Community building pt. 2
A few bullets about community as I think about how we can build something at Foundr that gives our students the best aspects of in-person and remote learning.
The best education I've ever had (and again, by best we're talking about student achievement + enjoyment) was at the New School, specifically Eugene-Lang College. Eugene-Lang got a few things right that can be applied to what I'm thinking about:
Individualized/customized curriculum--I could take what I wanted, focus on my passions, and not worry about "pre-requisites" in subjects I didn't care about like Biology.
Small group learning. Around 10 students per class I’d say; and
City environment--we showed up for class, then went back out into the real world--we weren't isolated on a campus somewhere. This also meant that teachers had us over to work in their living rooms, that we had museums and libraries at our disposal, and that everything was accessible via a $1.50 subway ride. Students weren’t divided by who had access to a car and who didn’t.
Pace was night school to become a teacher, and was all about practicality--all of my classmates were day-to-day teachers, going to class at night.
Our instructors were also working teachers, which is important for new practitioners--we like learning from others in the struggle--that sense of camaraderie is often underestimated.
Everything was taught with an emphasis on usability--for example a big piece of learning how to be a teacher was what's called "Action Research", the idea that we need to conduct research to understand what's happening in our classroom, but that the research must be action-orientated so that:
The research is benefiting our students, it's not just for academic purposes and;
That we can conduct it as part of our daily teaching activities--because as teachers we they have to be! There's never time (that I can think of anyway) to be with our students when we're not firmly in the role of teacher.
Brandeis was all about the application of learning via field work.
The entire second year was more or less field work, having an advisor back at school who acted as mentor/guide/accountability partner.
Applying Year one learning in the field to really understand the learnings in practical sense.
Starting to map out what’s worked for me in the past
