Once you have added to the Miro board of what high school could be, look over your ideas as well as those of your colleagues. Then create a new topic and pick one or two questions to respond to from the list below or build on a discussion topic that has already started:
What values did you see expressed in these imaginings (actively or by contrast)?
What do these values say about what matters to us as a collective group when we reimagine high school?
What student outcomes do you see emerging through this design?
What motivates these choices for how to change high school?
What did this activity make you wonder?
The goal here is to understand what values we are embedding in our school design.
I think a lot of the suggestions mentioned, really focus on making high school a place that students want to be. Starting later, providing support and services, and giving students the instruction and attention they need would all provide an environment where learning can be authentic and genuine.
The ideas of what high school should be are focused on what high schoolers actually need in the modern world. They reject the industrial model and tradition and do what’s best for young people. I wonder why these things have not been implemented when so much research shows that these could improve high schoolers outcomes. It seems that it is only tradition that is keeping us stuck in a nonfunctional system.
It seems like a few of us are looking into community involvement as a way to connect students to each other and to the outside world. That seems to be a much needed approach. When one feels like they belong, they wish to do better for themselves and for others. Some of us see the struggles students have from finding community - perhaps because much of their community is online and wish to help them find a place in the world (an important part of growing up).
This activity really makes me wonder again and the how - how do we get more investment into overhauling to current system and to make the changes that are necessary for students today and tomorrow. I wonder how I could try to implement even small changes to get more investment from students. I really wish I could try to do more for them because I see the struggles so many of them have.
Looking at the responses provided, I see the further development of schools as a hub for the various facets of young people’s (and their community’s) lives. Schooling in 2022 is far removed from an institution that merely provides “book learning.” Frankly, whether educators are prepared for it or not, schools function as a strange hybrid of educational/vocational/child care/nutritional/health/social/extracurricular needs and activities. I feel that pushing to truly support that reality with properly trained staff and fair compensation could create a radically different world for young people.