Category: Uncategorized

Then I watched this video from Paul Bogush.  It takes the unscheduled, self-directed idea to the level of the entire curriculum. It is about students creating a school within a school that they run themselves. They are a small group where each one student has their own independent project for half of the day and they work together on their own questions for the other half of the day. It is very similar to an edcamp model of school.

My question is could this model scale? Would all students be able to handle this much independence in regards to directing their own learning. Maybe this is a good model for some students but not others and that is totally ok. Maybe it is a model for part of a school schedule and not for the entire day.

One thing that I have been thinking about is what the ideal school (if there is such a thing) should look like. Perhaps this is a false statement, in that it should look different in different places, cultures, or for different students. At the same time I have been questioning if this is even a worthwhile question since it is so impractical. But I think there is merit to asking it, so that I can have priorities in my mind on what to fight for. I am just a classroom teacher, but I have come to understand that I can have more influence than I sometimes realize through conversations with my colleagues, principal, other leaders in my district, and my contacts on-line. So anyway I would like to give a shot at expressing my view of it.