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PSC well on its way to education excellence

A group of teachers from the Ponoka Secondary Campus returned from a trip to California two weeks ago with a lot of new ideas

A group of teachers from the Ponoka Secondary Campus returned from a trip to California two weeks ago with a lot of new ideas on their new training methodology. But more important than the new ideas was the strong justification that they are on the right track to raise education in Ponoka to 21st century standards.

The group traveled to San Diego to visit High Tech High School, nationally acclaimed in the US for their brave new practices and receiving visitors from all over North America, from their peer institutions who want to observe how they achieve high standards of education through project-based learning.

“There is a reaffirmation of some of the stuff we already do,” said Darrell Feschuk, biology teacher at PSC, a member of the traveling delegation.

But further than that, “Ron Labrie’s Broncs World Tour is arguably, probably, better than any project we saw they were doing down in San Diego.”

Speaking in an extensive interview upon their return from the trip, Feschuk said the school they visited had completely transformed the learning environment in a way that students were not being tutored in the classic style of teachers speaking to students.

“There is certainly an element of that, as well” stressed Feschuk.

“(But) if it (education) is project-based, then kids are doing more of the work, and that is how you learn, by doing it.”

The key in the project-based methodology is to allow the students to develop in a way that they are responsible for their own education, for their own choices of targets and their ways of reaching those targets as long as they are within the standards that they are required to achieve through a high school education.

Character Education

“We are hung up on curricular objectives, but character education is more important than that,” stressed Feschuk.

And character education comes through the responsibility that students have to realize, adopt and act in accordance with in their search to achieve the goals they set for themselves.

One thing that is remarkable with the new methodology is that while it helps students acquire transferable real-life skills through their project implementation, it does not release them of their responsibility to achieve the standards set through the traditional curriculum.

So they still have to be able to write their SAT tests in the US and their diploma exams here in Ponoka.

But Feschuk says the ability to write those tests can be and are acquired by the students in High Tech High through a few week’s traditional style teaching since they have already digested the essence of the subject through their project implementation.

And the challenge is not only for the students, the teachers have to go through a transformation as well, at times mentoring each other as to how a project could best be implemented.

There is said to be huge demand from parents to send their kids to High Tech High and that brings about a competition. To be able to solve the problem, the school selects the kids that will be accepted, but not for their academic achievement levels.

As if to emphasize their confidence in their ability to equip their students with the desired level of knowledge and skills, the school administration identifies the students to be accepted through a lottery based on the zip codes of the areas they live.

Within reach

The best thing that came out from the trip is probably the fact that Ponoka Secondary Campus can achieve the same level of success without too much additional effort.

“Their culture really shocked me, but we are really close, we are definitely not far off, with a little work we can create the same environment here,” said Cody Baird, humanities teacher, another member of the traveling delegation.

“I see it in my own classes, if I use a more project-based approach, I find the kids get the concept so fast, so I don’t have to focus on teaching the concept through traditional method.”

PSC has everything to accomplish what High Tech High has become known for: students with the same level of engagement in project-based education, a modern building that ”lends itself to project-based learning” as described by Feschuk and more tech than they have at the San Diego school, and most importantly a school administration and a principal that encourage teachers to do more to engage students in their own learning process.

“They haven’t arrived anywhere as yet, they are on a journey, just like we are,” Feschuk concluded.