Active Learning
Growing engaged problem solvers and empowered creators
Active learning addresses how we teach and who we want our students to become in a world that will reward adaptability amid rapid and ongoing change. We strive to develop learners who not only are able to critically consume knowledge, but can create, apply, and transfer it. Through the art and science of teaching we strive to provide clear guidelines for the skills, knowledge and approaches needed for students to succeed as critical thinkers, problem solvers, and knowledge creators each day in school. Project-based learning or PBL is an authentic instructional model that will be used to help students plan, implement, and evaluate projects that have real-world applications. PBL emphasizes interdisciplinary, long-term, and relevant projects that empower learners to take ownership over learning and ideally engender a love of learning.
Initiate student agency through project-based learning
A1. The district will adopt a research-based high quality project learning model to guarantee access and consistent implementation for each student.
A2. Each teacher will plan projects that require the application of knowledge in multiple disciplines and contexts to help students develop transferability knowledge.
A3. Each student is exposed to authentic project-based learning as active and responsible participants in their own learning, demonstrating initiative and ownership over learning.
A4. Each student will develop skill-sets related to problem-solving, collaboration, critical thinking, quality production, self-direction, and overall engagement in learning.
A5. Each student graduates prepared to achieve postsecondary and career aspirations.
Empower students as critical creators and designers
B1. Each teacher can plan learning lessons that require students to design and create regular products that demonstrate understanding, application, and transferability of knowledge.
B2. Each student is provided experiences centered on a properly vetted group of essential skills for success in a connected world and is empowered through voice and choice to become designers of the learning process.
B3. The district adopts and implements a digital citizenship curriculum to teach students safe, responsible, and ethical technology use for media creation and evaluating their own work.
B4. Each student practices being a critical thinker, a collaborative worker, a self-directed worker, and a quality producer by developing a tinkering mindset, through exposure to STEM, makerspace and gamified experiences, as well as applying computational thinking.
B5. Each student is provided self-directed opportunities to initiate their own learning, as well as self-managers who are able to finish tasks and preserve when things get difficult. Students can accurately evaluate and archive their own authentic work.