felt like it was important for them to see the wealth of information that's available to them (well... sort of to them... they can't actually get a guest library card unless they're 18) right here in our community. I remember going into the stacks as a young person and being floored by the number and specificity of the books there. One of my greatest advantages was being able to go into college with a basic idea of how the library systems work. 

Leaving off with Dave Pink's TED Talk about drive and motivation, which we discussed in Exploratory Learning this week. 

Test!

Welcome to Exploratory Learning at Urbana High School! I'm the teacher, Ms. Koritz. And my students are seven smart, beautiful, fierce ladies that are getting to know each other as we speak! We spent the first few days of class circling up and answering random questions about varying depths about our lives. Things like: How old are you? Who do you live with? Have you ever been in an accident? What does your room at home look like?  What do you like in a teacher? Et cetera. 

This is the first time that this sort of class has happened at UHS, so we're not sure what it's going to be like. In other models (like Big Picture, or other "deeper learning" schools, this class would be way longer than just one class period. We meet 7th hour, and students take five or six other classes.

In any case, I like these kids, and the little community we're building. Hopefully the rest will come together!

experiencethisyear.blogspot.com
garbanzoqueen.blogspot.com
http://itsthejuniorsspot.blogspot.com
myfriendasha.blogspot.com
shegoesbytutu.blogspot.com
afrodytii.blogspot.com
theblackchrysanthemumm.blogspot.com