Lessons Learned

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Tag: sophia pink

Student Voices: Interviews with Sophia Pink

Sophia Dept of Edu

I was fortunate to record a couple podcasts with the extraordinary Sophia Pink. She designed and implemented a hybrid year of studies instead of attending Washington International School for her 10th-grade year. In the first podcast, Sophia tells the story of the program of studies she put together. In the second show, she offers insights on how high school can be more personalized with increased student engagement.

I am really enjoying our shows that allow students to share their ideas about teaching and learning. Stay tuned for the next Edtech Co-Op podcast to hear from my son Samuel as he shares his lesson design work with his Theory of Knowledge (TOK) teacher.

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Student Designed Learning: “Somewhere in between…” Regular Classroom and Virtual

WP

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.

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Student Videographers

I am always looking for examples of quality student-produced videos to provide examples of videography techniques for my students. Jim Reese of Washington International School has been telling me about a very talented filmmaker at his school. The student’s name is Sophia Pink. She was featured in a blog post at Scientific American that presented two of her incredibly creative videos. Take a look.

A second student filmmaker is my son Maxwell. Max enjoys acting and has been creating videos for several years. He is now getting serious about it and recently worked with two other 8th-grade students to produce a video for his English class. Take a look.

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