"We are a crew, not passengers!" |
posted by: Cindy Omlin | October 15, 2014, 07:48 PM |
Congratulations to the students and staff at Pocatello Community Charter School (PCCS) in Pocatello, Idaho. The school and its program of Expeditionary Learning (EL) were recently featured in the Idaho State Journal article, “Pocatello Community Charter School students experience expeditionary learning.” According to the Journal, “If people really learn best by doing, the students at Pocatello Community Charter School are on their way to becoming little Einsteins.”
In the expeditionary learning method used at PCCS, teachers are called “crew leaders” in conjunction with the school’s motto which is, “We are a crew, not passengers.” Crew leaders are “committed to taking kids out of the classroom and into situations where they will learn by doing.” At the potato fields, crew leaders help students partner up, learn how to be good partners, and set goals to beat the amount donated by a previous crew. NWPE member and crew leader Sarah Casper remarked for the Journal, “They often respond to this experience with a lot of “I’m so tired!” (and) “Those potatoes are so heavy!” “But they are proud of the pile they are able to amass by the end.” As reported by the Journal, “Students later tour the local Foodbank pantry and calculate the number of donated potatoes. Crew leaders said they hope the unit will help students develop traits like perseverance, teamwork and service, as well as an interest in learning more. “Having this shared experience not only gives them an opportunity to do service, but it also gets them excited to learn more about potatoes and other plants,” Casper said. “They become the leaders of their learning. Rather than waiting for me, their teacher, to tell them what we are learning next, they are driving the direction of the learning with their own curiosity and desire to learn more about the potato.””
NWPE member and PCCS special education teacher Colleen Broce adds, "I love working at PCCS. All of our staff collaborates which creates a whole school environment of authentic engaged learning practices, ownership of the learning process, and higher quality work. Our focus on the expeditionary learning process also pushes for arduous in-depth study, the documentation of which is aligned with the common core standards." Congratulations to the teachers and staff at PCCS. With crew like you, we'd all like to be passengers!
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