What great schools do differently (or at least my school!) - Teaching across content areas
For the last year or two I've really wanted to get started on a book about my school. If you take a look at our website, there is nothing that screams awesome about what we do. It's a different outcome if you come to our school for a tour and take the time to sit down with our students. We feel we're doing education the way it should be. To start heading down the rabbit hole of creating a book, I plan to intersperse the little things we're doing at our school that set us apart. These will not be in any order whatsoever...enter the rabbit hole with me.
From the very beginning, my school was designed differently than a traditional school. It was designed with collaboration in mind. Most high school designs reflect a silo method of teaching, one where teachers enter their classroom, shut the doors, and stay there until the bell rings. The knowledge that is learned in the silo is rarely shared outside of it. We shuffle students in and out of silos all day long and we believe(I know I used to) that as long as we do our job as well as we can, students would learn at very high levels. That may be true, but what I have experienced in the last three years has completely changed my perspective and honestly it just makes sense.
My building has six "villages" that are centered a career path. Since we are a career tech center, the career path takes center stage. Our villages are Media Arts, Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences, PreEngineering, Law and Justice, and our Intro to Media Arts village. Each village has a different set of core content classes that compliment it: PreEngineering has math and English, BioMed has science and math, Law and Justice has history and English, while Health Sciences has science and English. Our Media Arts villages each have science and English.
The village is set up with one large lab for the career path and the core content classes have doors that enter/exit into the village. Our lockers are in the career class, so there is no need for students to walk all over school to go to their locker. Our students rotate with the same group of 24 students through the three hours they are at ECS. There are no bells(we have them, but chose not to use them) so the time is dictated by the teachers and not the system. When a teacher needs 10 more minutes, they let the other teachers know and classes just go on for an extra 10 minutes. Some days teachers only have two periods while the students are there, extending each period to an hour-and-a half. There have even been days, such as those involving an outdoor lab, that students have only had one class at ECS that day.
So, with a unique set up, how is teaching different? Much of the teaching is exactly like you would see anywhere. Students are engaged in great classroom sessions. However, there is a very intentional effort made by teachers to have their content flow into other classes. As teachers in my village, we meet at least once a week to discuss possible intersections between our content areas. Here are a few examples:
Science- Research different forms of cancer to write a paper --> English takes the research, lays out paper and citing format -->Students bring work from the two classes to Media Arts and learn about creating a magazine article for a science journal(or hospital display) using InDesign or iBooks author. Now the material has been covered in three different classes, but each specific to the class
Science-->Students are learning about the Nitrogen cycle. (ok, this one was from my old school that I was involved in, but it's a good example) A few students want to write a song to explain it. ---> In Media Arts they record their song in front of a green screen, changing out the background with slides of info they learned in science
English- Students are reading Edgar Allen Poe's Pit and the Pendulum -->PreEngineering takes that story and discusses the physics behind a pendulum-->All three teachers bring their students to the hallway where there is a climbing rope tied to the rafters. The Engineering teacher swings from a ladder...all while the students use the math and physics they have been taught to measure speed, distance, etc
BioMed- Students are taken to a "crime" scene with a variety of bones. Using lessons from math, science, and biomed, students have to figure out the age, sex, race, etc of the bones.
These are just a few of the cross-curricular activities our students do. As a teacher we look for the hardest concepts, the ones where students normally say "when am I ever going to need this?" and try to make topic flow into multiple classes.
These can be done in any school. We do at least four major ones a year, but we honestly do something almost once every three weeks between at least two classes. It just takes communication among teachers. Sometimes it means changing your normal order of how you do things, and it takes some flexibility. However, the effort is worth it!
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| picture via Doc Searls |
My building has six "villages" that are centered a career path. Since we are a career tech center, the career path takes center stage. Our villages are Media Arts, Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences, PreEngineering, Law and Justice, and our Intro to Media Arts village. Each village has a different set of core content classes that compliment it: PreEngineering has math and English, BioMed has science and math, Law and Justice has history and English, while Health Sciences has science and English. Our Media Arts villages each have science and English.
The village is set up with one large lab for the career path and the core content classes have doors that enter/exit into the village. Our lockers are in the career class, so there is no need for students to walk all over school to go to their locker. Our students rotate with the same group of 24 students through the three hours they are at ECS. There are no bells(we have them, but chose not to use them) so the time is dictated by the teachers and not the system. When a teacher needs 10 more minutes, they let the other teachers know and classes just go on for an extra 10 minutes. Some days teachers only have two periods while the students are there, extending each period to an hour-and-a half. There have even been days, such as those involving an outdoor lab, that students have only had one class at ECS that day.
So, with a unique set up, how is teaching different? Much of the teaching is exactly like you would see anywhere. Students are engaged in great classroom sessions. However, there is a very intentional effort made by teachers to have their content flow into other classes. As teachers in my village, we meet at least once a week to discuss possible intersections between our content areas. Here are a few examples:
Science- Research different forms of cancer to write a paper --> English takes the research, lays out paper and citing format -->Students bring work from the two classes to Media Arts and learn about creating a magazine article for a science journal(or hospital display) using InDesign or iBooks author. Now the material has been covered in three different classes, but each specific to the class
Science-->Students are learning about the Nitrogen cycle. (ok, this one was from my old school that I was involved in, but it's a good example) A few students want to write a song to explain it. ---> In Media Arts they record their song in front of a green screen, changing out the background with slides of info they learned in science
English- Students are reading Edgar Allen Poe's Pit and the Pendulum -->PreEngineering takes that story and discusses the physics behind a pendulum-->All three teachers bring their students to the hallway where there is a climbing rope tied to the rafters. The Engineering teacher swings from a ladder...all while the students use the math and physics they have been taught to measure speed, distance, etc
BioMed- Students are taken to a "crime" scene with a variety of bones. Using lessons from math, science, and biomed, students have to figure out the age, sex, race, etc of the bones.
These are just a few of the cross-curricular activities our students do. As a teacher we look for the hardest concepts, the ones where students normally say "when am I ever going to need this?" and try to make topic flow into multiple classes.
These can be done in any school. We do at least four major ones a year, but we honestly do something almost once every three weeks between at least two classes. It just takes communication among teachers. Sometimes it means changing your normal order of how you do things, and it takes some flexibility. However, the effort is worth it!
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