Hi,
Some readers have asked for examples of educators who are implementing change in educational paradigms. I’ve become interested in doing so after watching extended time and modifications lists get longer and longer over the past decade and thinking about whether, despite our best efforts, we’re still trying to force students into a one-size-fits-all educational model. This year I created RealSchool, an after-school club whose focus is self-directed, collaborative, experiential learning. Here is the club’s mission statement, established by me and the students at one of our meetings in the beginning of the school year:
RealSchool is a group of clubs that are linked together by a matrix of shared beliefs about how one learns and the way learning benefits the self and others. One of the key values of RealSchool is that learning should be self-directed, that is, what one learns should be chosen by the individual. However, once a student has selected a RealSchool team in the area of interest s/he has, all learning takes place collaboratively. Learning at RealSchool is also primarily experiential rather than based on the knowledge of an expert, commonly referred to in the past as a teacher. In addition, RealSchool encourages -- no, demands -- divergent, creative thinking that enables students to apply their knowledge and skills to real life and the challenges of the real world.
The relationship that all RealSchool members are taught to create within the RealSchool community and with the broader world is a caring, symbiotic one. Students may join a particular RealSchool team because of a talent or interest they have, but they must learn about the talents that others possess and how to help others pursue their interests. Therefore, though the process of joining RealSchool begins with the self and an individual’s interests, it ends in a stronger community, as students are not only consumers, that is, recipients of help from RealSchool teams, but are also producers, ones who give help to fellow teams and ultimately to the larger community.
Built into RealSchool’s DNA, then, is a focus on student empowerment: students choose what and how to learn. However, students also come to realize that by doing the very things they love, they will benefit not only their peers but the community and world at large.
© Frisch RealSchool 2012
So far, the students have created the following RealSchool teams:
Social Entrepreneurship
Marketing/Advertising
Journalism
Web Design
App Making
The Arts
Nutrition
Finance
Religious Identity
However, new teams are constantly being added. At our last meeting, we added a Fashion section to The Arts team, and a student decided she wanted to apply her writing skills to science and is going to write about the latest scientific breakthroughs in language a layman can understand. Furthermore, there is great fluidity among the teams. When the club meets, members from one team may move to an area where another team is meeting if a discussion another team is having sounds interesting or appealing. Members from one team may also need the help or advice of another team and will seek it out.
On Sunday, March 18, RealSchool held its first major event, a student-run Yom Iyun called Sichot B’Emunah, created by the Religious Identity, Arts and Marketing teams. Twelve students prepared nine sessions on ideas in Tanakh, Jewish Philosophy and the Talmud. The nine sessions were presented in three time slots, so attendees selected three presentations to attend. All attendees, however, received a source booklet – with cover art created by The Arts team – on all the sessions. Participants also enjoyed an art exhibit created by The Arts team, entitled The Hand of God: The Fibonacci Sequence in the World. Students did everything for the event, obviously preparing the lectures and exhibit but also gathering the source book material and finding sponsorships and donors for the Yom Iyun. The event was especially rewarding for the students, who grasped that their hard work and efforts produced something meaningful for themselves and others.
Currently, the teams are hard at work on their next projects: The Finance team will be presenting soon, teaching RealSchool members how to manage their money and what buying and selling stocks is all about. Nutrition is working on creating a day at Frisch when students will be encouraged not to drink sugared or diet drinks, and Religious Identity and Marketing are gathering the recordings from the Yom Iyun and creating a platform on which to air them. Social Entrepreneurship is writing a business plan for a new product, and members of Marketing are creating a marketing strategy for that product.
RealSchool is not about students hearing from experts; the club is about students getting their hands dirty, making mistakes, finding out what they need to do to make the thing they want to do work and be successful. It’s amazing to watch the students get involved in what excites them most and passionately devote themselves to a project in which they are fully invested.
You can visit our RealSchool blog at [
frischrealschool.blogspot.com], and you can Like us on Facebook at [
www.facebook.com]. Feel free to contact me at
Tikvah.Wiener@Frisch.org for more information.
Sincerely,
Tikvah Wiener
The Frisch School
