Well, the title is a bit misleading. This whole project-based journey started multiple years ago when I first heard about inquiry-based learning. I have been dabbling in it and bringing elements of it into my class since my first year teaching. Now, however, begins an entirely new chapter as I build, or attempt to build, a new "program" for my school.
It has only been several months since I first wrote my dream scenario for a new path at my school and met with the administrators to discuss what that path might look like. From the first talks with my assistant principal where we both dreamed aloud about what education could be, to this day in June as I make my first blog post about the journey, I have been filled with a mixture of excitement, anticipation, joy, fear, guilt, and self-doubt. Sometimes all of those things at once. With every article that I read, every video I watch, with every spreadsheet or word document that I create, I keep saying to myself over and over again, "I can't believe I get to do this." I get the opportunity to design a path that will meet the needs of all my students in a way that a traditional classroom cannot.
As I pour over standards, create spreadsheets, research elements for the major project, meet with other teachers, and countless other aspects of building the program, two individuals keep coming to the forefront of my mind. One is a current student for whom the traditional classroom does not work. He is very bright, adds depth to our conversation, but does not complete any work or apply himself. The other individual is my four year old son. He is incredibly inquisitive, loves to look at books, was born to be outdoors, and has a genuine love for learning. I see in my son a deep sense of awe, wonder, and amazement of the world around him. There are no limits to what he is interested in or wants to know. His passion for learning is a roaring fire that engulfs everything in its path. My fear for my son is that once he gets into school, that fire will be extinguished by the push for teaching to the test, meeting standards, or anything else that puts my son's scores rather than his learning at the center of importance. I do not want him to have the same experience as that student of mine. I want to create a path and environment for students that heaps loads of fuel onto that fire for learning. That embraces our collective sense of awe, wonder, and amazement of our world and runs with it. Rather than continuing to complain or ask why my students won't change, I am choosing to change me. My strategies. My methods. My structure. My outlook. I want to provide multiple paths to student success, make content and materials accessible to all learning styles and ability levels, embrace hands-on learning, foster creativity and individuality, and use student questions to navigate learning. I want my students to have my same recurring thought, "I can't believe I get to do this."
That is the goal. My hope is that I can update this blog on a regular basis, though I have never been great at doing this in the past. I suppose that if I am too busy meeting with students or tweaking (or overhauling) my teaching practices, missing entries on this blog will be of little consequence. I hope to look back on this to see the journey as it goes through all the terrain that it will surely traverse. One of the toughest patches right now is moving forward despite the fact that there are those who are less than pleased with either me or this new idea. While I want to be honest about this journey, I do not want this space to be a venue to just vent. Of course, I am in a pretty good mood right now and my position on this matter may change. But there it is. There are many details of the journey so far that I have not recorded, but will perhaps explain in the days to come. There is much to do and I hope to record the efforts here.
That I have this opportunity to teach is a privilege and an awesome responsibility that I do not take lightly. I believe that individuals can change the world and I believe that teachers do and will play a significant role in this change. While not every student is going to change the world as a whole, I believe that teachers can and should empower their students to change their world, however broad or limited the scope. I walk into my classroom everyday with the both the sense of joy and the weight of responsibility that comes with this belief.
And so it begins...
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