More than Dropouts

Big Picture: Unreal! Learning has had its first two weeks of ‘school’. I would personally like to use another word other than school (due to the negative connotations it has for many of our students), but they still call what we have and are doing…school.

This week our local paper published our “story” and highlighted that most of our students are dropouts. We were really happy with the article on the whole but felt we did not want to be labelled as a school for dropouts when in fact many of them DID NOT drop out. I would rather say that they bravely left the traditional school system because it was not meeting their needs or was harmful to their well-being.

I think they are brave because they chose not be be compliant any longer and wanted something else that could engage them for who they are and give them the opportunity to follow their dreams.

I hope that by joining our Big Picture: UnReal! Learning they will be able to find their interests and embrace their passion.

This would be UnReal! for all concerned.

I’m bored!

“I’m bored.”

It amazes and shocks me how often I read or hear this comment from young people today.

It is all over Facebook.
I often read, “I’m bored”…. “Inbox me.”

 

I have heard it once said that if you are bored you must be boring.

I have been musing the reason for so much boredom with young people.
Especially when I also read or hear of it in my own class…where students get to find, explore and follow their interests/passion.
The world is their oyster. There is so much they can be doing. How could they possibly be bored?

What I am finding is that they often don’t know how to take the first step. To get started takes risk. With risk there can be failure…or success.

But with many of my students they have been conditioned by a school system and society that does not reward or encourage initiative or risk, rather it rewards and expects compliance to do what you are told. Or sit in front of a television and be entertained.

So, is it any wonder they get bored when there is no one around them to tell them what to do or think about. Even when they are on the computer or using a device that gives them access to world of information and entertainment.

How do we as facilitators of learning get students fired up to start doing things and making stuff? Is there are better way than teaching them? Which is having the content (curriculum) and getting them to do it….

I read a book (Free at Last – The Sudbury Valley School) about the Sudbury schools which are free and democratic schools where students do what they like and learn what they want. One of the teachers commented about her greatest challenge in working there…
The Art of Doing Nothing
“Doing nothing at Sudbury Valley requires a great deal of energy and discipline, and many years of experience. I get better at it every year, and it amuses me to see how I and others struggle with the inner conflict that arises in us inevitably. The conflict is between wanting to do things for people, to impart your knowledge and to pass on your hard earned wisdom, and the realisation that the children have to do their learning under their own steam and at their own pace.” 

It seems that our young people are not used to doing, working, learning under their own steam. The y need/want to be led and told what to do because that is how things are in society…wait to be told what to do.

What a dreadful shame.

Especially in the 21st century which requires self-initiative, self-motivation and creative types to be the starters of things. Gone are the factories and vast warehouses of people being told what to do.

So, my challenge is to find ways and means to encourage my students to take initiative and take responsibility for their own learning.

Do I take them by the hand or do nothing?

Will learning happen naturally?

Big Picture: UnReal! Learning – Is UnReal!

Sarge is very musical..

I have been very remiss in not writing a blog post for 3 months.

During that time I have been very very busy starting a new learning program in a new location with many new students.
We started the term with 6 students and now have a full class of 15 with me as the advisor and a new class of 8 being inducted ready for next year.
By the end of the year we should have 2 classes (advisories) and I wouldn’t be surprised if we have 4 at the start of the new year.

There is much more to write and I will do this in more detail about this UnReal! Journey of working with amazing young people who are given the chance to learn naturally doing what they are interested in….

School is a prison – denial of freedom

Winston Churchill:
How I hated schools, and what a life of anxiety I lived there. I counted the hours to the end of every term, when I should return home.

Peter Gray – Freedom to Learn

Peter Gray is a research professor of psychology at Boston College. He has conducted and published research in comparative, evolutionary, developmental, and educational psychology;

What would be unreal learning for a teen?

I think it would include the following:

• Spending time doing what they want to do – more time following interests/passion
• More time outside the classroom than inside – more workplace visits and internships
• Less time listening to the teacher – and more individual projects
• Teacher/adult knows me and is interested – more time spent in small groups and one teacher
• Not doing subjects I don’t like or aren’t relevant – instead individual learning plans that are personalised
• More work experience – 2 days a week (all year for 4 years from Year 9) doing shadow days and internships
• Explore university or higher education before year 12 – doing university units or certificate courses in early years
• Get an edge to get a job – spend time in workplaces and demonstrate skills and work (portfolio)
• Less tests and exams – assessed by demonstrating my work and skills by exhibitions
• Sounds too good to be true?

Coming soon in Shepparton, Unreal! Learning for students who learn differently.

Contact me for more info: geoff@scratchmeback.com.au

UnReal! Learning

 

 

More details coming soon.

A personal learning approach – a needed alternative

The school system meets the need of many kids, but not all.
Some kids are bored, frustrated and very capable of taking some ownership of their own learning.
Many families are annoyed that teachers have to spend so much time managing kids’ behaviours in the classroom before they can get into teaching.
Teachers work very hard and dearly want to make a difference in their kids’ lives, but the system and large class numbers makes this increasingly difficult.

I have resigned from the school system to offer a personalised learning approach for interested families.
A model that offers the following:

• allows kids to follow their interests/passion
• small groups
• personal learning plans
• work in the community with mentors
• parents as partners in their learning

If you are in the Shepparton area and interested to explore this further, let me know.
geoff@scratchmeback.com.au
0459 215 205

Learning is messy

This is great time lapse photo/video of an artiste in action. I know Tank as he did some work for me when I was the project manager at SPC Ardmona KidsTown.
Notice how the hand goes all over the place and it does not appear sequential at all. I wonder if that is how many of us think and learn.So why then should we expect kids to work and learn sequentially and orderly. It looks to me like it is a bit here, a bit there, just like Tank paints.

If you watch kids work, in a free setting, not a typical classroom (sit down/shut up) they do a bit of this and a bit of that, go here, go there etc. We have all been raised in typical classrooms and taught traditionally, and if you are anything like me we struggle with this, what we think is a haphazard approach. I am starting to realise that learning and work is very messy and each young person approaches it in the best way they can and what makes sense to them intrinsically.

This is what we try to do with the Big Picture approach to learning. Unless the “teacher” in us rises up to take control and direct situations.

Authentic Learning – Student Project

Students in my Big Picture program undertake authentic work in the community by negotiating a project with their internship mentor.

Glen is a building contractor who came to speak to my class about his passion of powerboat racing (Jet sprint racing) and his building business. As a result of this talk, one of my students Sean, jumped at the opportunity to do an internship with him. Over the next few weeks, another student Thaniell got to know Glen and offered to help him make a gadget to measure exhaust temperatures for his boat.

Thaniel’s interests include: farming, sound and lighting and electrical/electronics.

Here is Glen in action with his wife Amanda as navigator.

Here is a promotional video of jet boat racing.

Glen bought the electronics kit and asked Thaniel to put it all together which involved reading the steps in a magazine and soldering the circuitry.

The video below of their explanation of the project and how it all went really shows the value of authentic learning opportunities.

Student self motivation – needs time to awaken

Our place of learning is a bus

I arrived at class the other day and I had four students waiting for me. The other 4 students (there are only 8 in the class) were out in the community doing their thing – paid work, pre-apprenticeship course, shifting house and an internship.

One of the students piped up and said, “So, what are we doing today?”

I was disappointed. The students are being encouraged and taught to take ownership of their own learning and to show initiative.

I read in a blog post today: “It’s so sad that so many students sit and wait to be taught.”

It’s no wonder then that my students have not ‘fully’ unlearnt the attitude instilled in them for around 10 years…wait until you are told what to do!!

But there is hope as all it took for me to say was…”What do you want to do?” And they all had something to DO.

Brad: I want to go and buy a book to list all the jobs I am doing for the ICT work at Cutting Edge (his LTI – Learning Through Internship).
Ben: We need to visit Computer Tech Support and see if they will have me for an Internship).
Haydn: I need to do the paperwork required to set up my internship doing concreting.
Sean: I want to explore the possibilities of setting up a student exchange so Big Picture students can come and spend a week with us so we can learn from them.

I was pleased that this attitude to learning is being developed and just under the surface, waiting for a crack to let the light in.

My students are thinking about things to do and starting to take ownership and show initiative.

The Big Picture approach of students following their interests, working in the community and a teacher/advisor to guide them in their learning does work: It is one student at a time in a community of learners.