Monday, December 13, 2010

Capstone retreat and student participation

The Mt. Ararat H.S. Capstone Committee has planned an all-day retreat off-campus in order to focus on the development of resources necessary for the implementation. Unfortunately, the two student members of the committee expressed reservations about taking that much time away from school because of the challenge of keeping up with demanding course-work. The situation illustrates the challenge that students face in having to choose between two conflicting demands: during junior-year, when students are trying their hardest to establish exemplary records, conventional school work almost always wins. It is extremely difficult to introduce a new culture when the existing one is so firmly established and reinforced.

I wonder if some of the seniors that are doing pre-pilot projects might be available. They face some similar challenges but might be willing to come for part of the day and recruit a collaborator who would bring valuable perspectives, too.

1 comment:

SC Spaeth said...

During the work day, we discovered several instances where we needed students to be part of the development team.

Group 1 decided that they wanted to add very brief video clips of pilot participants to the presentation to the Faculty and Board. They needed to mock-up the intention with 'student' presentations by Mr. Janeway and Mr. Ottow.

Group 3 wanted to make a resource available to students to scaffold communication with Community Experts. Ms. Prindall started to write boilerplate and observed that it did not serve to use her language and chose to develop an outline. Group 3 hopes a student will turn the outline into boilerplate for other students.

But we are still faced with the challenge of engaging all students in the enterprise!