Sophia Pink, an 11th grader at Washington International School (WIS) in the District of Columbia, wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post and created a video about her experiences last year when she left the regular classroom to design and experience her learning program. In the article, Sophia notes her experiences taking high school online courses from Johns Hopkins University and picking up classes from Udacity as she ventured into MOOCs. Sophia could also pursue her interests and create projects not part of the set 10th-grade curriculum at WIS.
Sophia missed the learning from collaborating with her WIS classmates, but she enjoyed having more control over how her days would run and the time spent on individual courses. She concludes that regular schools and online learning both have a place for students as “somewhere in between” the two make the most sense to her.
Being a self-directed and responsible learner was a big part of the admin supporting her and Sophia’s parents supporting Sophia’s self-designed learning program. Having choice, being able to control one’s time, and being allowed to pursue one’s interests are a big part of what we consistently hear schools should be doing for their students. It is important to note that some schools offer students experiences similar to Sophia’s.
It is nice to see that the leaders at my new school (I started this summer at WIS) so value students that they were open to supporting Sophia’s learning journey. The next step will be to see how we can offer a hybrid approach to our curriculum where more students take courses in and outside school while pursuing their interests.
Talking about authentic learning, writing an opinion article, and producing a video for a major newspaper are a couple of biggies when connecting one’s learning to the real world! Also, review an earlier post where I wrote about Sophia as an accomplished videographer.
Image Source
Leave a Reply